River Activism, “Levees-Only” and the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927

Abstract

This article investigates media coverage of 19th and early 20th century river activism and its effect on federal policy to control the Mississippi River. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' "levees-only" policy-which joined disparate navigation and flood control interests-is largely blamed for the Great Flood of 1927, called the largest peacetime disaster in American history. River activists organized annual conventions, and later, professional lobbies organized media campaigns up and down the Mississippi River to sway public opinion and pressure Congress to fund flood control and river navigation projects. Annual river conventions drew thousands of delegates such as plantation owners, shippers, bankers, chambers of commerce, governors, congressmen, mayors and cabinet members with interests on the Mississippi River. Public pressure on Congress successfully captured millions of federal dollars to protect property, drain swamps for development, subsidize local levee districts and influence river policy.

Making and Mastering Violent Environments: Following the Infrastructures of Accumulation in Coastal Louisiana

“…The Swamp Acts of 1849 and 1850 transferred unsold federal swamplands to state governments and allowed them to sell these lands to subsidise wetland drainage and flood control works. While the Civil War (1861–1865) halted these activities and effectively destroyed the existing levee system, Reconstruction saw the plantation bloc in Louisiana launch an aggressive campaign for federal action on flood control, pressuring Congress to fund levee projects by emphasising the risks that floods posed to the agricultural productivity of the south and, by extension, to the economic health of the nation (Randolph 2018).…”

“…A small but growing body of literature offers valuable insights into diverse features of Louisiana’s disappearing coastline, including the role of oil and gas industry and the state in generating environmental injustices (Bisschop et al. 2018; Watts 2015), the history of flood infrastructure (Morris 2012; O’Neill 2006; Randolph 2018), racial inequalities involved in displacements along the coast (Barra 2021; Davies 2018; Hardy et al. 2017; Jessee 2020; Simms et al.…”

“…A small but growing body of literature offers valuable insights into diverse features of Louisiana's disappearing coastline, including the role of oil and gas industry and the state in generating environmental injustices (Bisschop et al 2018;Watts 2015), the history of flood infrastructure (Morris 2012;O'Neill 2006;Randolph 2018), racial inequalities involved in displacements along the coast (Barra 2021;Davies 2018;Hardy et al 2017;Jessee 2020;Simms et al 2021), and contestations of expert knowledge embodied in the three iterations of the Master Plan (Gotham 2016;Nost 2019). Notwithstanding their insights, these debates have paid little attention to how the historical production of coastal infrastructures in Louisiana has resulted in violent dislocations, in large part through its long-standing role in maintaining the ecological conditions for capital accumulation along the coast.…”

AMEND: Open Source and Data-Driven Oversight of Water Quality in New England

“…Massachusetts is home to a rich array of civic organizations dedicated to environmental protection and water resources, specifically. Together, these groups continue a centuries-long legacy of political organizing around rivers in the US (see e.g., Randolph, 2018).…”