Description
Book SynopsisTrade Review"With this provocative study, Richard M. Mizelle Jr. gives new meaning to the 1927 Mississippi River flood. From forced displacements in relief camps to the inadequacies of Red Cross charity and the peonage labor system of the federally-funded Mississippi Flood Control Project, the Delta’s African Americans bore an unjust, debilitating burden. Mizelle’s genius lays in his use of alternative cultural texts to unearth the often hidden voices of African Americans who suffered the most in a disaster that both reflected and exaggerated the challenges of their everyday reality." —Kathleen Brosnan, University of Oklahoma
"A well-written account of the devastating 1927 Mississippi River flood. A nuanced and profound treatment of the blues. A work of lasting importance."—CHOICE
"Mizelle’s book is the freshest and most engaging in the sections that deal intensively with blues artists and lyrics."—American Historical Review
"Mizelle brings a fresh perspective to a well-researched topic."—Journal of American History
"Mizelle’s use of blues as both a mode of analysis and a source of alternative experiential evidence is compelling."—American Literature
"Very timely and can be used in introductory environmental justice and environmental studies courses, particularly for those teaching on the connection between race, class, marginality and environmental hazards."—Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences
"A brief yet wide-ranging volume that raises several interesting ideas meriting further consideration from historians."—The Journal of Southern History
"Backwater Blues is a meaningful contribution to American and African American cultural and environmental history. By combining traditional archival materials with Blues and literary interpretations of the events, Mizelle offers a highly original account of African Americans and the 1927 flood disaster in the Mississippi Delta."—The Journal of African American Literature
Table of ContentsContents
Introduction: John Lee Hooker’s Blues
1. Down the Line: Blues Brilliance, Displacement, and Living under the Shadow of Levees
2. Burning Waters Rise: Richard Wright’s Blues Voice and the Double Environmental Burden of Race
3. Racialized Charity and the Militarization of Flood Relief in Postwar America
4. Where Sixteen Railroads Meet the Sea: Migration and the Making of Houston’s Frenchtown
5. Everyday Seems Like Murder Here: The Mississippi Flood Control Project in New Deal–Era America
Conclusion: When the Levee Breaks
Notes
Selected Discography
Index
