When the Mississippi River flooded in 1927, countless families drowned. Homes and businesses were leveled, and the river left behind mud, debris, and corpses. As if the trauma of this wasn’t enough, something even more horrific happened to the Black survivors – at the hands of their “saviors.”
The Red Cross stepped in to help, providing food, shelter, and access to other services while communities worked to rebuild – for the white survivors, that is.
What OUR people experienced was far different.
Not only were Black people held at gunpoint and used as human water barriers, but we were forced to do the manual labor of keeping the flood refugee camps running as well as serve white families.
The Red Cross used us to make themselves look good and seek more funding to keep running. But it gets worse.
The Red Cross refused to feed us full rations, even while we worked FOR FREE and to their exact specifications! If we tried to leave, we were hunted down at gunpoint. Then they tried to hide this horrendous treatment of our people from the government.
The Red Cross pretended to swoop in as saviors, then used our bodies and tried to hide it for political gain. We must never forget this truth: only we can be fully trusted when it comes to our own protection and support!