Mississippi River Levee Failures (1927)
The river rose quietly at first. Then, weak levees began failing catastrophically up and down the Mississippi. Floodwaters eventually covered 27,000 square miles across seven states. Around 600,000 people lost their homes. African American workers were forced at gunpoint to reinforce levees while white residents evacuated. Hundreds died in the preventable disaster caused by inadequate flood control infrastructure.
