I was Googling for the lyrics to Randy Newman's "Louisiana 1927" (great song and the lyrics are dead-on appropriate--I'll print them below) and found this intro to them in the Boston Globe:
THE LYRICS, by singer/songwriter Randy Newman, tell the story of the Louisiana flood of 1927, which killed hundreds and displaced hundreds of thousands across six states. The disaster is credited with sparking one of the great voting movements of the 20th century -- the shift in Southern black allegiance from the Republican to the Democratic Party -- and with spurring the New Deal politics of big government. Will history repeat?
The disaster, with one exception that I know of, is not credited with helping to shift blacks from the Republicans to the Democrats. Damn few blacks could vote in 1928 and those that did voted overwhelmingly Republican. Much the same was true in 1932. Only in 1934 and 1936, when blacks could see the benefits of New Deal relief programs, did they shift from the party of Lincoln to the party of FDR. The exception to this interpretation comes from John Barry in his book on the 1927 flood. Barry has gotten quite a bit of play recently, including an appearance this AM on "Meet the Press." I read the book when it came out a few years ago and thought it was quite good, except that Barry wanted to make the flood more consequential than it was by claiming, among other things, that it helped move blacks from the GOP.
Also, I doubt if history will repeat itself since blacks are still voting Democratic.
Anyway, here are the lyrics:
What has happened down here is the winds have changed
Clouds roll in from the north and it started to rain
Rained real hard and it rained for a real long time
Six feet of water in the streets of Evangeline
The river rose all day
The river rose all night
Some people got lost in the flood
Some people got away alright
The river have busted through clear down to Plaquemines
Six feet of water in the streets of Evangeline
Louisiana, Louisiana
They're tryin' to wash us away
They're tryin' to wash us away
Louisiana, Louisiana
They're tryin' to wash us away
They're tryin' to wash us away
President Coolidge came down in a railroad train
With a little fat man with a note-pad in his hand
The president say, ''Little fat man isn't it a shame
What the river has done to this poor crackers land."
Louisiana, Louisiana
They're tryin' to wash us away
They're tryin' to wash us away
Louisiana, Louisiana
They're tryin' to wash us away
They're tryin' to wash us away
They're tryin' to wash us away
They're tryin' to wash us away
Sunday, September 11, 2005
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I saw the interview this morning as well (although I have not read the book) and it struck me that Barry was attributing quite a lot to the reaction to the flood that really belonged either to the progressive era in general or the New Deal specifically.
His thesis that the flood was what catalyzed the nation to start thinking that the federal government ought take greater care of individual citizens seems quite overblown, although not having read the book, it is hard to fully judge.
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