Red Cross relief provisions arrive in Greenville, but the best provisions go to the whites in town. National Guard is called in to patrol the refugee camps in Greenville. Word filters out of the camps that guardsmen are robbing, assaulting, raping and even murdering African Americans held on the levee. Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover , placed in charge of flood relief by President Calvin Coolidge , visits Greenville and approves the flood relief committee's plans. The torrent has moved south.
Movie cameras are on hand to record the momentous scene.
The New York Times reports that many people refuse to quit the area to be flooded by the levee break. Once the situation in the refugee camps hits the national press, Herbert Hoover initiates an investigation of the reports. His investigators confirm numerous instances of abuse, but Hoover chooses to suppress the report. He has ridden a wave of good publicity from his flood relief efforts, and is determined to maintain his positive image. Hoover forms a Colored Advisory Commission of influential African American conservatives, led by Robert Russa Moton , to further investigate the camps.