Again, the white leadership of the town resorts to conscripting African Americans at gun point. African American community leaders are outraged and refuse to recruit more workers. The Percys convince Hoover to visit Greenville and appeal to the workers, but his speech is a failure and the shortage of workers persists. James Gooden, a well respected African American in the Greenville community, is shot in the back by a white policeman for refusing to return for a day shift after working all night on the clean-up. Word of his death spreads quickly and work stops.
Tensions rise, and both blacks and whites arm themselves with guns and other weapons.
Greenville is at a standoff. Will Percy calls a reconciliation meeting of the African American community at a local church, but places the blame on them for the death of their neighbor. After Hoover is elected president, he turns his back on Robert Moton, the Colored Advisory Commission, and his earlier promises. Burned badly by Hoover, in the next election Moton and the African American community shift their support from the Republicans to the Democratic party and Franklin Delano Roosevelt . 1929 LeRoy Percy, his wife dead and his empire in ruins, dies in Greenville.