The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-05-28
FIND SLAVERY IN
FLOODED REGION
or MISSISSIPPI.
Negroes Belong" to
Plantation Owners
fRv Federnted Pressl


(By Federated Press)
Negro peonage in the Mississippi
flood area is exposed in a report made
by Walter White, author and assist
ant secretary to the National Associa-
ton for the Advancement Of Colored
People. White has just returned to
New York from a tour including
Memphis, jackson, Vicksburg, New
Orleans and other points in the flooded
region.
'Tn many refuge camps" says
White, Negroes are released only to
their landlords, and are sent back to
the plantation from which they came.
This fact was confirmed to me by
General Curtis T. Green, command
ing officer at Vicksburg of the Mis-
sissippi National Guard troops who
are keeping order in the area cover
ing registration from parts Of Sun
flower, Bolivar, Yazoo, Warren and
Holmes counties, and all Of Issaquena,
Shsrkey, Washington and Humphreys
counties.
General Green told me that plan
tation owners came to the camps to
pick out their Negroes and that labor
agents are kept out from the camps
no man being permitted to talk to
any other but his own Negroes.
Slavery Again
"At a number Of camps l was told
Of Negroes eluding guards and es-
Gaping, preferring to forage food,
clothing, shelter and medical atten-,
ton rather than go back to the plan
tations from which the flood waters
had driven them. At some Of the
camps Negroes were being taken out
by industrial firms, being checked
out of the camps and checked in again
when their labors were finished.
"Most of these men had no objec-
ton to working, even though not paid,
but they objected to the beating, ours
ing and kicking they had to endure.
There are also numerous instances of
brutality in the treatment of Negroes
forced to work on the levees under
the guns of soldiers and even white
civilians.
Swept to Death
ON many places, notably Green
vile and Steps Landing, Negroes
were thus conscripted, among them
being an insurance agent, and they
were kept at work when it was plain
the levee would break. When the
break came, this insurance agent told
me he saw some 40 or so Negroes
swept away by the waters, presum-
ably to death. He managed to fight
his way back to the levee. He is a
graduate of Tuskegee, married, with
a child, and entirely trustworthy"
White has a clipping from the
Vicksburg Evening Post, of May 9TH,
that is revealing. 1t tells how a
Citizens Relief Committee met at
Cleveland, Miss, and discussed the
matter of permitting families to leave
the refuge camps. A certain V. W.
Thomas was put in charge Of arrange
ments.
"Mr. Thomas" says the newspaper,
'was instructed by the Committee not
to release any family or persons from
the camp except on written consent
of the landlord from whose plantation
the laborers came, or on the personal
request or authorization of the land
lords"
Slavery Of Negro plantation work
ers in the Mississippi delta is shown
also in an Illuminating statement from
DR.. William r. Redden, reported by
White. DR.. Redden, Chief Medical
Officer for the Red Cross in the flood
area said:
"'Some of the Negroes did not know
that their own bodies belonged to
them. When we sought to vaccinate
them they said it could be done only
after their plantation bosses gave
their permission. When some of these
plantation owners objected we had to
tell them Either you will permit vac
cination or we viii stop relief"