September 15, 1927

Red Cross refugee camps housing victims of the Flood of 1927 closed. After surviving the flood, many Arkansans—black and white—stayed in the refugee camps before returning to their devastated land to try to survive the winter and start over with virtually nothing. The Flood of 1927 took place when the rest of the country was enjoying the peak of Roaring Twenties prosperity. In Washington DC, the federal response under President Calvin Coolidge to the misery in the flooded South was simple: not one dollar of federal money went in direct aid to the flood victims.