Flood Victims
Donato Rico American
Publisher WPA
Not on view
In this wood engraving from about 1938, Rico focused on a group of flood survivors rather than on the violence of the natural disaster. The image shows a family fleeing the inundated landscape in the background, with hints of the event’s aftermath visible on the lower left side of the composition. The dire consequences of the flood reflect in the sorrowful facial expressions of the male and female figures at the center. Rico’s representation of Black people as victims exemplifies the disproportionate damage of flooding to African American communities in the past and present. This image was made ten years after the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, which affected many of the lowlands of the Mississippi Delta, where most landowners were Black.
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