In 1932 numerous complaints about the mistreatment of black laborers working on the War Department’s Mississippi River Flood Control Project led the NAACP to send Helen Boardman to investigate. She found private contractors subjecting blacks to unequal pay, higher commissary prices, unsanitary camps, overwork, and beatings. Her report was referred to the War Department. When conditions persisted, the NAACP sent Roy Wilkins and George Schuyler to investigate. Disguised as laborers, Wilkins and Schuyler toured contractors’ camps for three weeks and confirmed Boardman’s report. The NAACP printed 10,000 copies of a leaflet, Mississippi River Slavery–1932, to inform the public. In September 1933, the Secretary of War announced a pay raise and shortened hours for unskilled Mississippi levee camp laborers.
In 1932 numerous complaints about the mistreatment of black laborers working on the War Department’s Mississippi River Flood Control Project led the NAACP to send Helen Boardman to investigate. She found private contractors subjecting blacks to unequal pay, higher commissary prices, unsanitary camps, overwork, and beatings. Her report was referred to the War Department. When conditions persisted, the NAACP sent Roy Wilkins and George Schuyler to investigate. Disguised as laborers, Wilkins and Schuyler toured contractors’ camps for three weeks and confirmed Boardman’s report. The NAACP printed 10,000 copies of a leaflet, Mississippi River Slavery–1932, to inform the public. In September 1933, the Secretary of War announced a pay raise and shortened hours for unskilled Mississippi levee camp laborers.