Muddy Thinking in the Mississippi River Delta, A Call for Reclamation

Author

Randolph; Ned

Year

2024

Publisher

University of California Press

Language

English

Pages

ISBN

978-0-52039-721-7

Link

Last Update

23-Sep-2025

Keywords

Environmental Science ; African American Studies ; American Studies ; sustainability-discipline ; Public Policy & Administration ; Environmental Studies

Description

My early memories are murky and, like sediment, can be reshaped and sometimes permanently obscured. Particularly my memories of mud—alluvial silt and clay delivered by water so omnipresent in a childhood of bayous and streams. I grew up in a town on the Red River, which gave my home parish (not county) the name Rapides. Before the Red River was irreparably tamed by the US Army Corps of Engineers’ $2 billion lock and dams project in the 1980s, it flowed with force.¹ It was too dangerous for swimming. And sometimes, when the water level was low, you could see...