The mystery of “River Cutter” Yocona, the Coast Guard's first desegregated cutter, was homeported in 1920 Vicksburg, Miss., during the Jim Crow era. This story begins in 1913, years before Yocona was commissioned. In the list of deadly American floods, the Great Flood of 1913 ranks only second in number of lives lost (690) that negatively impacted 19 states, including Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi. More than a 250,000 people were left homeless. Along the Mississippi River, damages exceeded $200M. It eventually changed the country's management of its waterways and increased federal support for comprehensive flood prevention and funding for flood control projects. On Aug. 29, 1916, a naval appropriations bill was passed to construct of three “light-draft river steamboats” for the CG. The mission was to “give relief, succor, and assistance to victims of floods” on the two major river systems." Two were completed: Yocana and Kankakee (with all-white crew). The CG stationed Yocona at Vicksburg through 1925. Yocona was a pioneering cutter in three ways: First CG cutter stationed on the nation’s Western Rivers; first stern paddlewheel cutter to serve in the lower U.S.; and was the first federal vessel in peacetime manned by a racially integrated crew. (Coast Guard 02/17/23) The Long Blue Line: The mystery of “River Cutter” Yocona the Coast Guard's first desegregated cutter homeported in the Deep South. > United States Coast Guard > My Coast Guard News (uscg.mil)
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