Although disaster response did not fall under the duties of the Commerce Department, the governors of six states along the Mississippi River specifically asked President Coolidge to appoint Hoover to coordinate the response to the flood.[122] Believing that disaster response was not the domain of the federal government, Coolidge initially refused to become involved, but he eventually acceded to political pressure and appointed Hoover to chair a special committee to help the region.[123] Hoover established over one hundred tent cities and a fleet of more than six hundred vessels, and raised $17 million (equivalent to $265.19 million in 2021). In large part due to his leadership during the flood crisis, by 1928, Hoover had begun to overshadow President Coolidge himself.[122] Though Hoover received wide acclaim for his role in the crisis, he ordered the suppression of reports of mistreatment of African Americans in refugee camps.[124] He did so with the cooperation of African-American leader Robert Russa Moton, who was promised unprecedented influence once Hoover became president.