During the 1928 presidential election , Governor Theodore Bilbo of Mississippi , a supporter of the Democratic nominee Governor Al Smith of New York , claimed that Herbert Hoover had danced with Mary Booze , the first African-American woman to sit on the Republican National Committee , while Hoover was in Mound Bayou , Mississippi , on an inspection tour of the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 . Bilbo called Booze , " a negress . " In Hoover 's defense , Akerson described Bilbo 's remark as " the most indecent and unworthy statement in the whole of a bitter campaign . " He noted too that the all-Democratic Mississippi State Legislature had commended Hoover 's work in flood relief
Great Mississippi Flood of 1927
Great Mississippi Flood of 1927
George E. Akerson