African-American Youth in the Program of the Civilian Conservation Corps in California, 1933–42: An Ambivalent Legacy

Abstract

Olen Cole, Jr. A lthough the Great Depression of the 1930s affected all Americans, it struck some groups harder than others. Because of competition for jobs from large numbers of jobless workers, those without experience or a specific skill found it extremely difficult to find employment. Among the groups particularly hard hit were America's young people. President Franklin D. Roosevelt responded to this effect of the depression in March 1933 by creating the Civilian Conservation Corps. The CCC, aimed at the worst aspects of youth joblessness, bore Roosevelt's personal stamp of approval and support. Scholars of the New Deal have never closely examined the experience of African-American youth in the CCC. Those few works that address the issue focus almost entirely on racial issues; they completely ignore the conservation contributions of African-American corpsmen. This study of those young men's work in protecting and maintaining the national forests of California fills a gap in the historical record and at the same time adds to our understanding of western history, AfricanAmerican history, and American history in general. In 1930 approximately one million young people in the United States were employable but unable to find work. By 1933, the worst unemployment year of the depression, the number was up to five million, representing over a third of the nation's known unemployed.' The CCC was created to employ young men between the ages of seventeen and twenty-three in paramilitary work camps, where they were to undertake various conservation projects. 2 Robert Fechner, vice-president of the American Federation of Labor, was chosen to head the CCC. Its advisory council included one representative from each of four government departments: War, Labor, Agriculture, and Interior. 3 A vital component of the CCC operation was that camps were administered by the U.S. Army. Within seven weeks after President Roosevelt had signed the corps into law, the army had mobilized 310,000 men into 1,315 camps, "a mobilization more rapid and orderly than any in the Army's history." The Department of Labor, which was responsible for keeping up the strength of the camps by providing a regular flow of men, prescribed enrollment policies and eligibility requirements. A corpsman was to be employed in the CCC for no longer than eighteen months, and his monthly salary was thirty dollars, twenty-five dollars of which was sent home to his family. In addition, a corpsman received food, clothing, shelter, medical care, and educational and recreational opportunities.s Various technical agencies, such as the National Park Service, the U.S. Forest Service, and the California Department of Forestry, located suitable camps, selected work projects, and supervised the work performed on the various projects. 6