Editing Tennessee Valley Authority (section)

=== Founding and early history ===
[[File:Roosevelt signing TVA Act (1933).jpg|left|thumb|President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] signing the TVA Act]]
[[File:TVA sign at Hyde Park, NY IMG 5665.JPG|thumb|TVA poster at the [[Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum]]]]

President [[Franklin Delano Roosevelt]] signed the '''Tennessee Valley Authority Act''' (ch. 32, {{USStatute|73|17|48|58|1933|05|18}}, codified as amended at {{USC|16|831}}, et seq.), creating the TVA. The agency was initially tasked with modernizing the region, using experts and electricity to combat human and [[Economy of the United States|economic]] problems.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Schulman |first1=Bruce J. |title=From Cotton Belt to Sunbelt: Federal policy, economic development, and the transformation of the South, 1938–1980 |date=1991 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York |oclc=300412389 |isbn=978-0-19-536344-9}}</ref> TVA developed fertilizers, and taught farmers ways to improve crop yields.<ref name="Selznick"/> In addition, it helped replant forests, control [[forest fires]], and improve habitats for fish and wildlife.

The Authority hired many of the area's unemployed for a variety of jobs: they conducted [[habitat conservation|conservation]], [[economic development]], and [[social program]]s. For instance, a [[library]] service was instituted for this area. The professional staff at headquarters were generally composed of experts from outside the region. By 1934, TVA employed more than 9,000 people.<ref name="history">{{cite web |url=https://www.history.com/topics/great-depression/history-of-the-tva |title=TVA |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=August 7, 2017 |website=History.com |publisher=The History Channel |access-date=January 8, 2019 |archive-date=January 8, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190108200728/https://www.history.com/topics/great-depression/history-of-the-tva |url-status=live }}</ref> The workers were classified by the usual racial and gender lines of the region, which limited opportunities for minorities and women. TVA hired a few [[African Americans]], generally restricted for janitorial or other low-level positions. TVA recognized [[labor unions]]; its skilled and semi-skilled blue collar employees were unionized, a breakthrough in an area known for corporations hostile to miners' and textile workers' unions. Women were excluded from construction work.

[[File:TVA-first-board.jpg|left|thumb|TVA's first board (L to R): [[Harcourt Morgan]], [[Arthur Ernest Morgan|Arthur E. Morgan]], and [[David E. Lilienthal]]]]
Many local landowners were suspicious of government agencies, but TVA successfully introduced new agricultural methods into traditional farming communities by blending in and finding local champions. Tennessee farmers often rejected advice from TVA officials, so the officials had to find leaders in the communities and convince them that [[crop rotation]] and the judicious application of fertilizers could restore soil fertility.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Shapiro |first1=Edward |title=The Southern Agrarians and the Tennessee Valley Authority |journal=[[American Quarterly]] |date=Winter 1970 |volume=22 |issue=4 |pages=791–806 |doi=10.2307/2711870 |issn=0003-0678 |oclc=5545493875 |jstor=2711870}}</ref> Once they had convinced the leaders, the rest followed.<ref name="Selznick">{{cite book |last=Selznick |first=Philip |author-link=Philip Selznick |date=1953 |title=TVA and the Grass Roots: A Study in the Sociology of Formal Organization |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Mym5Ycgamo8C |location=Los Angeles; Berkeley, California |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |pages=134–139 |isbn=1528359852 |access-date=March 19, 2023 |archive-date=October 6, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231006212651/https://books.google.com/books?id=Mym5Ycgamo8C |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[File:"A group showing some of the men working at Norris Dam." - NARA - 532717.jpg|thumb|alt=Construction workers gather at Norris Dam site|Workers at the site of [[Norris Dam]], the first hydroelectric dam built by the TVA, {{Circa|1933}}]]

TVA immediately embarked on the construction of several hydroelectric dams, with the first, [[Norris Dam]] in upper [[East Tennessee]], breaking ground on October 1, 1933. These facilities, designed with the intent of also controlling floods, greatly improved the lives of farmers and rural residents, making their lives easier and farms in the Tennessee Valley more productive. They also provided new employment opportunities to the poverty-stricken regions in the Valley. At the same time, however, they required the [[Development-induced displacement|displacement]] of more than 125,000 valley residents or roughly 15,000 families,<ref name="gaventa"/> as well as some cemeteries and small towns, which caused some to oppose the projects, especially in rural areas.<ref name="dispossessed">{{cite book |last1=Muldowny |first1=John |last2=McDonald |first2=Michael |title=TVA and the Dispossessed: The Resettlement of Population in the Norris Dam Area |date=1981 |publisher=[[University of Tennessee]] Press |isbn=9781572331648 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_vUrhbkRLiAC |access-date=July 4, 2021 |archive-date=January 11, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230111024357/https://www.google.com/books/edition/TVA_and_the_Dispossessed/_vUrhbkRLiAC?hl=en&gbpv=0 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="stephens">{{cite web |last1=Stephens |first1=Joseph |title=Forced Relocations Presented More of an Ordeal than an Opportunity for Norris Reservoir Families |url=https://www.historicunioncounty.com/article/forced-relocations-presented-more-ordeal-opportunity-norris-reservoir-families |website=Historic Union County |date=May 2018 |access-date=June 15, 2021 |archive-date=July 9, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210709184540/https://www.historicunioncounty.com/article/forced-relocations-presented-more-ordeal-opportunity-norris-reservoir-families |url-status=live }}</ref> The projects also inundated several [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] archaeological sites, and graves were reinterred at new locations, along with new tombstones.{{sfn|Creese|1990|pp=95-105}}<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Brackish Water |url=https://oxfordamerican.org/magazine/issue-125-summer-2024/brackish-water |access-date=2024-07-07 |website=Oxford American |language=en}}</ref>

The available electricity attracted new industries to the region, including [[textile]] [[factory|mills]], providing desperately needed jobs, many of which were filled by women.{{sfn|Neuse|2004|pp=972–979}}<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Long |first1=Jennifer |title=Government Job Creation Programs—Lessons from the 1930s and 1940s |journal=[[Journal of Economic Issues]] |date=December 1999 |volume=33 |issue=4 |pages=903–918 |issn=0021-3624 |doi=10.1080/00213624.1999.11506220 |oclc=5996637494}}</ref> A few regions of the Tennessee Valley did not receive electricity until the late 1940s and early 1950s, however. TVA was one of the first federal [[hydropower]] agencies, and was quickly hailed as a success. While most of the nation's major hydropower systems are federally managed today, other attempts to create similar regional corporate agencies have failed. The most notable was the proposed Columbia Valley Authority for the [[Columbia River]] in the [[Pacific Northwest]], which was modeled off of TVA, but did not gain approval.{{sfn|Hargrove|1994|p=137}}