Editing Civilian Conservation Corps (section)

==History==
An implicit goal of the CCC was to restore morale in an era of 25% unemployment for all men and much higher rates for poorly educated teenagers. Jeffrey Suzik argues in "'Building Better Men':
The CCC Boy and the Changing Social Ideal of Manliness" that the CCC provided an ideology of manly outdoor work to counter the Depression, as well as cash to help the family budget. Through a regime of heavy manual labor, civic and political education, and an all-male living and working environment, the CCC tried to build "better men" who would be economically independent and self-reliant. By 1939, there was a shift in the ideal from the hardy manual worker to the highly trained citizen soldier ready for war.<ref>Jeffrey Ryan Suzik, "'Building Better Men': The CCC Boy and the Changing Social Ideal of Manliness", ''Men and Masculinities'' 2.2 (1999): 152-179.</ref>

===Early years, 1933–1937===
[[File:Texas Park Road 4 CCC Map 1 edit.jpg|thumb|right|upright=2|A CCC map of the planned route of a parkway in Texas, drafted in 1934. The Corps worked in numerous parks throughout the state during the early 1930s, constructing everything from benches to highways.|alt=A blue-grey map of a road, covered with assorted lines]]

The legislation and mobilization of the program occurred quite rapidly. Roosevelt made his request to Congress on March 21, 1933; the legislation was submitted to Congress the same day; Congress passed it by voice vote on March 31; Roosevelt signed it the same day, then issued an executive order on April 5 creating the agency, appointing Fechner its director, and assigning War Department corps area commanders to begin enrollment. The first CCC enrollee was selected April 8, and lists of unemployed men were subsequently supplied by state and local welfare and relief agencies for immediate enrollment. On April 17, the first camp, [[NF-1, Camp Roosevelt]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ccclegacy.org/camp_roosevelt_history.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081201125643/http://www.ccclegacy.org/camp_roosevelt_history.htm |archive-date=December 1, 2008 |title=Camp Roosevelt, NF-1}}</ref> was established at [[George Washington National Forest]] near [[Luray, Virginia]]. On June 18, the first of 161 [[soil erosion]] control camps was opened in [[Clayton, Alabama]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Timeline. Surviving the Dust Bowl. American Experience . WGBH - PBS |website=[[PBS]] |access-date=March 2, 2012 |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/timeline/dustbowl/}}</ref> By July 1, 1933, there were 1,463 working camps with 250,000 junior enrollees 18–25 years of age; 28,000 veterans; 14,000 [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native Americans]]; and 25,000 adults in the Local Experienced Men (LEM) program.<ref>Ermentrout, p. 15</ref><ref name="Fechner">{{cite book|last=Fechner|first=Robert, Director|author-link=Robert Fechner|title=Pamphlet: Objectives and Results of the Civilian Conservation Corps Program|publisher=Civilian Conservation Corps|year=1938|location=Washington, D.C.}}</ref>

===Enrollees===
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| image1    = CCC camp kitchen crew (3226043137).jpg
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| image2    = Meal time at CCC Camp Roosevelt, George Washington National Forest, Virginia (3226029283).jpg
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| caption2  = Meal time at CCC Camp Roosevelt, [[George Washington and Jefferson National Forests|George Washington National Forest]], Virginia

| image3    = President Franklin Roosevelt at CCC camp in Virginia in 1933.jpg
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| caption3  = President Franklin D. Roosevelt made his first visit to a CCC camp, at  [[Big Meadows]] in [[Shenandoah National Park]], Virginia, in early summer, 1933. Seated, left to right: Major General [[Paul B. Malone]], commanding general of the Third Corps Area; [[Louis Howe]], secretary to the president; Secretary of the Interior [[Harold L. Ickes]]; CCC Director [[Robert Fechner]]; the president; Secretary of Agriculture [[Henry A. Wallace]]; and Assistant Secretary of Agriculture [[Rexford G. Tugwell]].<ref>[https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/wirth2/chap5b.htm Parks, Politics, and the People], Chapter 5: The Civilian Conservation Corps, [[National Park Service]] official website.</ref> 
}}

The typical CCC enrollee was a U.S. citizen, unmarried, unemployed male, 18–25 years of age. Normally his family was on local relief. Each enrollee volunteered and, upon passing a physical exam and/or a period of conditioning, was required to serve a minimum six-month period, with the option to serve as many as four periods, or up to two years if employment outside the Corps was not possible. Enrollees worked 40 hours per week over five days, sometimes including Saturdays if poor weather dictated. In return they received $30 per month ({{Inflation|US|30|1933|r=-1|fmt=eq}}) with a compulsory allotment of $25 (about {{Inflation|US|25
|1933|r=-1|fmt=eq}}) sent to a family dependent, as well as housing, food, clothing, and medical care.<ref>{{cite book |last=Wirth |first=Conrad L. |year=1980 |title=Parks, Politics and the People |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |location=Norman |pages=94–99 |isbn=0-8061-1605-6}}</ref>

{{anchor|Veterans Conservation Corps}}

====Veterans Conservation Corps====
Following the second [[Bonus Army]] march on Washington, D.C., President Roosevelt amended the CCC program on May 11, 1933, to include work opportunities for veterans. Veteran qualifications differed from the junior enrollee; one needed to be certified by the Veterans Administration by an application. They could be any age, and married or single as long as they were in need of work. Veterans were generally assigned to entire veteran camps.<ref name="Ermentrout2">{{cite book |last=Ermentrout |first=Robert Allen |title=Forgotten Men: The Civilian Conservation Corps |year=1982 |location=Smithtown, NY |publisher=Exposition Press |page=17 |isbn=0-682-49805-X}}</ref> Enrollees were eligible for the following "rated" positions to help with camp administration: senior leader, mess steward, storekeeper and two cooks; assistant leader, company clerk, assistant educational advisor and three second cooks. These men received additional pay ranging from $36 to $45 per month depending on their rating.

===Camps===
[[File:CCC barrack at Milford, Utah.jpg|thumb|{{center|Inside of CCC barracks at Milford, Utah. Two of the men are sitting on footlockers that were used by the CCC workers to hold their personal possessions.}}]]
Each CCC camp was located in the area of particular conservation work to be performed and organized around a complement of up to 200 civilian enrollees in a designated numbered "company" unit. The CCC camp was a temporary community in itself, structured to have barracks (initially Army tents) for 50 enrollees each, officer/technical staff quarters, medical dispensary, mess hall, recreation hall, educational building, lavatory and showers, technical/administrative offices, tool room/blacksmith shop and motor pool garages.
[[File:CCC Camp library rec room - GAG03.jpg|thumb|CCC Camp recreational hall or educational building (unidentified location)]]

The company organization of each camp had a dual-authority supervisory staff: firstly, Department of War personnel or [[Reserve components of the United States armed forces|Reserve]] officers (until July 1, 1939), a "company commander" and junior officer, who were responsible for overall camp operation, logistics, education and training; and secondly, ten to fourteen technical service civilians, including a camp "superintendent" and "foreman", employed by either the Departments of Interior or Agriculture, responsible for the particular fieldwork. Also included in camp operation were several non-technical supervisor LEMs, who provided knowledge of the work at hand, "lay of the land," and paternal guidance for inexperienced enrollees.<ref>"Your CCC, A Handbook for Enrollees," Happy Days Pub. Co., Inc. (1940) pp. 8–13</ref><ref>Ermentrout, pp. 16, 76-77</ref> Enrollees were organized into work detail units called "sections" of 25 men each, according to the barracks they resided in.<ref>"United States Army Civilian Conservation Corps. Company 114th," Francis P. Waversak, Stone Walls, Spring 1990 p. 23</ref> Each section had an enrollee "senior leader" and "assistant leader" who were accountable for the men at work and in the barracks.

===Work classifications===
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| caption2  = CCC workers with picks and shovels building a road in Utah between [[Milford, Utah|Milford]] and [[Beaver, Utah|Beaver]]
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The CCC performed 300 types of work projects in nine approved general classifications:
#Structural improvements: bridges, [[fire lookout tower]]s, service buildings
#Transportation: truck trails, minor roads, [[hiking trail|foot trails]] and airfields
#[[Erosion control]]: [[check dam]]s, terracing, and vegetable covering
#[[Flood control]]: irrigation, drainage, dams, ditching, channel work, [[rip rap|riprapping]]
#[[Forestry|Forest culture]]: tree planting, fire prevention, fire pre-suppression, firefighting, [[pest control|insect and disease control]]
#[[Landscape architecture|Landscape]] and recreation: public camp and picnic ground development, lake and pond site clearing and development
#[[Rangeland|Range]]: stock driveways, elimination of predatory animals
#[[Wildlife]]: stream improvement, [[fish stocking]], food and cover planting
#Miscellaneous: [[emergency service|emergency work]], [[surveying|surveys]], [[mosquito]] control<ref>Merrill, Perry H. (1981) ''Roosevelt's Forest Army, A History of the Civilian Conservation Corps'', p. 9</ref>

The responses to this seven-month experimental conservation program were enthusiastic. On October 1, 1933, Director Fechner was directed to arrange for the second period of enrollment. By January 1934, 300,000 men were enrolled. In July 1934, this cap was increased by 50,000 to include men from Midwest states that had been affected by drought. The temporary tent camps had also developed to include wooden barracks. An education program had been established, emphasizing job training and literacy.<ref name="Fechner"/>{{rp|10}}

Approximately 55% of enrollees were from rural communities, a majority of which were non-farm; 45% came from urban areas.<ref>"Your CCC, A Handbook for Enrollees", Happy Days Pub. Co., Inc. (1940) p. 9</ref> Level of education for the enrollee averaged 3% illiterate; 38% had less than eight years of school; 48% did not complete high school; and 11% were high school graduates.<ref name=" Ermentrout2"/> At the time of entry, 70% of enrollees were malnourished and poorly clothed. Few had work experience beyond occasional odd jobs. Peace was maintained by the threat of "dishonorable discharge". "This is a training station; we're going to leave morally and physically fit to lick 'Old Man Depression,'" boasted the newsletter, ''Happy Days,'' of a [[North Carolina]] camp.

===African American people===
Because of the power of conservative [[Solid South]] white Democrats in Congress, who insisted on racial segregation, most New Deal programs were racially segregated; African American and white people rarely worked alongside each other. At this time, all the states of the South had passed legislation imposing racial segregation and, since the turn of the century, laws and constitutional provisions that [[Disfranchisement after Reconstruction era|disenfranchised most African Americans]]; they were excluded from formal politics. Because of discrimination by white officials at the local and state levels, African Americans in the South did not receive as many benefits as white people from New Deal programs.

In the first few weeks of operation, CCC camps in the North were [[Racial integration|integrated]]. By July 1935, however, all camps in the United States were segregated.<ref>{{cite book |author=Kay Rippelmeyer |title=The Civilian Conservation Corps in Southern Illinois, 1933-1942 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ffupBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA98 |year=2015 |publisher=Southern Illinois Press |pages=98–99|isbn=9780809333653 }}</ref> Enrollment peaked at the end of 1935, when there were 500,000 men in 2,600 camps in operation in every state. All received equal pay and housing.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1586.html|title=Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)|website=www.u-s-history.com|access-date=2019-02-22}}</ref> Black leaders lobbied to secure leadership roles.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Salmond|first=John A.|date=June 1965|title=The Civilian Conservation Corps and the Negro|journal=The Journal of American History|publisher=Oxford University Press|volume=52, 1|issue=1|pages=82|doi=10.2307/1901125|jstor=1901125}}</ref> Adult white men held the major leadership roles in all the camps. Director Fechner refused to appoint Black adults to any supervisory positions except that of education director in the all-Black camps.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Calvin W. |last=Gower |title=The Struggle of Blacks for Leadership Positions in the Civilian Conservation Corps: 1933–1942 |journal=Journal of Negro History |volume=61 |issue=2 |year=1976 |pages=123–135 |jstor=2717266|doi=10.2307/2717266 |s2cid=149689541 }}</ref>

===Indian Division===
The CCC operated a separate division for members of federally recognized [[Tribe (Native American)|tribes]]: the "Indian Emergency Conservation Work Division" (IECW or CCC-ID). Native men from reservations worked on roads, bridges, clinics, shelters, and other public works near their [[Indian reservation|reservations]]. Although they were organized as groups classified as camps, no permanent camps were established for Native Americans. Instead, organized groups moved with their families from project to project and were provided with an additional rental allowance.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Calvin W. |last=Gower |title=The CCC Indian Division: Aid for Depressed Americans, 1933–1942 |journal=Minnesota History |year=1972 |volume=43 |issue=1 |pages=3–13}}</ref> The CCC often provided the only paid work, as many reservations were in remote rural areas. Enrollees had to be between the ages of 17 and 35.

During 1933, about half the male heads of households on the [[Sioux]] reservations in [[South Dakota]] were employed by the CCC-ID.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Roger |last=Bromert |title=The Sioux and the Indian-CCC |journal=South Dakota History |year=1978 |volume=8 |issue=4 |pages=340–356}}</ref> With grants from the [[Public Works Administration]] (PWA), the Indian Division built schools and conducted a road-building program in and around many reservations to improve infrastructure. The mission was to reduce erosion and improve the value of Indian lands. Crews built dams of many types on creeks, then sowed grass on the eroded areas from which the damming material had been taken. They built roads and planted shelter-belts on federal lands. The steady income helped participants regain self-respect, and many used the funds to improve their lives. [[John Collier (reformer)|John Collier]], the federal [[Commissioner of Indian Affairs]] and Daniel Murphy, the director of the CCC-ID, both based the program on Indian self-rule and the restoration of tribal lands, governments, and cultures. The next year, Congress passed the [[Indian Reorganization Act|Indian Reorganization Act of 1934]], which ended allotments and helped preserve tribal lands, and encouraged tribes to re-establish self-government.

Collier said of the CCC-Indian Division, "no previous undertaking in Indian Service has so largely been the Indians' own undertaking". Educational programs trained participants in gardening, stock raising, safety, native arts, and some academic subjects.<ref name="Hanneman">{{cite journal |first=Carolyn G. |last=Hanneman |title=Baffles, Bridges, and Bermuda: Oklahoma Indians and the Civilian Conservation Corps-Indian Division |journal=Chronicles of Oklahoma |year=1999 |volume=77 |issue=4 |pages=428–449}}</ref> IECW differed from other CCC activities in that it explicitly trained men in skills to be carpenters, truck drivers, radio operators, mechanics, surveyors, and technicians. With the passage of the [[National Defense Vocational Training Act of 1941]], enrollees began participating in defense-oriented training. The government paid for the classes and after students completed courses and passed a competency test, guaranteed automatic employment in defense work. A total of 85,000 Native Americans were enrolled in this training. This proved valuable social capital for the 24,000 alumni who later served in the military and the 40,000 who left the reservations for city jobs supporting the war effort.

===Expansion, 1935–1936===
Responding to public demand to alleviate unemployment, Congress approved the [[Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935]], on April 8, 1935, which included continued funding for the CCC program through March 31, 1937. The age limit was expanded to 17–28 to include more men.<ref name="Fechner"/>{{rp|11}}<ref>{{cite web |url=http://digilab.browardlibrary.org/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/ccc&CISOPTR=691&CISOSHOW=658 |title=Digital Archives |access-date=January 20, 2021 |archive-date=July 28, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200728150610/http://digilab.browardlibrary.org/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=%2Fccc&CISOPTR=691&CISOSHOW=658 |url-status=dead }}</ref> April 1, 1935, to March 31, 1936, was the period of greatest activity and work accomplished by the CCC program. Enrollment peaked at 505,782 in about 2,900 camps by August 31, 1935, followed by a reduction to 350,000 enrollees in 2,019 camps by June 30, 1936.<ref>Ermentrout, p. 33</ref> During this period the public response to the CCC program was overwhelmingly popular. A [[Gallup poll]] of April 18, 1936, asked: "Are you in favor of the CCC camps?"; 82% of respondents said "yes", including 92% of [[History of the Democratic Party (United States)|Democrats]] and 67% of [[History of the Republican Party (United States)|Republicans]].<ref>''Public Opinion, 1935–1946,'' ed. by Hadley Cantril and Mildred Strunk (1951), p. 111</ref>

===Change of purpose, 1937–1938===
On June 28, 1937, the Civilian Conservation Corps was legally established and transferred from its original designation as the Emergency Conservation Work program. Funding was extended for three more years by Public Law No. 163, [[75th Congress]], effective July 1, 1937. Congress changed the age limits to 17–23 years old and changed the requirement that enrollees be on relief to "not regularly in attendance at school, or possessing full-time employment."<ref>Civilian Conservation Corps, "Standards of Eligibility and Selection for Junior Enrollees," United States Dept. of Labor, Office of the Secretary, August 1, 1938,</ref> The 1937 law mandated the inclusion of vocational and academic training for a minimum of 10 hours per week. Students in school were allowed to enroll during summer vacation.<ref>Ermentrout, pp. 48–49, 51</ref> During this period, the CCC forces contributed to disaster relief following 1937 floods in New York, Vermont, and the [[Ohio River flood of 1937|Ohio]] and Mississippi river valleys, and response and clean-up after the [[New England Hurricane of 1938|1938 hurricane in New England]].

===From conservation to defense, 1939–1940===
In 1939 Congress ended the independent status of the CCC, transferring it to the control of the [[Federal Security Agency]]. The [[National Youth Administration]], [[United States Employment Service|U.S. Employment Service]], the [[Office of Education]], and the [[Works Progress Administration]] also had some responsibilities. About 5,000 reserve officers serving in the camps were affected, as they were transferred to federal [[Civil Service]], and military ranks and titles were eliminated. Despite the loss of overt military leadership in the camps by July 1940, with war underway in Europe and Asia, the government directed an increasing number of CCC projects to resources for national defense. It developed infrastructure for military training facilities and forest protection. By 1940 the CCC was no longer wholly a relief agency, was rapidly losing its non-military character, and it was becoming a system for work-training, as its ranks had become increasingly younger and inexperienced.<ref>Ermentrout, pp. 55, 62, 64</ref>

===Decline and disbandment 1941–1942===
Although the CCC was probably the most popular New Deal program, it never was authorized as a permanent agency. The program was reduced in scale as the Depression waned and employment opportunities improved. After [[Selective Training and Service Act of 1940|conscription began in 1940]], fewer eligible young men were available. Following the [[attack on Pearl Harbor]] in December 1941, the Roosevelt administration directed all federal programs to emphasize the war effort. Most CCC work, except for wildland firefighting, was shifted onto U.S. military bases to help with construction.

The CCC disbanded one year earlier than planned, as the [[77th United States Congress]] ceased funding it. Operations were formally concluded at the end of the federal fiscal year on June 30, 1942. The end of the CCC program and closing of the camps involved arrangements to leave the incomplete work projects in the best possible state, the separation of about 1,800 appointed employees, the transfer of CCC property to the War and Navy Departments and other agencies, and the preparation of final accountability records. Liquidation of the CCC was ordered by Congress by the Labor-Federal Security Appropriation Act (56 Stat. 569) on July 2, 1942, and virtually completed on June 30, 1943.<ref>[[Conrad L. Wirth|Wirth, Conrad L.]], ''Civilian Conservation Corps Program of the US Dept. of the Interior, March 1933 to June 30, 1942'', a Report to [[Harold L. Ickes]], January 1944</ref> Liquidation appropriations for the CCC continued through April 20, 1948.

Some former CCC sites in good condition were reactivated from 1941 to 1947 as [[Civilian Public Service]] camps where [[conscientious objector]]s performed "work of national importance" as an alternative to military service. Other camps were used to hold [[Japanese American internment|Japanese]], [[Internment of German Americans|German]] and [[Internment of Italian Americans|Italian]] Americans interned under the [[Western Defense Command]]'s Enemy Alien Control Program, as well as Axis [[Prisoner of war|prisoners of war]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Civilian%20Conservation%20Corps/ |title=Civilian Conservation Corps |publisher=Densho Encyclopedia |access-date=August 19, 2016}}</ref> Most of the Japanese American internment camps were built by the people held there. After the CCC disbanded, the federal agencies responsible for [[public lands]] organized their own seasonal fire crews, modeled after the CCC. These have performed a firefighting function formerly done by the CCC and provided the same sort of outdoor work experience for young people. Approximately 47 young men have died while in this line of duty.{{Citation needed|date=April 2010}}

[[File:Ccc pillow.jpg|thumb|A CCC [[pillowcase]] on display at the CCC Museum in Michigan]]