These acronyms spelled survival for a generation of Americans fighting their way out of the Great Depression. Now is a good time to look back and consider their meaning for today.
Recently we spent two wonderful months in northwest North Carolina and wrote about the 75th anniversary of the Blue Ridge Parkway, a project that began in 1935 as part of the New Deal’s Works Progress Administration (WPA).
Vehicle City
While researching the Parkway, we discovered much more about the landmark programs created under the 1935 Emergency Relief Appropriation Act that helped America recover economically from the Great Depression. Many of the work-generating programs created are well-known, others are more obscure. The WPA eventually became the largest employer in the country.
Our current road finds us in Flint, Michigan, a city steeped in history associated with the New Deal. While traveling about the country we can’t help but stumble across the WPA legacy. Among the building and infrastructure achievements included in that legacy are the Merritt Parkway in Connecticut and the 127-mile Key West Overseas Highway, the Triborough Bridge, Lincoln Tunnel, Central Park Zoo and LaGuardia Airport.
Building these iconic structures, including the Orange Bowl in Miami, the Oregon State Capitol, the Tennessee Supreme Court building, the Kansas City city hall and the Oklahoma City municipal auditorium, provided jobs, a sense that the country was moving again and a lasting heritage.
All told, WPA workers produced 650,000 miles of roads and built or improved 124,000 bridges, 800 airports and 125,000 public buildings, including schools, hospitals and post offices as well as parks, fairgrounds, and rural electrification and sanitation systems. And why don’t we do have a WPA program today? It gets better.
The Federal Writer Project (FWP) worked on the cultural side employing writers, editors, and historians. Some 6,600 individuals were employed by the FWP. This group is best known for its series of state guidebooks, but with people like Saul Bellows, Jason Pollack, Studs Terkel, and John Cheever employed, the FWP published more than 275 books, 700 pamphlets and 340 ”issuances” (articles, leaflets and radio scripts).
The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) hired men between the ages of 18 and 24, providing work related to the conservation and development of natural resources. They built more than 800 parks that would eventually become state parks, planted billions of trees, developed forest fire-fighting methods, and constructed buildings within the nation’s public lands. History has something to teach us.
Charles Alston’s Magic in Medicine
James Turnbull, Barber Shop, 1936
The Federal Art Project (FAP) operated from August 29, 1935, until June 30, 1944, creating more than 200,000 separate works. FAP artists created posters, murals and paintings.
Can you imagine getting anything like these programs implemented today?
Even then in what must have been a much more progressive or at least resourceful America, there was significant resentment toward these programs, especially the WPA which many decried as hiring a bunch of “shovel leaners.” John Steinbeck jumped into that fray in his essay, “Primer on the ’30s“: “It was the fixation of businessmen that the WPA did nothing but lean on shovels. I had an uncle who was particularly irritated at shovel-leaning. When he pooh-poohed my contention that shovel-leaning was necessary, I bet him five dollars, which I didn’t have, that he couldn’t shovel sand for fifteen timed minutes without stopping. He said a man should give a good day’s work and grabbed a shovel. At the end of three minutes his face was red, at six he was staggering and before eight minutes were up his wife stopped him to save him from apoplexy. And he never mentioned shovel-leaning again.”
Flint Famers’ Market
Here in Flint, Michigan, we have an example of the work done through the WPA, the Flint Farmer’s Market. Built in 1940 by WPA workers, the original building stands to this day. The steel trusses supporting the roof are the originals from the 1920 Union Street Building brought over on railroad cars.
As the nation struggles to find its way out of the current economic morass, these programs stand as testament to leadership, ingenuity, and the power of people through their elected officials to work their way out of difficult times.
Our history follows us as we move about the country. The roads, bridges, buildings, art and parks created through these historical programs hold a contemporary message while enriching our travels on the next road.