The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)

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The Civilian Conservation Corps was a public work relief program that operated from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men from relief families as part of the New Deal. It was originally made for men the ages of 18 to 25 and had expanded to men the ages of 17 to 28. This program was a major part of Franklin D. Roosevelts New Deal that had provided that provided unskilled manual labor jobs related to the conservation and development of natural resources in land owned by federal, state, and local governments. The CCC was supposed to be designed for young men and families that had a hard time finding jobs during the Great Depression. The maximum enrollment in the program was 300,000 at any one time, over the course of …show more content…
The CCC had also had separate programs for veterans and Native Americans, that had helped during the Great Depression. 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 temporary community in itself, structured to have barracks for 50 enrollees each, officer staff quarters, medical dispensary, mess hall, recreation hall, educational building, lavatory and showers, techinical offices, tool room and motor pool garages.
By 1942, with World War II and the draft operation, the need to the work relief had declined tremendously, and congress had voted to close down the program. 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 the CCC property to the War and Navy Departments and other agencies, and the preparation of the final accountability records. Some former CCC sites in good condition were reactivated from 1941 to 1947 as Civilian Public Service camps where Conscientious objectors performed "work of national importance" as an alternative to military service. Other camps were used to hold Japanese , German and Italian American interned under the Western Defense Commands Enemy Alien Control Program, as well as Axis prisoners of war. Most of the Japanese American internment camps were built by the people held