The Davenport Public Library presents “The Civil Conservation Corps" -- April 5.
Monday, April 5, 7 p.m.
Presented by the Davenport Public Library
The history of one of America's most notable public-work-relief efforts will be explored on April 5 when Iowa author Linda McCann discusses The Civil Conservation Corps, a virtual program co-presented by the Scott County Iowa Genealogical Society and the Richardson-Sloane Special Collections Center of the Davenport Public Library.
Created as a voluntary public-work-relief program, the United States' Civil Conservation Corps (CCC) operated from 1933 to 1942 for unemployed, unmarried men ages 18 to 25, and eventually expanded to ages 17 to 28. Robert Fechner was the first director of this agency, and the CCC was a major part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal that provided manual-labor jobs related to the conservation and development of natural resources in rural lands owned by federal, state, and local governments. The CCC was designed to provide jobs for young men and to relieve families who had difficulty finding jobs during the Great Depression, with maximum enrollment at any one time 300,000.
Through the course of its nine years in operation, three million young men participated in the CCC, which provided them with shelter, clothing, and food, together with a wage of $30 (roughly equivalent to $600 today) per month, $25 of which had to be sent home to their families). The American public made the CCC the most popular of all the New Deal programs, with sources written at the time claiming that an individual's enrollment in the CCC led to improved physical condition, heightened morale, and increased employability. The CCC also led to a greater public awareness and appreciation of the outdoors and the nation's natural resources, as well as the continued need for a carefully planned, comprehensive national program for the protection and development of natural resources. The CCC also operated separate programs for veterans in addition to one for Native Americans, approximately 15,000 of whom participated. By 1942, however, with World War II raging and the draft in effect, the need for work relief declined, and Congress voted to close the program.
The Davenport Library's The Civil Conversation Corps program will be presented by Linda McCann, a chronicler of non-fiction Iowa history through books that include Prisoners of War in Iowa, Prohibition in Iowa, and The Vanished Towns of the Cedar Valley series, as well as several books about the Civilian Conservation Corps in different areas of Iowa. Describing her work in nonfiction, McCann says, “I enjoy the research and write it to pass the information to our future generations. My grandchildren were the catalyst for me beginning to write. There is so much information out there that we need to pass on.”
McCann's virtual program The Civil Conservation Corps will be presented at 7 p.m. on April 5, and although viewing the lecture is free, registration is required for participants to receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. For information, call (563)326-7832 or visit DavenportLibrary.com.
