Friday, March 29, 2013

The CCC Built Men

(WPA poster, courtesy of the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division)

Manuel Gomez of Vermont described his experience in the CCC:

"This work phase in which I spent two years of my life happened over 40 years ago but the benefits I derived have stayed with me all of this time...We had blacks in our camps--this was before integration was accepted in our country. I got to know these boys in work and play and realized that discrimination had no place in our world...There was an intensive safety program in the CCCs...This safety training has never left me...In this outdoor life we learned to do a hard day's labor. We also developed a love for nature and a caring that is not to be abused by selfish interests."

From "Roosevelt's Tree Army: A History of the Civilian Conservation Corps," by Perry H. Merrill, 1981.

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