Above: Ellen Woodward (standing at left), head of the WPA's Women's and Professional Division, visits some schoolchildren enjoying a WPA lunch, Washington, DC, ca. 1935-1939. Photo courtesy of the National Archives.
Ellen Woodward (1887-1971) was born and raised in Mississippi. She was one of many New Deal administrators who fought for more economic fairness. Once, after hearing complaints that African American workers were making too much money in the WPA, she replied, "Government isn't justified in paying people starvation wages because they only got that much before" (Martha H. Swain, Ellen S. Woodward: New Deal Advocate for Women, Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 1995, p. 100).
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