The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) operated between 1933 and 1942 as part of the New Deal program. The recession of 1929 had left our country in a bad state financially. Thousands of banks closed. One hundred million home owners were foreclosed on. Municipal workers, police, and teachers were either laid off or went unpaid. The national unemployment rate was over 25%. For non-farm workers unemployment was almost 40%. Those who were still employed had their hours reduced or their wages were cut. The New Deal focused on relief for the unemployed and poor, recovery of the economy, and reform of the financial system to prevent a repeat of the Great Depression.
State and local welfare and relief agencies supplied the CCC with lists of unemployed men. The CCC signed up unmarried men age 18-23 at the start of the program and later took men age 17-28, to serve a minimum six month period with the option to serve up to four periods if they could not find other work. The men were provided with housing (army tents and later barracks), uniforms, food, and medical care. They were paid $30 per month and had to send $25 home to their families each month. At the time of enrollment, 70 percent were malnourished and poorly clothed.
The CCC conserved and developed our natural resources in rural areas. They planted three billion trees, constructed and upgraded 800 parks, updated forest fire fighting methods, built service buildings and public roadways in remote areas, worked to prevent soil erosion and to control flooding. Other types of work included building fire lookout towers and airport landing fields, planting trees, fire prevention, insect and disease control, and development of picnic grounds.
The CCC was called on to help with disaster relief following the 1937 floods in New York, Vermont, and Ohio and the Mississippi River Valley and also with clean-up after the 1938 hurricane in New England.
Other programs, still in existence today, that came to us as part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal: Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC), Federal Crop Insurance Corp. (FCIC), Social Security, and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Following is a list of men who served from Quitman County. This is probably only a partial list.
| Name |
Camp |
Location |
Project |
Year |
| A. B. Birdsong |
2442nd |
McComb |
SP-9 |
1935 |
| W. T. Bond |
4428th |
Canton |
SCS-26 |
1937 |
| W. T. Bond |
4429th |
Durant |
SP-6 |
1935 |
| Webb Dew |
4441st |
Richton |
F-24 |
1937 |
| W. Hasting |
4442nd |
Collins |
SCS-10 |
1937 |
| T. Knight |
4429th |
Durant |
SP-6 |
1935 |
| W. Knight, Jr. |
4429th |
Collins |
SCS-10 |
1937 |
| H. B. Lowery |
4429th |
Durant |
SP-6 |
1935 |
| J. P. Morgan |
2442nd |
McComb |
SP-9 |
1935 |
| J. T. York |
4429th |
Durant |
SP-6 |
1935 |
| James T. York |
4429th |
Durant |
SP-6 |
1937 |
SCS – Soil Conservation
SP – State Park
F – National Forest
