The CCC At Newtown

Newtown Battlefield Preservation has a special place in the history of African Americans' struggle for equality in the United States. When 180 young African-American men of Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Company 1251 arrived to work on improving the park in August 1935, all of the company's officers were white. Officers for CCC camps were drawn from the United States, which actively opposed appointing African Americans as company commanders. But as President Roosevelt ran for reelection in 1936, the criticism of a few congressmen, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and others led to two groundbreaking exceptions. One was at Gettysburg in Pennsylvania; the other was here at Newtown Battlefield Reservation where Company 1251's white officers were quietly replaced with three African Americans in June 1937.

The Civilian Conservation Corps
In April 1933, newly elected President Franklin Delano Roosevelt faced a national economic crisis known as the Great Depression. Of the many programs he initiated to restore hope and confidence in the economy, perhaps the most celebrated was the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). Young men and World War I veterans were organized into companies that did sorely needed conservation work. Each man received a dollar a day, three meals, a place to sleep, and mote importantly, hope. From 1933 to 1942, the CCC rescued roughly two million men from poverty and desperation.

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Show me all markers in:  Elmira, NY  |  Chemung County  |  14901  |  New York  |  United States of America

Newtown Battlefield Reservation
The Battle of Newtown
Flagstaffs - Newtown Battlefield
Major General John Sullivan
Newtown Battlefield State Park
The Sullivan Campaign
Fire on the Frontier - 1778
The Battle of Newtown
Divided Peoples
Newtown

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