Members of the Civilian Conservation Corps. Photo Credit: © Barbara Wright via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

United States – Civilian Conservation Corps

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was founded by U.S. President Roosevelt as part of the Emergency Conservation Act.

The CCC was a voluntary public work relief program that operated from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men ages 18–25 and eventually expanded to ages 17–28.

The program provided jobs to unemployed young men to develop infrastructure for the National Parks and forests. Close to 250,000 African American corpsmen served in the CCC and contributed to the development of the nation’s major parks, including Shenandoah National Park and Angeles National Forest. The heritage of these parks belongs in part to these African American corpsmen.

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