In an era when blacks and whites were heavily segregated, early Oregon Civilian Conservation Corps camps employed young black and white men in the same jobs and same housing quarters.
National Forest Service
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Five days after his inauguration in 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt initiated the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) designed to employ young men struggling to find work during the Great Depression. The program was wildly successful, drawing everyone from farm boys to street kids. Across the country, most camps were segregated. Oregon was different. Here, blacks and whites worked, and lived, together. There were reportedly no problems. That is, until Southern lawmakers heard about the mixed race camps and demanded they be segregated. Eventually they were.
Watch the Oregon Experience documentary "Civilian Conservation Corps" to learn more about FDR's program to create jobs during the depression.
This series is in partnership with The Oregon Historical Society