Enrollees
"Group of CCC boys from Idaho just arrived in camp near Andersonville, Tennessee,” 1933. These CCC units conducted reforestation work on the Clinch River watershed. Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration.
Young men in the camps were paid thirty dollars per month, or one dollar per day. Twenty-five dollars a month was sent home to help their families and they were allowed to keep the rest for their own spending. The additional support sent home to the families of the CCC meant that the economic impact of the relief work was dispersed across the country. While the camps were originally set to house younger men, the government raised age limits in order to raise enrollment. Camp leaders were able to earn an extra fifteen dollars per month and assistant leaders earned an extra six dollars per month. Unemployed World War I veterans were also able to enlist in separate camps where there were fewer restrictions.
The majority of the CCC enrollees were young, white men. Some integrated camps allowed African Americans to enroll in the program, but as the CCC progressed, it developed a small number of segregated camps for African Americans. Native Americans also participated in a separate program in the CCC’s “Indian Division.”
