Civil Works Administration

The Civil Works Administration (CWA) was a federally supervised program to create work for unemployed workers in numerous civil works projects during the winter of 1933–34. The CWA was created by the Federal Emergency Relief Administration and paralleled the Civilian Conservation Corps which worked on projects outside urban areas and was extended through the early 1940s. Work similar to that undertaken by the CWA was carried on after 1936 by the Works Projects Administration.

Nationally the five-month long program spent just over a billion dollars and provided work for 4 million people. For administrative purposes, the CWA was divided into statewide and county-level districts. The Jefferson County Civil Works Administration, created on November 19, 1933, reached its full quota of 15,350 people on its payroll by February 15, 1934. When the program was concluded on March 31, 1934, the Jefferson County CWA had spent $3,064,607 on labor and $653,696 for materials. Of that amount, $248,586 was contributed by local governments and institutions while the remainder came from federal appropriations. Other federally-funded projects were also undertaken concurrently outside the scope of the CWA, but sometimes with labor provided by the CWA. At the conclusion of the program, some projects were continued by the State of Alabama.

Leadership

Administrator: Hayse Tucker (November 19, 1933–February 2, 1934)

A. C. Polk (February 2–March 12, 1934)

Lewis Ford (March 12–31, 1934)

Executive Board: Charles Clingman (chair), Henry Houze, W. I. Grubbs, Walter Henley, Paschal Shook, Mervyn Sterne, and Oscar Wells

References

• Report on Civil Works Administration of Alabama, Jefferson County Division, Nov. 19, 1933 - Mar. 31, 1934 at Birmingham Public Library Digital Collections