New Deal Accomplishment: Over two million African Americans hired

Above: Payday on a Civil Works Administration (CWA) project. It's not clear how many African Americans received jobs through the CWA or its successor agency, the Work Division of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA). In some cases it seems that the numbers hired, and the wages paid, were enough to cause farmers and business owners to complain that they no longer had enough low-wage workers to hire (see, e.g., Forrest A. Walker, The Civil Works Administration: An Experiment in Federal Work Relief, 1933-1934, 1979, pp. 69-70). However, overall CWA and FERA employment of African Americans was probably not adequate or equitable. Photo from: Henry G. Alsberg, America Fights the Depression: A Photographic Record of the Civil Works Administration, New York: Coward-McCann Publishers, 1934, used here for educational and non-commercial purposes.

Above: Members of Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Company 352, stationed at Camp NHP-1, Yorktown, Virginia, ca. 1937. These men--and several other African American CCC companies--helped restore and preserve Colonial National Historical Park, a park that now sees millions of visitors annually, supports thousands of jobs, and contributes nearly half-a-billion dollars to the local economy every year (see, "Tourism to Colonial National Historical Park creates over $453 million in Economic Benefits," National Park Service, July 17, 2022). Over 250,000 African Americans served in the CCC (see, e.g., Federal Security Agency, "The Civilian Conservation Corps and Colored Youth," May 1940, accessed December 13, 2025). CCC enrollment of African Americans typically reflected the percentage of the U.S. population that was African American (about 10%) but in some cases exceeded it (see, e.g., "CCC Enrollment Data Discussed Here," Monmouth Democrat (Freehold, New Jersey), February 23, 1939, p. 1, reporting 22.7% African American CCC enrollment in a county with 9.4% African American population. Photo above from: Civilian Conservation Corps, District No. 4, Third Corps Area, 1933-1937 (Harrisburg, PA: The Military Service Publishing Co., 1937), used here for educational and non-commercial purposes.

Above: There's no shortage of modern articles and analyses criticizing, if not excoriating the CCC's treatment of African American enrollees. These critiques usually zero-in on the negatives, spend too-little time explaining the positives, and make too much use of anecdotal evidence (see, e.g., Amy McCullough, "Rethinking the CCC, Black Labor, and the History of Our Parks," The Trust for Public Land, February 2, 2025). But African Americans who lived through those times appreciated the job and training opportunities that the CCC (and the NYA, see below) offered. To fully understand the CCC, we must step out of our modern shoes and step into the shoes of the past. The article above is from The Pittsburgh Courier, April 4, 1942. Image from newspapers.com, used here for educational and non-commercial purposes.

Above: The description for this photograph--taken around 1940--reads: "Antionette Lee reading to the children at 28th St. School, Los Angeles, Calif., day nursery for caring for younger brothers and sisters of students of district schools, as part of her duties under the National Youth Administration Student Work Program." In fiscal year 1940, the NYA employed 64,000 African Americans through its in-school program, out of a total of 748,000 - about 8.5%. Photo from the National Archives.

Above: Two NYA men working in a machine shop, ca. 1940. In fiscal year 1940, the NYA employed 72,000 African Americans in its out-of-school work program, out of a total of 575,000 - about 12.5%. Photo from: Federal Security Agency, National Youth Administration, The Tenth Youth, Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1940.

Above: Many African American artists were hired into the WPA. Here we see Louisiana Small, working in the WPA's Federal Art Project in Washington, DC, ca. 1938. Between 1935 and 1943, the number of different African Americans receiving jobs in the WPA--on all types of projects--was probably around 1.2 million (see discussion at the end of this blog post). Photo from the National Archives.

Above: African American WPA workers transcribing legislative records in Baltimore City, ca. 1936. The WPA also located, inventoried, and preserved vital statistics records, all across the nation, which genealogists still use today. Photo from the University of Maryland College Park Archives.

Above: A man operates a roller at Bolling Field airport (now part of "Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling"), Washington, DC, November 1936. 1,000 WPA men, working with the U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps, carried out large-scale upgrades to the airfield ("W.P.A. Completing New Bolling Field," The Sunday Star (Washington, DC), August 16, 1936, p. B-4). Photo from the National Archives.

Above: These men are working on the new Chicago subway system, June 1940. The project was funded by the New Deal's Public Works Administration (PWA). The PWA's director, Harold Ickes, was adamant that African Americans receive a fair share of jobs created by PWA stimulus money: "[He] stipulated that all PWA contracts include a clause specifying that the number of blacks hired and their percentage of the project payroll be equal to the proportion of blacks in the 1930 occupational census. Although sometimes disregarded by local officials and contractors, it nevertheless resulted in unprecedented wages for many black laborers..." (Harvard Sitkoff, A New Deal for Blacks: The Emergence of Civil Rights as a National Issue: The Depression Decade, 30th Anniversary Edition, 2009, p. 50.). Photo from the National Archives.

Above: This table comes from the annual report of the Federal Works Agency, fiscal year 1942, p. 125. The total number of these jobs that were new jobs for African Americans--as a result of Harold Ickes' mandate for racial fairness--is probably impossible to know. For example, a private firm working on a PWA-funded construction job may already have had African Americans on its payroll. Still, the table is interesting because it indicates that a large number of jobs for African Americans were either created or maintained through PWA loans and grants: "The Public Works Administration (PWA) established quotas to ensure that black workers, and particularly skilled black workers, were hired in construction projects the agency funded. In 1936 [for example], blacks accounted for more than 30 percent of the PWA payroll and made up more than 15 percent of skilled workers in the program - a proportion greater than overall black representation among skilled workers. And black workers accounted for more than 20 percent of the PWA's semiskilled workers and nearly two-thirds of its unskilled employees" (Adolph Reed, Jr., "The New Deal Wasn’t Intrinsically Racist: How today’s focus on 'racial disparity' can distort our understanding of structural inequality," The New Republic, November 26, 2019).

Above: Sometimes people are against racial quotas, and sometimes for good reason; but there are times when racial discrimination is so explicit and systemic that action is needed. This newspaper excerpt, from the Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Virginia), September 10, 1938, highlights why the racial quotas established by Harold Ickes and the PWA were in many cases needed. Image from newspapers.com, used here for educational and non-commercial purposes.

Above: The Mary McLeod Bethune Memorial in Washington, DC. "Mary McLeod Bethune was the director of the National Youth Administration’s (NYA) Office of Negro Affairs, c. 1936-1943, and a founding member of the 'Black Cabinet,' a group that advised President Roosevelt on issues important to African Americans" ("Mary McLeod Bethune," Living New Deal, accessed December 15, 2025). "Past presidents had given only a handful of honorific posts to blacks; Roosevelt appointed over one hundred African Americans to administrative positions, most of them directly relating to the pressing problems of blacks" (Harvard Sitkoff, A New Deal for Blacks: The Emergence of Civil Rights as a National Issue: The Depression Decade, 30th Anniversary Edition, 2009, pp. 57-58). Photo by Brent McKee, 2018.

Jobs for African Americans

Trying to determine the total number of African Americans who received employment via the New Deal is difficult, because demographic record-keeping during those times was not a sophisticated or as thorough as modern record-keeping. With that in mind, let's see what we can do...

CCC:

We know that the CCC enrolled about 250,000 African Americans (see second photo and caption of this blog post), and we know this is a conservative estimate because the number is based on a May 1940 report, two years before the CCC ended. Of course, some men enrolled in the CCC more than once, but since the 250,000 figure does not include the final two years of the CCC it is probably a good (albeit rough) estimate of the total number of different African Americans who served in the Corps.

NYA:

The NYA employed about 300,000 different African Americans by the end of fiscal year 1940, for its in-school and out-of-school programs combined, out of a total of 2,580,000 total hires by that time (statistics here and here) - about 11.6%. 

Applying that 11.6% figure to the NYA's total employment of 4,811,000 (fiscal years 1936-1943, statistics here and here), we get a rough estimate of 558,000 different African Americans hired into the NYA. This is likely also a conservative estimate, because Whites had more success in securing private sector jobs during the early war years, which often increased the percentage of Blacks in the work-relief programs. In other words, the 11.6% figure probably increased during the last years of the NYA.

WPA:

The WPA probably employed more African Americans than any other single employer--either government or private sector--in the New Deal era. During the largest employment years of the WPA, 1935-1940, the percentage of African American workers was typically around 14% (the percentage increased significantly in the final years of the WPA). Altogether, 8.5 million different Americans worked in the WPA, so 14% would give us about 1,190,000 different African Americans employed by the WPA (admittedly a rough estimation, but read on).

(Note: In regard to the 14% figure, see, Federal Works Agency, Final Report on the WPA Program, 1935-43, Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1947, p. 45; Donald S. Howard, The WPA and Federal Relief Policy, New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1943, pp. 288-289; and Samuel Hammond, "No, the New Deal Wasn't Racist," American Compass, October 12, 2020.)  

There are indications that African Americans may have stayed in the WPA for longer periods of time--again, because Whites often had an easier time securing private sector jobs--which might lower the estimate, but since the percentage of African Americans in the WPA increased in the later years--ranging from 16-20%--perhaps that evens things out. Again, rough estimates are necessary since demographic record-keeping was not as thorough as it could have been.

Lastly, with respect to the 1,190,000 estimate--and its likely conservative nature--it was reported that about 500,000 different African Americans were employed in the WPA, at one time or another, in 1940 alone ("Lauds Co-Operation in Fight On Unemployment," The Chicago Defender, March 8, 1941, p. 8). 

Civil Service:

The New Deal also increased the number of African Americans in regular federal jobs (i.e., not temporary work-relief jobs): "In 1941 the civil service listed over one hundred and fifty thousand black federal employees. Less than fifty thousand had worked for the government when Hoover left office [in 1933]" (Harvard Sitkoff, A New Deal for Blacks: The Emergence of Civil Rights as a National Issue: The Depression Decade, 30th Anniversary Edition, 2009, p. 57).

Summary:

If we add up the CCC (250,000), NYA (558,000), WPA (1,190,000), and the increase in regular federal employment (100,000), we get 2,098,000 African Americans receiving employment from the New Deal. Keep in mind that this figure does not include the large programs of CWA and FERA (which, combined, created over 6 million jobs from 1933-1935); smaller programs, such as the Virgin Islands Company (a PWA-funded program that hired many African Americans); and African Americans that received employment as a direct result of PWA's racial fairness directives. These numbers are largely unknown (or at least, unclear) but would likely increase our estimate to 2.5 or perhaps even 3 million.

In examining the New Deal employment statistics for African Americans, the main complexity is: How many different African Americans received New Deal employment? For example, one can imagine a person receiving an NYA job in 1936, and then a WPA job in 1941. That's two New Deal jobs, but only one African American person. 

At a minimum though, given all the information, statistics, and conservative calculations discussed above, I think we can confidently say that the New Deal hired over two million different African Americans between 1933 and 1943.