The New Deal and Education

1. The New Deal and Education The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

2. Frank Porter Graham • President of UNC-Chapel Hill and the Consolidated University of North Carolina (1930-1949) • Explained that the need for higher education was constant while the current economic troubles were only temporary • Formed close ties with the Roosevelt White House • “Budget making in a depression tests what we really believe in.”

3. The Civil Works Administration at UNC-Chapel Hill (1933-1934) • General landscaping projects • Renovation of tennis courts • Construction of sports complex – Fetzer Field • Quarter-mile track • 6000-person grandstand • Field house • Four soccer fields • “one of the finest [athletic facilities] in the Southeast”

4. The Public Works Administration at UNC-Chapel Hill (1935-1941) Projects Costs • New Buildings • Woollen Gym and Bowman Gray Pool • Alderman Residence Hall • Electric Power and Heating Plant • MacNider Medical Building • Dormitory H (Stacy) • Kenan Residence Hall • Lenoir Dining Hall • Wilson Hall (Zoology) • Dormitory K (Whitehead) • Dormitory L (Alexander) • McIver Residence Hall • Carolina Inn Apartments • Additions • Infirmary Annex • Carolina Inn • Renovations • Gerrard Hall • Alumni Building • Bynum Gymnasium • Caldwell Hall • PWA - $1,497,270 (43.1%) • State - $656,308 (18.9%) • Bonds - $1,153,009 (33.2%) • Gifts - $166,120 (4.8%) “Thirteen great buildings, risen as if at the rubbing of Aladdin’s lamp, together with handsome additions and extensive remodeling astonished the graduates of 1935 returning after 1941 … thanks a million, almost three million, to the New Deal, PWA, FDR, and FPG!” -Professor Archibald Henderson Woollen Gym

5. CCC relations with the locals Most citizens happy for the work done by the CCC Offered extra economic support Some CCC members married local girls Dances held by CCC Friendly competition in sports

6. CCC relations with the locals (cont’d) One citizen filed a lawsuit Distrust of foreign looking and sounding members Some people thought that work was being taken away from the locals Overall mixed feelings

7. Children in the Great Depression Physicians Few hospitals, each county had a county doctor Many physicians practiced “Egyptian Medicine” as opposed to “Scientific Medicine” Physicians were very close with patients X-Ray machine was introduced Transportation made easier by automobiles *1/10 babies were born dead or died within the first year *2/3 babies were born into families with low yearly incomes *Only 3 states exceeded North Carolina in infant mortality rates

8. Comparison of Pre and Post Depression Incomes of Southern Tenant Farmers and Landlords According to The Encyclopedia of American History, “To boost agricultural prices and, thus, farm incomes, the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA) paid landowners to take land out of production. Because landowners received the government's payments and because they controlled the local administration of the AAA, tenant farmers and sharecroppers received relatively little of this money and, worse, found themselves either out of work or transformed into wage laborers,” (“Southern Tenant Farmers Union”). The landlords began paying their tenants less and less and in some cases firing the tenants and keeping more money for themselves. The money given to the farms went mostly to the landlords and was not usually shared with the tenants.

9. Comparison of Pre and Post Depression Incomes of Southern Tenant Farmers and Landlords According to Donald Grubbs, “On one plantation called ‘a very representative cotton farm’ by researchers, the landlord’s gross income increased under the AAA from $51,554 in 1932 to $102,202 in 1934, while the average gross income of his tenants fell from $379 to $355,” (Grubbs 20). According to Donald Grubbs, “Through the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, Franklin Roosevelt gave Southern planters the means and the incentive to substitute machines and underemployed casual labor for their tenants,” (Grubbs xi). According to a study found in Farm Family Living Among White Owner and Tenant Operators in Wake County, in 1926, white owners made $2505 of gross cash income in Wake County, North Carolina. This study also shows that, in 1926 in Wake County, North Carolina, tenants made an average of $980 of gross cash income (“Farm Family Living..” 25).

10. Comparison of Pre and Post Depression Incomes of Southern Tenant Farmers and Landlords (con’t)

11. Works Cited Farm Family Living Among White Owner and Tenant Operators in Wake County. Bulletin No. 269. Raleigh: The Agricultural Experiment Station, 1929. Grubbs, Donald. Cry From the Cotton: the Southern Tenant Farmers' Union and the New Deal. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1971. "Southern Tenant Farmers Union." Encyclopedia of American History. Answers Corporation, 2006. Answers.com 04 Mar. 2009. http://www.answers.com/topic/southern-tenant- farmers-union Thorb, Leslie. "Interview with Leslie Thorbs, May 30, 2001. Interview K-0589. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)." Documenting the American South. 4 Mar 2009. University of North Carolina. 4 Mar 2009 <http://docsouth.unc.edu/sohp/K-0589/K- 0589.html>.

12. Gastonia Strike For better living conditions Radicals from North organize the workers Strikers evicted Mill police attack civilians Mill police attack tent village Chief of police killed Strikers, organizers tried for murder Strikers march-later attacked by police

13. Strikers Rally

14. Strike Leaders

15. Strike leaders speak

16. Cannon Mills • The Cannon Mills were not affected by the textile unions and strikers. • The Surrounding town of Kannapolis did not have substantial loss during the Great Depression. • The Community surrounding Cannon Mills was formed by the factory workers. Videos of Kannapolis in the 1930’s http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/maai3/community/text2/text2read.htm Works cited Remembering Kannapolis: Tales from the Towel City Helen Arthur-Cornett Federal Writers Project #3709 folder #350 Charlotte Tribune September 11, 1934.

17. A Brief History of the Blue Ridge Parkway Max Ammons

18. The Beginning of the Blue Ridge Parkway Due to improved auto technology and the good roads program auto tourism emerges In the late 1910’s an people begin thinking about a road to connect National Parks in the Appalachian Idea revisited in 1933 with the start of the New Deal

19. Construction Construction began in September 1935 in North Carolina and in February 1936 in Virginia CCC worked on road “beautification” WPA built the actual road Construction was completed in 1987

20. Controversy Took lands from Cherokee farms Split communities by building the highway through them Some believed that it would ruin their businesses

21. Aerial View of the Parkway

22. Changes done to the environment by the CCC The CCC drastically changed the landscape of the land and bought out its primitave beauty. By planting millions of trees, soil erosion was greatly reduced.

23. Wildlife Conservation The CCC brought back wildlife and created viewing areas and trails so that others may view nature’s splendor

24. John Christoph Blucher Ehringhaus North Carolina Governor 1933-1937

25. Consumer Confidence Probably the most effective tool used was not in the cards from the new deal:

26. Effects of the New Deal Even if the New Deal did not bring the country out of the depression, it affected us in numerous ways Legislation Employment Increased Consumer confidence Increased government spending

27. The most important effect that the New Deal had, was the increase in confidence in the government in our economy. This confidence alone may singlehandedly determine the success, or the failure, of the new stimulus bill produced by the legislative branch under President Obama

28. Ehringhaus Platform Balanced budget, no deficit Strict, sane economy No new departments Efficient government Sales tax opposition

29. Address to Legislators “Briefly, my proposals are these: 1. Preserve the credit of the State by balancing the budget, even at the cost of a sales tax, and make sure provision to keep it in balance or prevent an im-balance, by making all appropriations subject to budget cuts. 2. Preserve the school opportunity in economy by the provision of a lump sum, with a board to administer it, as hereinbefore pointed out. 3. Preserve the homes of our citizens from the foreclosures which present ad valorem taxes threaten and reduce the tax load which now weighs heavily upon them by abolishing special levies for support of extended term. 4. Preserve the highways and our great investment therein from the waste and losses which inadequate maintenance provision would certainly entail.”

30. Ehringhaus and the New Deal Limited the effects of the New Deal Supported FDR, but not programs that disrupted fiscal conservatism Main goal was a balanced budget Relief aid interfered with his balanced budget because Federal government required the State to match their funds Delayed aid until Washington relented on matching requirement

31. Art in the New Deal

32. Art Programs Run by the Works Progress Administration Started the Federal Art Project Government provided 5,000 jobs resulting in 225,000 works of art Works of art mostly consisted of murals painted with oil on canvas medium Paintings are shown on the next few slides

33. “Harvesting Tobacco” Whiteville, NC Post office mural

34. “Tobacco” Reidsville, NC Post office painting that is now in the city hall Oil on Canvas

35. “North Carolina Cotton Industry” Mooresville, NC Post office painting Oil on Canvas

36. The End