The National Youth Administration in Texas, 1935-1943 : a case study

Abstract

On June 26, 1935, Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 7086, establishing the National Youth Administration (NYA). The NYA was a response to mounting pressures to provide more aid than efforts by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) offered to millions of unemployed youths of America. A month later the NYA program for Texas was launched with the appointment of Lyndon B. Johnson-- a program that would not only provide relief but also promote social justice. This dissertation will examine the operation of the NYA as both a relief and reform agency. The problems of youth in the depression are explored to understand the need for a solution in the form of the NYA. The study proceeds to analyze the underlying goals which would guide the NYA over the next eight years. With reform-oriented New Dealers such as Aubrey Williams and Eleanor Roosevelt setting the objectives, the aims of the NYA went beyond providing relief for food, shelter, and clothing. They had aspirations to use the youth program as an agent of social reform to provide educational and economic opportunities to needy youths, so they could rise in the socio-economic system of America. The NYA in Texas is used as a case study, showing how national policies geared for relief and reform were actually administered. Closely adhering to guidelines from Washington, Johnson and his intensely loyal and hardworking staff developed projects that would offer educational opportunities through the student aid program and freshman college centers and provide opportunities for economic advancement through training in the out-of-school work program as well as dispersing aid to ease economic distress at home. The nondiscriminatory policy established by Williams at the agency's inception and its careful monitoring by Mary McLeod Bethune insured that minority groups in Texas would also benefit from NYA efforts to promote social justice.