The National Youth Administration (NYA) was created by an Executive order #7086 that was issued on June 26,1935. The order stated that the functions and duties of the the NYA were –

“To initiate and administer a program of approved projects which shall provide relief, work relief, and employment for persons between the ages of 16 and 25 years who are no longer in regular attendance at a school requiring full time, and who are not regularly engaged in remunerative employment”

After President Franklin D. Roosevelt since the act he said “I have determined that we shall do something for the Nation’s unemployed youth because we can ill afford to lose the skill and energy of these young men and women. They must have their chance in school, their turn as apprentices and their opportunity for jobs – a chance to work and earn for themselves. In recognition of this national need, I have established a National Youth Administration, to be under the Works Progress Administration”

The organization of the NYA was to include a representative group that would be appointed as a National Advisory Board and each state would have a similar advisory board that had representatives from industry, labor, education, and youth. The latter group was a new concept in government since this include youth to help advise where youth should work. The President finished his speech with “The yield on this investment should be high”, and when you add the combination of 8 years of CCC and 6 years of WPA that worked prior to the United States entrance into the World War II the skills and work ethic these youth obtain is evident in our success in that war.

From the beginning of the agency controversy between the NYA and the Office of Education (that was a part of the Interior Department) since the Office of Education conceived this new youth program was primarily educational in the formal sense of the word. But Executive Director of the NYA, Mr. Aubrey Williams who was also Deputy Works Progress Administration Administrator, stated is really had two major programs.

  • Out-of-school work program to provide jobs for unemployed youths who had left school – the objective was to employ needy youth not in school with an opportunity to earn a small wage but equip them with skills and work habits applicable to a wide variety of occupations.
  • A student work program to furnish part-time employment for youth attending school – the objective was to employ those those who stayed in school part-time jobs to to also equip them with skills but enable them to stay in school and complete their education.

In the original Executive order two committees were established policies of the program. The first committee consisted of departmental officials under the chairmanship of Miss Josephine Roche, Assistant Secretary of Treasury. The second committee chaired by Charles W. Taussig included 32 leaders of education, business, finance, labor, agriculture, church and welfare groups, and youth that was responsible for formulating the policies of the NYA for it’s operation. They created four major objectives:

  1. To provide funds for the part-time employment of needy school, college and graduate students between ages 16 to 25 so that they could continue their education.
  2. To provide funds for the part-time employment on work projects of young persons, chiefly from relief families, between 18 and 25 years of age. The projects being designed not only to provide valuable work experience but to benefit youth generally and the communities in which they live.
  3. To encourage the establishment of job training, counseling, and placement services for youth
  4. To encourage the development and extension of constructive leisure time activity.

The NYA was divided in national regions but was operated at the state level. Oklahoma’s appointed director was Houston A. Wright who was the administrative assistant to Oklahoma A&M (OSU) President Henry G. Bennett. Mr. Wright was to appoint a state advisory board and local advisory committees that would include six to eight public officials for each county and town. This board that was to be chaired by the governor would consists of representatives of various occupations and was responsible for exercising policies governing publicity, recruitment, assignment, transfer, and other NYA activities. The director was responsible for implementing projects throughout the state.

With earnings that ranged from 10 to 25 dollars a month, that would normally go to the family, since most were selected from relief rolls families, those who participated in the program acquired learning skills in some of the following skills:

  • road and building construction
  • woodworking
  • office work
  • nursing
  • furniture and auto repair
  • radio opearation
  • landscapting
  • blacksmithing
  • welding
  • agriculture
  • domestic sciences

Those who work the out-of-school program normally had regulate works hours of eight hours a day, forty hour weeks. The NYA offered self-improvement, health benefits, citizenship courses, and vocational guidance but also include social opportunities through community youth centers that featured athletics, hobby clubs, dramatics, games, music and dancing. In most cases the NYA would construct the building that they would then use for these activities.

The NYA later stated furnishing educational camps for unemployed women between ages 18 to 25 who were in need of personal and occupational guidance and would include housing and training for six to eight months. This 1-4 month training period was to include self-government , cooperative living, and studying the problems of women in industry, Four all women centers were located at Shawnee, Hobart, Altus, and Weatherford.

By 1938 camps for both boys and girls were converted to youth resident centers that also include dormitories for housing but was extended to six to eight months. These residents would receive $30 monthly stipend with $20 deducted to cover room and board. By 1940 Oklahoma had twenty resident centers throughout the state that included Bristow, Stillwater, Lawton, Tonkawa, Miami, Jay, Chickasha, and Wilburton. One camp was located and operated on the 101 Ranch near Ponca City where 50 boys raised livestock and replaced or remodeled ranch buildings that resulted in a dormitory, recreation center, barns, small slaughterhouse, wood and metal shops, foundry, blacksmith shop and auto repair shop.

Although the NYA was from the beginning not suppose to be segregated it was however was the most racially equalitarian of the New Deal programs. The Oklahoma Negro Advisory Board that was chaired by Langston University Pres. John W. Sanford coordinated training opportunities for black youth but only had one resident center located at Langston. Therefore not many African American Oklahomans were able to participate in the program.

Just like the CCC was moved to the Federal Security Agency in 1939, the NYA was also umbrellaed in that agency. By 1942 the state administrations were abolished and the NYA operated through its regional offices. With the fact that the NYA was restricted to not contribute to the war effort by 1943 if began to receive national and local criticism with then Governor Leon C. Phillips a very outspoken opponent to the New Deal, alleged that most of the convicts he interviewed for parole were former NYA trainees. All the opponents of the New Deal began to argued that NYA was expensive and valueless, fostering shiftlessness and trained no more that one-sixth of the jobless youth. After congressional debates during 1943 the NYA was abolished in July 3, 1943. So the total “shiftlessness of youth” that was training and really benefitted from the program amounted to 200 thousand Oklahoma youth with approximately $16.2 million dollars spent.

Sources

  1. “Origins and Functions of the Civilian Conservation Corps and the National Youth Administration.” Congressional Digest 21, no. 6/7 (June 1, 1942): 164–66.
  2. Tally D. Fugate, “National Youth Administration,” The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture