Murray State University history professor Dr. Duane Bolin joins Todd Hatton on Sounds Good to talk about the historical significance of the WPA (Works Progress Administration) on our region; and the Murray State all-day Symposium Friday that features a holistic, interdepartmental approach to the WPA Federal Arts Project, coinciding with the WPA art, photo, and other exhibits across campus this month.
The WPA was one of the programs President Franklin Delano Roosevelt used to try to help America out of the Great Depression through building and infrastructure projects. There were several relief organizations that FDR and New Deal Administration tried leading up to WPA, beginning with The Federal Emergency Relief Act 1933. Then there was the "alphabet soup" of the Civil Works Administration (CWA), the Public Works Administration (PWA), the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), etc.
Bolin says the WPA was largest works program and also probably the most criticized of FDR’s programs. Some critics said WPA didn’t stand for works progress administration, but “we piddle around.” But, he also says that if you look at the results of the building, artwork, plays, music, books – there’s no doubt that much work was completed in Kentucky and in Murray.
Where the WPA was perhaps one of the most criticized of the programs of the New Deal, Bolin says that the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) was probably the most popular of the programs. It was set aside for young men, ages 18 – 25. They were paid $1 a day, clothed in khaki uniforms, housed in barracks, and served three square meals a day – like in the military. They took part in various tree planting projects. In fact, Bolin says that if you go down old back rounds and highways, and find mature stands of pine trees, in all likelihood, those were planted by CCC. We had a CCC camp in Murray, he says.
The old Cutchin football stadium at Murray State, where the soccer fields are now, was a WPA project. Other WPA projects include Olive Blvd. (called College Blvd. at time) at the Old Fine Arts building – originally a utilitarian square building, with a new façade added at a later date. The WPA produced the concrete blocks for the building right here on campus.
In the City of Murray, they also worked on 9th street, and various other macadam streets – roads of crushed gravel that was compacted – bridgeworks, and sewer projects.
Dr. Bolin’s talk tomorrow at 10 a.m. is on “The Human Side” of the New Deal. When he was doing research for his dissertation at UK on the WPA, he found that when a Lexington resident was asked (before the WPA came to Lexington) what the most significant part of the New Deal for the city was –they said “the sewer project.” Much criticism of The New Deal was that it was just concerned with buildings or projects. But when the WPA came along, there was a more “human side.”
One of the parts of the WPA was the Federal Art Project – the focus of the Symposium Friday at Murray State.
Many national parks still have posters from the project. The Federal Writers Project helped record slave narratives. The Federal Theater project helped the career of Orson Welles and other playwrights. The Federal Artist project helped so many people from leaving the state. If it hadn’t been for the WPA and Federal Art Project, Theater Project and Writers Project, many thousands more would have left.
You can learn more about the WPA Federal Arts Project and its effects Friday at the Symposium on the 6th floor of Murray State's Fine Arts Building.
