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20 The NYA had its critics. They charged that the program undermined the
initiative and self-reliance of the nation’s youth. Segregationists objected
because black youths were included in NYA projects. Despite this opposition,
the NYA became one of the most popular of all federal government

programs. A teenager from Pittsburgh who had been hired by the program
wrote: “Words cannot express my gratitude to our president, who had made
this [employment] possible for me and thousands of others.”

21 Years later, people who had grown up during the worst times of the Great
Depression looked back with a certain pride. They had missed out on some

of the carefree years that are the special gift of youth, but they had gained,
they felt, a sense of heightened self-confidence and an understanding of the
needs of others. Hard times had propelled them into the adult world much

sooner than they might have wished, yet they had discovered within
themselves strengths and skills that would last throughout their lives.
22 “It was an enormously hard life,” author Margot Hentoff recalled. “But there
was also a sense of great satisfaction in being a child with valuable work to do
and being able to do it well, [able] to function in this world.”

Student assistants at the Greenwood Negro Library, A young boy packing shingles at a
Leflore County, Mississippi, May 1936. NYA work Jefferson, Texas, lumber mill
grants helped students like these stay in school.

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