CCC: The current issue of the Civilian Conservation Corps Legacy Journal has an article about the Sugar Run Civilian Conservation Corps camp that was established in the Allegheny National Forest in April 1933.

The camp housed 200 black men, mostly from the cities of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Initially, they lived in tents and had no electricity. 

The CCC was one of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal programs that gave jobs to more than 2 million young, unmarried men between 1933 and 1942. They worked on conservation projects on the national forests and other government-owned land in exchange for food, lodging and a small monthly salary.  

The article, written by Denise Seagren-Peterson, said there were some concerns in Bradford, 16 miles away, about the camp being in proximity to the predominantly white city.  

The CCC men, the article said, “managed to work through this prejudice by putting their free time to use with the creation of the ‘Military Black Birds.’ The Black Birds consisted of 50 men from the camp who performed skits, musical and minstrel acts. The men had their own band and gave two performances to the local community.” 

The article cited a Bradford Era story about a performance as “being one of the funniest shows seen in a long time” and referred to the men as being “clever entertainers.”

Despite some suspicions, the town and camp ultimately got along, the article said, with Bradford taking up collections of “magazines, books, volleyballs, softballs, bats and horseshoes” for the men in the camp. Churches “invited the men to their services” and local ministers also went to the camp to offer sermons.

The men in the CCC camp were possibly more in danger from some of the local populace than vice-versa. The article said Bradford bootleggers would park along the road and attempt to sell alcohol — which was not allowed in the CCC camps — to the corpsmen. 

“During one reporter’s visit to the camp,” the article said, “an enrollee asked if he could do the camp a favor. He wanted to know if something could be done about people selling the men alcohol.”

Several months later, police apprehended two Bradford bootleggers near the camp, the article said, and “confiscated 31 pints, 2 quarts and 5 half pints of what was believed to be cut alcohol.” 

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