The Youth of the Nation: Lyndon Johnson and the National Youth Administration

The Youth of the Nation: Lyndon Johnson and the National Youth Administration
By: Cheryl Boswell
HIST: 4133.01
Dr. Landdeck

The Texas National Youth Administration (NYA) was remarkably unique for various reasons. Its success was attributed to the leadership of the state’s young director, twenty-seven year-old Lyndon Johnson. Despite reservations, for example Johnson’s young age compared to the other state directors, from many New Dealers and even President Franklin Roosevelt, Johnson able to gain attention and notice among the public and even set an example for other states to follow. What will be the focus is what Johnson’s goals were as director for the Texas NYA. What will be the focus of discussion will include Johnson’s goals and what happened to the Texas NYA after Johnson left. Johnson’s primary goal, as could be expected, was to provide jobs for unemployed youths so they could continue their educations. To do this, he sought to find as much funding as possible for the Texas NYA. He strove to find and create as many projects as possible to employ as many young people as possible. To help make the NYA successful, LBJ relied upon newspapers to spread the word of NYA projects, relief and their successes to the Texas public. He worked to make innovative ideas the most successful they could be. Most of all, he wanted to put as many youths as possible to work so that they could continue their educations.
To begin, a background of how the National Youth Administration was established will be given and why it was thought to be created. In the midst of the Great Depression, not only were there millions unemployed in America, but the youth of the nation were as well. Youths, defined as being between sixteen and twenty-five years, made up one-third of unemployed people in America. President Roosevelt recognized this as a problem, and therefore attempted to help solve this dilemma. FDR established the National Recovery Act in 1933 to help alleviate this

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