The Resettlement Administration (RA) was a New Deal U.S. federal agency created May 1, 1935. It relocated struggling urban and rural families to communities planned by the federal government. On September 1, 1937, it was succeeded by the Farm Security Administration.

History

The RA was the brainchild of Rexford G. Tugwell, an economics professor at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

who became an advisor to

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

during the latter's successful campaign for the presidency in 1932 and then held positions in the

United States Department of Agriculture The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, and food. It aims to meet the needs of com ...

. Roosevelt established the RA under

Executive Order In the United States, an executive order is a directive by the president of the United States that manages operations of the federal government. The legal or constitutional basis for executive orders has multiple sources. Article Two of t ...

7027, as one of the New Deal's " alphabet agencies", and Tugwell became its head. The divisions of the new organization included Rural Rehabilitation, Rural Resettlement, Land Utilization, and Suburban Resettlement. Roosevelt transferred the Federal Emergency Relief Administration land program to the Resettlement Administration under Executive Order 7028 on May 1, 1935. However, Tugwell's goal of moving 650,000 people from of agriculturally exhausted, worn-out land was unpopular among the majority in Congress.Farm Security Administration
/ref> This goal seemed socialistic to some and threatened to deprive influential farm owners of their tenant workforce. The RA was thus left with enough resources to relocate only a few thousand people from and build several greenbelt cities, which planners admired as models for a cooperative future that never arrived.

Relief camps for migrant workers

The main focus of the RA was to now build relief camps in California for migratory workers, especially refugees from the drought-struck

Dust Bowl The Dust Bowl was a period of severe dust storms that greatly damaged the ecology and agriculture of the American and Canadian prairies during the 1930s. The phenomenon was caused by a combination of both natural factors (severe drought) a ...

of the Southwest. This move was resisted by a large share of Californians, who did not want destitute migrants to settle in their midst. The RA managed to construct 95 camps that gave migrants unaccustomed clean quarters with running water and other amenities, but the 75,000 people who had the benefit of the camps were a small share of those in need and even they could stay only temporarily. Tugwell resigned in 1936, wanting to prevent a

red-baiting Red-baiting, also known as ''reductio ad Stalinum'' () and red-tagging (in the Philippines), is an intention to discredit the validity of a political opponent and the opponent's logical argument by accusing, denouncing, attacking, or persecuting ...

campaign against him from affecting the agency. On January 1, 1937,Records of the Farmers Home Administration
/ref> with hopes of making the RA more effective, the Resettlement Administration was transferred to the Department of Agriculture through executive order 7530. In the face of Congressional criticism, in September 1937 the Resettlement Administration was folded into a new body, the Farm Security Administration (FSA), which operated until 1946.

Communities and greenbelt cities

The RA worked with nearly 200 communities on its projects, notably including: *

Tillery, North Carolina Tillery is an unincorporated community in Halifax County, North Carolina, that was a plantation and is now home to a museum. Tillery was incorporated as a town in 1889. Franklin Roosevelt's Resettlement Administration instituted a New Deal era res ...

* Farmstead / Jasper, Alabama, this development, began by the WPA, included 40 homes, churches, a civic center, and a school. * Arthurdale, West Virginia, (first community begun by Subsistence Homesteads and pet project of

Eleanor Roosevelt Anna Eleanor Roosevelt () (October 11, 1884November 7, 1962) was an American political figure, diplomat, and activist. She was the first lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945, during her husband President Franklin D. Roosevelt's four ...

) * Cahaba Village in

Trussville, Alabama Trussville is a city in Jefferson and St. Clair counties in the State of Alabama. It is a suburb of Birmingham and part of the Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its population at the 2020 census was 26,123. Geography Trussv ...

(begun by the

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...

) * Palmerdale in Pinson, Alabama (parts built by the

) * Jersey Homesteads (begun by the Division of Subsistence Homesteads) * Cumberland Homesteads near Crossville, Tennessee (begun by the Division of Subsistence Homesteads) * Christian-Trigg Farms near Hopkinsville, Kentucky (built by the RA and Farm Security Administration) *

Greenbelt, Maryland Greenbelt is a city in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States, and a suburb of Washington, D.C. At the 2020 census, the population was 24,921. Greenbelt is the first and the largest of the three experimental and controversial New D ...

, completely planned and constructed by the RA outside

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

* Greendale, Wisconsin, another new town built by the RA, outside

Milwaukee, Wisconsin Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at th ...

Greenhills, Ohio Greenhills is a village in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States. The population was 3,615 at the 2010 census. A planned community, it was established by the United States government during the Great Depression. Most of the village is a National ...

, the third of the RA's new towns, built outside

Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wi ...

Hickory Ridge, Virginia Hickory Ridge is an extinct unincorporated town in Prince William County, Virginia. The town was located on land that is now part of Prince William Forest Park, a National Park Service property located adjacent to Marine Corps Base Quantico. The ...

(now

Prince William Forest Park Prince William Forest Park is protected forest in the U.S. state of Virginia within Prince William County (and very partially Stafford County), located adjacent to the Marine Corps Base Quantico near the town of Dumfries. Established as Chopaw ...

) *

Caney Lakes Recreation Area Caney may refer to: Places In the United States: * Caney, Kansas * Caney, Kentucky * Pippa Passes, Kentucky, known to its inhabitants as Caney or Caney Creek * Caney, Oklahoma, in Atoka County * Caney, Cherokee County, Oklahoma Caney is a censu ...

Webster Parish Webster Parish (French: ''Paroisse de Webster'') is a parish located in the northwestern section of the U.S. state of Louisiana. The seat of the parish is Minden. As of the 2010 census, the Webster Parish population was 41,207. In 2018, the p ...

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

* Greenbrook, New Jersey (planned by the RA but never built) *

Matanuska Valley Colony In 1935, the Federal Emergency Relief Administration created an experimental farming community known as the Matanuska Valley Colony as part of the New Deal resettlement plan. Situated in the Matanuska Valley, about 45 miles northeast of Anchorage, ...

, Alaska (near what is now

Palmer, Alaska Palmer (Ahtna: ''Nił'etse'it'aade'' or ''Nuutah''; Dena'ina: ''Denal'i Kena'') is a city in and the borough seat of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Alaska, United States, located northeast of Anchorage on the Glenn Highway in the Matanuska ...

) * Aksarben, Nebraska *

Mileston, Mississippi Mileston is an unincorporated community located in Holmes County, Mississippi. Mileston is located on U.S. Highway 49E and Highway 12,Weedpatch Camp (also known as the Arvin Federal Government Camp and the Sunset Labor Camp), now on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

, was built in 1936 south of Bakersfield, California — not by the Resettlement Administration but by the

. The camp inspired John Steinbeck's 1939 novel, ''

The Grapes of Wrath ''The Grapes of Wrath'' is an American realist novel written by John Steinbeck and published in 1939. The book won the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize for fiction, and it was cited prominently when Steinbeck was awarded the Nobel Priz ...

''.

Photography, film, and folk song projects

The RA also funded projects recording aspects of its work and context, including: * The Photography Project, which documented the rural poverty of the Great Depression and produced thousands of images that are now stored and available at the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library ...

, was headed up by Roy Stryker. * The Film Project, which produced two documentaries directed by Pare Lorentz and scored by

Virgil Thomson Virgil Thomson (November 25, 1896 – September 30, 1989) was an American composer and critic. He was instrumental in the development of the "American Sound" in classical music. He has been described as a modernist, a neoromantic, a neoclass ...

The Plow That Broke the Plains ''The Plow That Broke the Plains'' is a 1936 short documentary film that shows the cultivation of the Great Plains region of the United States and Canada following the Civil War and leading up to the Dust Bowl as a result of farmers' exploitati ...

and The River; *

Sidney Robertson Cowell Sidney Robertson Cowell (born Sidney William Hawkins; June 2, 1903 – February 23, 1995) was an American ethnomusicologist, collector of folk songs, and the wife of the composer Henry Cowell. Life and career She was born on June 2, 1903, ...

's recordings of folk songs, conducted during the summer of 1937, sponsored by the RA's Special Skills Division, and now stored at the University of Wisconsin.

References

;Citations ;Sources * Meriam; Lewis. ''Relief and Social Security'' The Brookings Institution. 1946 (analysis and statistical summary of all the New Deal relief programs)

External links

Wisconsin Folksong Collection, 1937-1946
Presented by th
University of Wisconsin Digital Collections Center
an
Mills Music Library Special Collections

Ohio History Central on Resettlement Administration

Oklahoma History on Resettlement Administration

of the Resettlement Administration, the Division of Subsistence Homesteads, and the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, from the

National New Deal Preservation Association National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, c ...