United States. Works Projects Administration (Ala.)

Sources:

Leuchtenburg, William E. Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal, 1932-1940. New York: Harper Colophon Books, 1963.

Martin, Michael and Gelber, Leonard. Dictionary of American History. Totowa, NJ: Littlefield, Adams and Co., 1972.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was established by executive order on 1935 May 6 under the Emergency Relief Appropriations Act of 1935. Its function was to fund work relief projects for employable white- and blue-collar workers. In addition to funding construction projects, the WPA also funded health and sanitation projects, education programs, artistic projects, and historic projects. At its height, it employed roughly a third of the unemployed in the United States.

In 1937 its name was changed to the Works Projects Administration. On 1942 Dec. 4 the WPA was abolished and its work was taken over by the Federal Works Agency.