The Works Progress Administration: Saul Bellow And Zora Neale Hurston

The Works Progress Administration, known also as the (WPA) was established on April 8, 1935. The WPA was an agency that created programs to put the jobless to work building any extra things that still needed to be built. The people received an average salary of $41.57 a month. The Works Progress Administration hired 8.5 million people on 1.4 million work projects. The WPA also hired artists and actors! Artists painted murals, the theatre put on performances for all ages, children and adults, as well as plays by Shakespeare. Writers gathered information of American life, traditions, etc. Writers had conferences with African Americans who had undergone slavery. The stories were called ‘Slave Narratives” , they were used to learn about slave
Many writers became famous such as Saul Bellow and Zora Neale Hurston. The Writers' Project recorded the stories of over 10,000 men and women from different regions, jobs, races, and even former slaves giving us a better idea of what it was like during those times. Harry Hopkins, an enthusiastic ex social worker quoted, “Give a man a dole, and you save his body and destroy his spirit.” What he is trying to say is, “Give a man a job and an assured wage and you save both his body and the spirit”. The WPA spent over 11 million in employment relief; the work reliefs were more expensive then direct payments. In 1943, this act was suspended by congress due to it being irrelevant as FD Roosevelt started making other programs that overpowered what the Works Progress Administration
The PWA promoted improvement by hiring workers for work projects. PWA workers built some important things such as the Grand Coulee Dam in Washington, and the Triborough Bridge in New York. They also built state capitals, highways, bay bridges, city halls, airports, thousands of roads, and sewage disposal plants. These are all very important because people use all of these today for either education, to keep the earth clean, and for transportation. The PWA budgeted billions of dollars to be spent on public works meant to improve public welfare, provide employment, stabilize power, and improvment of industry. The PWA was designed to spend “big bucks” on “big projects”. The Public Works Administration spent over $6