AFRICAN AMERICAN ACHIEVEMENTHistory for every day—and beyond.
January 20, 1935 · Conservation, Public Works & New Deal Labor

Black CCC Workers Established Camp Mount Hamilton

Company 1360 built a working community at the National Arboretum while Black enrollees navigated a relief program that promised nondiscrimination but practiced segregation.

View the evidence

Then

The Depression struck Black workers especially hard while discrimination restricted access to public relief.

Now

CCC landscapes still hold evidence of labor too often missing from familiar conservation stories.

Next

Public investment should create fair employment while preserving the names and work of every crew.

A date in African American achievement

Conservation Work Created Jobs and Public Value

On January 20, 1935, construction was completed at Camp Mount Hamilton on the grounds of the United States National Arboretum in Washington, D.C. The camp housed Company 1360 of the Civilian Conservation Corps and was the first CCC camp for African American enrollees in the National Capital Parks area.

The Great Depression produced mass unemployment, with Black communities suffering joblessness at especially high rates. The CCC, created in 1933, offered young men food, housing, training, and paid conservation work. Enrollees generally earned thirty dollars a month, most of which was sent home to support their families. Although the law prohibited racial discrimination, administration of the program increasingly separated Black and white workers.

Company 1360 included enrollees from the District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. One hundred ninety-seven men arrived at the Arboretum site on November 1, 1934. Key buildings were ready, but the camp complex remained unfinished. By January 20, its construction was complete, creating the base from which the company could live, train, and work.

The camp stood near Mount Hamilton and supported public-land projects in the capital region. CCC labor nationwide planted trees, fought erosion and wildfire, developed recreation areas, built roads and trails, and improved parks. The program gave participants practical skills and wages during economic crisis, while their work produced infrastructure used by later generations.

Opportunity existed alongside inequity. Black companies were commonly commanded by white officers, and federal administrators accommodated demands for segregation even though exclusion contradicted the program’s stated rule. By 1935, CCC leadership ordered more complete separation. Black enrollment was later restricted as communities resisted the placement of Black camps. The achievement of Company 1360 must therefore be understood within a system that needed its labor but limited its members’ authority and access.

The company’s visibility also challenged erasure. In 1937, Black enrollees from the National Arboretum were selected to march in President Franklin Roosevelt’s inaugural parade. Historical and archaeological studies now identify traces of Camp Mount Hamilton and document its importance. Those records help attach Black workers to a landscape whose development might otherwise appear anonymous.

January 20 honors collective labor in conservation and public works. Company 1360’s members built a camp, supported their families, learned skills, and contributed to shared public space during national emergency. Remembering them requires holding both parts of the history together: the real opportunity the CCC provided and the discrimination Black enrollees had to overcome while creating lasting value for the country.

COMPANY

One hundred ninety-seven men arrived

Company 1360 drew Black enrollees from Washington and three surrounding states.

WORK

Public investment built public space

CCC labor joined employment relief to conservation, construction, and practical training.

CONTEXT

Nondiscrimination met segregation

Black enrollees created lasting value inside a program that restricted equal participation.

Then → Now → Next

A public landscape should remember the workers whose hands shaped it.

Employ

Public investment can answer economic crisis through useful, dignified work.

Credit

Preserve crew names and labor records alongside finished landscapes.

Include

Opportunity is incomplete when participation remains segregated or unequal.

Evidence ledger

Sources & verification

Precise wording: January 20 marks completion of camp construction, not the company’s arrival. Historic American Buildings Survey research identifies Camp Mount Hamilton as the first African American CCC camp in the National Capital Parks area.
  1. Library of Congress — CCC Activities in the National Capital Region: Company 1360, enrollee origins, arrival, exact completion date, and camp significance.
  2. United States National Arboretum — Cultural Resources Report: Camp Mount Hamilton’s location, African American enrollment, and surviving archaeological context.
  3. National Park Service — Segregation in the Civilian Conservation Corps: unemployment, pay, nondiscrimination language, Black enrollment, and segregation policy.
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