MG-363. WILLIAM K. SOWERS COLLECTION, 1917-1957.
William K. Sowers was a native of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania who graduated from the Pennsylvania State College in 1926 and served four years as an Infantry Reserve Officer in the Civilian Conservation Corps. This collection contains information on the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Camps and includes official files, 1935-40; a scrapbook, 1933-35; newspaper clippings, 1936; and issues of Happy Days, the authorized weekly newspaper of the Civilian Conservation Corps, November 16, 1935-May 9, 1936, and December 4, 1937. At the beginning of the Civilian Conservation Corps scrapbook are three articles referring to the CCC boxing championship tourney in Carlisle Barracks’ gymnasium. Participating in this tournament was Camp MP-2, an African American CCC camp. An article in the February 1, 1936 issue of Happy Days states that a CCC Camp located in Mineral, Virginia and known as Company 2359 was built on an abandoned "Negro Graveyard." See also the Ivan L. Carter Collection (MG-329) for similar photographs of CCC Camps depicting African Americans who lived in many of the 125 CCC camps, such as a depiction of Elliot Camp MP 2 (Colored) at the boxing tourney at Carlisle Barracks in 1933.