The Establishment of the Tennessee Valley

Authority
By Elton Camp

Franklin Roosevelt was president of the United States. The New Deal was in full
sway. The Tennessee River, were it passed through North Alabama, had a long history
of regular, devastating floods. Crops and even houses were swept away. The situation
added to the grinding poverty during the Great Depression. Some thought the entire
Tennessee Valley, covering parts of seven States, was beyond saving. Its poverty,
including many people living in hovels and near starvation, was a serious embarrassment
to the nation.

Roosevelt had a plan. During his famous first hundred days in office, he signed,
on May 18, 1933, the act that established the Tennessee Valley Authority, commonly
known as TVA. Some deplored it on political grounds as an example of socialism.
Others welcomed the jobs it created, and still others were motivated in their approval by a
genuine desire to help needy Americans who were unable to help themselves.

Flood control wasn’t the sole issue. The river needed to be made more navigable
and there was dire need of additional, inexpensive electricity.

Most people in the towns had electricity, but very few in the rural areas. Private
power companies argued that it was too expensive to string lines in the country,
especially for people who were too poor to afford electricity. The drive to provide rural
electricity was based on the belief that it would both improve the standard of living and
make the family farm better able to compete. If private power companies wouldn’t
provide the service, Roosevelt felt it was the duty of the Federal government to do it.

Central to the mission of the TVA was the erection of a series of dams. The
mammoth projects required small armies of workers. A fundamental requirement was
provision of a school to handle the flood of new residents. To that end, huge amounts of
money were poured into the establishment of such schools. Far superior to anything else
in the areas, they provided cutting edge in facilities and equipment and somewhat
experimental in its teaching methods.

Authorities sought the best teachers available to staff the new institutions. They
must be open to new ideas. My mother, a young elementary school teacher with the
necessary normal school diploma and two years of solid accomplishment on her resume
was among those employed at what was locally termed “the dam school” and located at
Hebron in Marshall County. A sister school of a similar type was located in the Shoals
in the midst of the village constructed for workers on Wilson Dam, not originally part of
the TVA.
 Prominent people sometimes inspected the school, as well as teachers from other
institutions who came to observe the innovative teaching methods being employed.

On one such occasion, among the visitors was a very fat woman. A series of
activities that day were conducted outside. The large lady started to sit on the school’s
concrete steps to watch.

“Just a minute,” the principal said. “I wouldn’t want you to get your dress dirty.”

He half unfolded a newspaper, placed it on the steps, hesitated, made an

appraising stare at the woman’s broad posterior, picked it up, and opened it fully before
he again laid it down.

His look and action didn’t escape her notice. The woman jerked up the paper,
folded it smaller, and angrily seated herself. The administrator went on to make even
worse blunders.

“When the dam’s finished,” the principal proclaimed in a faculty meeting, “a

great wall of water’s gonna rush behind it and fill the lake within a few hours.”

His facial expression and animated delivery showed his excitement at the prospect
of witnessing the virtual tidal wave. The enormous lake, largest of all the TVA
impoundments, actually took many months to complete its gradual fill. His lack of
scientific knowledge brought grins from the faculty who knew better.