 Sustained civil rights activism took place in the 1930s and 1940s, often led by Baptists minister Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., who was elected to the United States Congress in 1942.Unemployment was a major problem in the Depression years, but New Deal relief agencies such as the Civilian Conservation Corps and Works Progress Administration provided considerable employment on an equal basis.Much of the organize protest was a demand for jobs and stores owned and operated by whites in Harlem.