Coxey's Army

A colorful study of the nineteenth century march on Washington, the man who led it, and the national sensation that prefigured the New Deal. In 1893, America was suffering a serious economic depression. Fed up with government inactivity, Populist agitator Jacob S. Coxey led hundreds of unemployed laborers on a march from Massillon, Ohio, to Washington, D.C. Their intention was to present a “petition in boots” for government-financed jobs building and repairing the nation’s roads. On May 1, the C