250 to 250:113. Coxey’s Army, Narrated by Maggie Bohara

Happy Constitution and Citizenship Week! 

(updated in process)

Heather Cox Richardson and 250 to 250: Coxey’s Army, Narrated by Maggie Bohara

Maggie Bohara is a writer and activist known for being the co-founder and director of the We Are America March (WAAM), a nonpartisan, volunteer-powered, and millennial-led, grassroots movement that organizes 160-mile walks to advocate for democracy and civil rights. Bohara tells how Jacob Coxey's 1894 march of unemployed workers to Washington foreshadowed the New Deal's public works programs.

In 1893, the U.S. economy became very bad.

• Many people lost their jobs.

Jacob Coxey wanted the government to create jobs.

• In 1894, Coxey and unemployed workers marched from Ohio to Washington, D.C.
• More people joined the march.
• The group was called Coxey’s Army.
• They asked the government for work, not charity.
• They arrived in Washington on May 1, 1894.
• Coxey was arrested.
• The march brought attention to unemployment.
• Years later, the New Deal created government jobs during the Great Depression.

POP Interview and Civics Quiz: 

• N-400 Part 7:01: List where and when you have worked or attended school full- time or part- time during the last 5 years.  If you were unemployed, on what dates were you unemployed?
• USCIS 100:06. One is one right or freedom from the First Amendment?
• USCIS 128:06. What does the Bill of Rights protect?
• Read: Name on right in the Bill of Rights.
• Write: Freedom of speech is in the Bill of Rights

Family Fun:

• ATI: The First March On Washington Was An 1894 Protest By The Unemployed Called Coxey’s Army
• Coxey's Army: The March
• HMDB: Coxey's Army
• Histories of the National Mall: Coxey's Army
• House: Coxey at the Capitol
• LOC: Populism and Coxey’s Army: A Nineteenth-Century March on Washington
• Massillon Museum: Coxey's Army (documentry)
• NPS: Members of Coxey’s Army pose for a photograph at Devil’s Den (May 1894)
• NewseumEd: 1894: Coxey's Army Tests Limits on Protest
• Oregon Encyclopedia: Coxey's Army
• PBS Learning Media: Coxey’s Army Marches on Washington
• Smithsonian: How a Ragtag Band of Reformers Organized the First Protest March on Washington, D.C.
• TSHA:  Coxey's Army: The 1894 March for Jobs and Legal-Tender Currency
• TheClio: Coxey's Army at Brightwood Riding Park
• ThoughtCo: Coxey's Army: 1894 March of Unemployed Workers
• uscitizenpod: Coxey's Army coloring page
• WyoHistory: The Wyoming March of Coxey’s Army