With his skill for creating publicity, Coxey was able to attract attention from the newspapers. Though affluent himself, Coxey became determined to make a statement about the plight of the unemployed. Coxey's own business was affected in the downturn, and he was forced to lay off 40 of his own workers. When the Panic of 1893 devastated the American economy, vast numbers of Americans were put out of work. Coxey frequently advocated public works projects that would hire unemployed workers, an eccentric idea in the late 1800s that later became accepted economic policy in Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal. He moved to Massillon, Ohio in 1881 and started a quarry business which was so successful that he could finance a second career in politics.Ĭoxey had joined the Greenback Party, an upstart American political party advocating economic reforms. Born in Pennsylvania on April 16 1854, he worked in the iron business in his youth, starting his own company when he was 24. In the early decades of the 20th century some of his economic ideas began to be widely accepted.
In a sense, Coxey would gain some satisfaction years later. Yet the outpouring of support for the unemployed created a lasting impact on public opinion and future protest movements would take inspiration from Coxey's example. Congress in the 1890s was not receptive to Coxey's vision of government intervention in the economy and the creation of a social safety net. When the police blocked the march, Coxey and others climbed a fence and were arrested for trespassing on the Capitol lawn.Ĭoxey's Army did not achieve any of the legislative goals Coxey had advocated. About 10,000 spectators and supporters watched them march to the Capitol building on May 1, 1894. The amount of publicity generated by Coxey and his hundreds of followers showed that innovative protest movements could influence public opinion.Ībout 400 men who finished the march reached Washington after walking for five weeks. And many readers across America took an interest in the spectacle. Yet newspaper mentions of hundreds or even thousands of local residents welcoming marchers as they camped near their towns indicated widespread public support for the protest. Some of the coverage was negative, with the marchers sometimes described as "vagrants" or a "hobo army." Newspaper reporters began tagging along on stretches of the march as it passed through Pennsylvania and Maryland. Dispatches sent by telegraph appeared in newspapers across America. The march garnered a large amount of press coverage. Capitol to confront Congress, demanding legislation that would create jobs. His "army" of unemployed workers would march to the U.S. Coxey as a response to the severe economic hardship caused by the Panic of 1893.Ĭoxey planned for the march to leave his hometown of Massillon, Ohio on Easter Sunday 1894. Coxey's Army was an 1894 protest march to Washington, D.C.
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