Do freedom of assembly and petition apply when Jacob Coxey leads an “army” of unemployed men to the U.S. Capitol to protest economic policies? This educational module includes debate positions and discussion questions.

Free speech protections found in state constitutions could offer broader rights to protesters than the First Amendment.

In the spring of 1894, newspapers across Wyoming filled with stories of jobless men headed east along the railroads. Coxey’s Army, they were called, named for their leader. Many were hungry but in their minds, at least, they were bound for the center of the nation’s power. Their movement became the first political march on Washington.

In 2021, it’s 1894 all over again.

In the late 19th century, an era of robber barons and labor struggles, workers generally had no safety net when economic conditions caused widespread unemployment. As a way of drawing attention to the need of the federal government to become more involved in economic policy, a large protest march traveled hundreds of miles.

The first March on Washington was a madcap affair, but in May of 1894, some 10,000 citizens descended on D.C., asking for a jobs bill

Chaltain ties the Occupy DC protest of 2011 to the Coxey’s Army March of 1894. Notable is the mention of the Capital Grounds Act, a measure used to silence political speech in Washington D.C. They go on to mention that the Coxey March ultimately helped to transform the perception of DC into a place where it is fitting for the people to take their concerns and to seek redress. A far cry from spending 20 days in jail for trespassing.

Bringing your grievances to Washington in the form of a mass protest is an American tradition that dates back to the late 19th century. Here are five memorable Washington protests.

POLITICIANS and journalists feared and mocked them. The police boosted their ranks by 200 to control them. Their leaders were hustled off to jail, on a charge that, 116 years later, seems not only anti-American but preposterous: unlawfully stepping on the grass outside the United States Capitol.

General Jacob S. Coxey, organizer of the first army of the unemployed, blamed the business depression on Congress as he visited Pittsburgh today. “It isn’t because the members of Congress are crooked,” he said. “It’s because they’re dumb. They don’t know what it’s all about.” Coxey explained that he was en route to Washington for another attempt to get his bill for the alleviation of unemployment and business inertia before Congress.

The Nation, in this 1913 article, gives Jacob Coxey credit for the initiative and referendum; veterans pensions; the direct election of the President, Vice President and US Senators; and even the phrase “we demand.”