The Panic of 1893 led to an unemployment rate as high as 25% in some U.S. cities. By early 1894, independent “armies” of jobless protestors are being organized across the country to march to D.C. and demand that the government provide public works jobs. On this day in 1894, 100 men — popularly known as “Coxey’s Army,” after Jacob Coxey, businessman and populist politician — begin their march in Massillon, Ohio. Their numbers grow to over 500 by May 1, when they join thousands more in D.C. The next day, Coxey and others give speeches from the Capitol steps. He and two other organizers are jailed for walking across the Capitol grass. Public works jobs do not become federal policy until 40 years later, during the Great Depression