In May 1932, Walter W. Waters, a World War I veteran, led a group of his fellow veterans to Washington, DC, to demand immediate payment of bonuses which were not due to be paid to the soldiers until 1945. This group was dubbed the Bonus Expeditionary…

Hillel Kook was a Jewish activist and member of the Revisionist Zionist movement who was also known by the alias Peter Bergson. He lived in the United States during World War II and led the Emergency Committee to Save the Jewish People of Europe. In…

Diane Carlson Evans is a Vietnam veteran who was the driving force behind the creation of the Vietnam Women's Memorial. Motivated to include the voices of approximately 265,000 military women of the Vietnam era whose experiences were overlooked or…

Abernathy was a civil rights activist and close advisor to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Abernathy helped to organize the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. After King's assassination, Abernathy led the 1968 Poor People's Campaign in…

Civil rights leader and labor organizer A. Philip Randolph built coalitions of African Americans who pressured presidents, Congress, and local governments to end racial discrimination. In 1941, he organized a proposed march on Washington by African…

John Lewis was a civil rights activist who helped plan the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963. At age 23, Lewis was the youngest speaker at the March. His strongly-worded speech criticized lawmakers and the President for not doing…

Carl Browne helped Jacob S. Coxey lead the first march on Washington. In the spring of 1894, Coxey and Browne set out from Massillon, Ohio, and marched to Washington, DC, with a few hundred unemployed people. Together they advocated for a public jobs…

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a minister and African American civil rights leader. On August 18, 1963, he delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. A plaque…

Jacob Coxey led the first march on Washington in the spring of 1894. Starting in Massillon, Ohio, Coxey marched to the Capitol to bring attention to the plight of unemployed Americans. Coxey proposed that the federal government subsidize a labor…

Activist and leader of the National Woman's Party, Alice Paul organized the Woman Suffrage Parade on Pennsylvania Avenue the day before Woodrow Wilson's inauguration in March, 1913. Four years later, Paul led a demonstration in front of the White…