![]() ![]() ![]() President Hoover later claimed “the march was largely organized and promoted by the Communists, and included a large number of hoodlums and ex-convicts bent on raising a public disturbance.” Using scrap wood and other salvaged materials, the protesters constructed a vast field of shacks in view of the Capitol dome, prepared for a siege of Congress.ġ966 portrait of Congressman Wright Patman by artist Victor Lallier.Ĭollection of the U.S. But the camps attracted an undesirable element as well. The largest camp was a shantytown on the Anacostia Flats, across the river from Washington’s Navy Yard.īy summer, at least 20,000 people had joined the camps, with some estimates putting the total number above 40,000. Walters, the veterans set up camps and occupied buildings in various locations in Washington, DC. Suffering and desperate, the BEF’s goal was to get the bonus payment now, when they really needed the money. In May 1932, jobless WWI veterans organized a group called the “Bonus Expeditionary Forces” (BEF) to march on Washington, DC. ![]()
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