Radio Rootz' This Day in History

• produced by Hana Georg
• in

Thousands of WWI veterans began pouring into Washington D.C demanding the bonuses they had been promised. By June, the number of veterans in DC reached between 20 and 40,000. When the veterans disregarded orders to leave D.C., Police and Military Troops armed with tanks, guns and teargas attacked their camps, leaving many injured and causing some deaths. The march inspired Congress to pass the G.I. Bill of Rights over ten years later in 1944, but the bonuses still weren’t accessible 1945, even though the Great Depression left many of the veterans unemployed and homeless.