Radiotopia.

From PRX.

From PRX is Radiotopia.

This is Radio Diaries.

I'm Joe Richmond.

Author James Baldwin once wrote,

I love America more than any other country in the world,

and exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.

Criticism and dissent are patriotic. Protest is part of the world. I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.

Criticism and dissent are patriotic.

Protest is part of America's DNA.

But the test of any real democracy is how the government responds.

In 1932, a sprawling tent city sprung up in the nation's capital.

World War I veterans had descended on Washington,

D.C. to demand cash bonuses for their service in the war. The government had promised each of these vets a bonus, payable in 1945. But when the Great Depression struck, the desperate vets

marched to the capital to demand their bonuses now. It was a moment in American history that showed the remarkable power of citizens to come together

for a cause, even though for the vets, it didn't turn out so well.

Today on the Radio Dirus podcast, the Bonus Army.

America in 1932, the land of lost homes and shattered dreams.

Millions of Americans homeless, hungry, and without home.

People were selling apples on the corners everywhere,

knocking on doors, asking for food.

...