Hunger Marches In OlympiaThis is a featured page

Washington State Archives - Southwest Regional Archives Image: Hunger Fighter News Volume 2 1933-City of Olympia Hunger March Files
"Hunger marches" took place in Olympia on January 17 and March 2, 1933. Protesters demanded that the State Government of Washington provide food, shelter, relief and programs to create jobs for the unemployed throughout the state.

Some key historical questions: What created the conditions that the that led to these "hunger marches?" Why did the hunger marchers choose Olympia for their march? Why did the hunger marchers choose this tool to make their protest? Who were they trying to influence? How did the Governor react to the march on January 17? What was the McDonald Bill? What was the Washington Emergency Relief Administration? How did the groups that orgnanized the Hunger Marches react to the McDonald Bill? Why was another Hunger March staged on March 2? What was the Morrow Bill? What was the Hunger Marches’ long term impact? What were the Commonwealth Federation and the Unemployed Citizens League and how were they involved? Who were the American Vigilantes of Thurston County Washington? Were there other hunger marches in the United States during the 1930s? Where did they take place? Who were Clarence Martin, Roland Hartley, P. Frank Morrow and Donald A. McDonald and what roles did they play in public relief in Washington state during the Great Depression?

Be sure to consider other possibilities for historical questions as you analyze and interpret this topic.

Primary Sources:
  • Bicentennial Oral History Project Collection
  • Birth and Death Statistics
  • Governor Hartley's Papers
  • Governor Martin's Papers
  • Department of Efficiency:
    • Budget Statements
    • Examination Reports
  • Employment Security Commissioner’s File
  • Department of Public Assistance – Social Security:
    • County Files
    • Grant In Aid Files
    • Surplus Property Distribution Files
  • State Legislature
    • House Bill (HB) 35 Chapter 8 1933 Session (McDonald Bill)
    • Journal of the House of Representatives 8th Day 1933
    • Journal of the Senate 12th Day 1933
    • Senate Bill Senate Bill 395 1933 Session (Morrow Bill)
    • Journal of the Senate 15th Day 1933
  • State Planning Council
    • Minutes
    • Industrial Research Files
    • Planning & Development Files
    • Forestry Commission Files
    • Reports Files
  • State Progress Commission:
    • Minutes
    • Correspondence
    • Committee Files
  • Washington Emergency Relief Administration Records










  • City of Olympia-State Capital Hunger March Collection
  • Robert E. Burke Collection (Commonwealth Federation)
  • Mary Farquharson Papers (Commonwealth Builders)
  • George E. Flood Papers
  • Leo Lipp Papers (Unemployed Citizen’s League)
  • Regional Newspaper and Periodical Index
  • Washington Social Security Department Scrapbooks





  • Cooperative Consumers Inc. Records
  • Daily Olympian: Olympia newspaper
  • The Olympia News: newspaper
  • Washington Commonwealth Federation newspapers, 1939-1948
  • Washington Emergency relief Administration Public Documents and Reports 1933-1936




Secondary Sources:

Hunger marchers demand relief from the Washington State Legislature on January 17, 1933, Article 5106 HistoryLink.org
Unemployed Citizens League marchers meet police and vigilantes in Olympia on March 2, 1933, Article 5107 Historylink.gorg
Seattle, 1921-1940: Boom to Bust by Richard C. Berner
Washington: A Centennial History by Robert E. Ficken and Charles P. LeWarne
The Pacific Northwest: An Interpretive History by Carlos Schwantes
“The Development of Public Assistance in the State of Washington during the Great Depression.” by Bruce D. Blumell,PhD dissertation, Seattle: University of Washington, 1973
The Great Depression & its fifty-year shadow. edited by Phyllis Bultmann Center for Pacific Northwest Studies Western Washington University, 1982
"The History of Unemployed Movements" by Richard Croucher Labour History Review 73, no. 1 (April 2008)
“Keep America American’: Great Depression, government intervention, and conservative response in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, 1920s—1940.” by J. Egolf PhD Dissertation, Morgantown: West Virginia University, 2008.
“Roland Hill Hartley and the Politics of Washington State.” by Albert F. Gunns PhD Dissertation, Seattle: University of Washington, 1963.
Public relief in Washington, 1853-1933: poor relief, mothers’ pensions, indigent soldiers’ relief, old age pensions, and indigent blind relief in Washington. by Marion Hathaway and John Hathaway Washington Emergency Relief Administration, 1934 (Available at the Washington State Library)
“Seattle’s Jobless Enter Politics.” by Robert Hill Nation 134, no. 3495 (1932): 718.
“The Unemployed Citizens’ League of Seattle.” by Arthur Hillman PhD Dissertation, Seattle: University of Washington, 1934.
. “The Decline of Self-Help and Growth of Radicalism Among Seattle’s Organized Unemployed.” by John A. Hogan PhD Dissertation, Seattle: University of Washington, 1934.
“Building the New Deal State on the Local Level: Unemployment relief in Los Angeles County during the 1930s.” by Richard D. Lester PhD Dissertation, Los Angeles: University of California, Los Angeles, 2001.
“Historical Currents and the Great Depression.” In The Great Depression: America, 1929-1941..” by Robert McElvaine New York N.Y.: Times Books, 1984.
“The Expansion of Public Work During a Period of Depression to Stabilize Industry and Employment.” by Vernon A. Mund PhD Dissertation, Seattle: University of Washington, 1929.
“Emergency Relief in Skagit County, Washington, 1931-1934.” by Carolyn B. Rosenberg PhD Dissertation, Seattle: University of Washington, 1938.
“Hooverville; a Study of a Community of Homeless Men in Seattle.” by Donald Roy Masters Thesis, Seattle: University of Washington, 1935.
“Unemployed Citizens of Seattle, 1900-1939: Hulet Wells, Seattle Labor, and the Struggle for Economic Security.” by Terry R. Willis PhD Dissertation, Seattle: University of Washington, 1997.


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