In 1936, the federal Works Progress Administration hired some 9,000 unemployed King County residents on 271 different projects ranging from improving roads and parks to serving school lunches. Congress reduced funding for the WPA in 1937, causing nationwide layoffs. In Seattle, some workers stormed the WPA offices to protest the layoffs. Others staged sitdown strikes or picketed on downtown sidewalks.

This photo, taken during the summer of 1937, shows a group of WPA picketers outside the Seattle Chamber of Commerce on Third Avenue and Columbia Street. The man at right is displaying a copy of the Daily Worker, the newspaper of the American Communist Party. One of the protest signs supports the Wagner Act, a pro-union bill that eventually passed Congress.

Protest signs read: Stop WPA lay-offs. Poverty forces women to the streets. Support Wagner Act. Fools starve, workers fight. We demand cash relief.
Signs on building read: Seattle Chamber of Commerce, Third Floor.
Handwritten on image: Picketts [sic].
Handwritten on sleeve: Strikes - WPA - Seattle.
Date photograph was filed at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (date of photograph and file date may differ by a month or more): July 15, 1937.