page_title: Pennsylvania Avenue
section_title: Parades and protests
hierarchical_section_title: Pennsylvania Avenue / History / Parades and protests
caption_attribution_description: Looking southeast down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. Visible landmarks include the Old Post Office Pavilion (center) and United States Capitol.
context_page_description: Pennsylvania Avenue is a diagonal street in Washington, D.C. and Prince George's County, Maryland that connects the White House and the United States Capitol and then crosses the city to Maryland. In Maryland it is also Maryland Route 4 to MD 717 in Upper Marlboro, where it becomes Stephanie Roper Highway. The section between the White House and Congress is called "America's Main Street"; it is the location of official parades and processions, as well as protest marches. Moreover, Pennsylvania Avenue is an important commuter road and is part of the National Highway System.
context_section_description: Ever since an impromptu procession formed around Jefferson's second inauguration, every United States president except Ronald Reagan has paraded down the Avenue after taking the oath of office (Reagan paraded up the avenue for his first inauguration, in 1981, but not for the second in 1985 because freezing temperatures and high winds made it dangerous). From William Henry Harrison to Gerald Ford, the funeral corteges of seven of the eight presidents who died in office and two former presidents followed this route. Franklin Roosevelt was the only president who died in office whose cortege did not follow this route. Lyndon B. Johnson and Ford were the former presidents whose funeral cortege followed this route. For LBJ, it was along the route from the Capitol to the National City Christian Church, where he worshiped often, because the funeral was held there. Ford's went up Pennsylvania Avenue because it paused at the White House en route to the Washington National Cathedral, where the funeral was held. Abraham Lincoln's funeral cortege solemnly proceeded along Pennsylvania Avenue in 1865; only weeks later the end of the American Civil War was celebrated when the Army of the Potomac paraded more joyously along the avenue.
  As well as being the scene of official functions, Pennsylvania Avenue is the traditional parade and protest route of ordinary citizens. During the depression of the 1890s, for example, Jacob Coxey marched 500 supporters down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol to demand federal aid for the unemployed. Similarly, on the eve of Woodrow Wilson's 1913 inauguration, Alice Paul masterminded a parade, the Woman Suffrage Procession, highlighting the women's suffrage movement. In July 1932, a contingent of the Bonus Expeditionary Force carried flags up Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House where they planned to form picket lines. Pennsylvania Avenue also has served as a background for more lighthearted celebrations, including a series of day- and nighttime Shriner's parades in the 1920s and 1930s. Thomas and Concepcion Picciotto are the founders of the White House Peace Vigil, the longest running anti-nuclear peace vigil in the US, at Lafayette Square on the 1600 block of Pennsylvania Avenue.
caption: Looking southeast down Pennsylvania Avenue towards the Old Post Office Pavilion and United States Capitol.
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