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interracial delegation of 75 from the Baltimore Unemployed Councils to make a
series of demands of the state legislature, the primary demand being the
establishment of a state unemployment insurance program. The trip began as an
overnight march, but rain interfered, so the marchers ended up traveling by motor
vehicle the next morning. At the capitol, when they were denied entry, they pushed
their way into the House of Delegates chamber and shoved back out then attacked
by police in the hallway. Eleven were arrested. A number of those not arrested,
however, were subsequently invited to the Ways and Means Committee, before
which one demonstrator testified. Whatever the influence of this testimony, it was
probably far less than the impact of newspaper headlines proclaiming that the state
legislature had been "invaded" by Reds.

It is interesting to note, that the official overreaction to Communist-led
demonstrations in the Baltimore area, that began with the March 6 Unemployment
Day demonstration, continued to occur in the following years.  The police
continued to appear in inordinate numbers whenever the CP mobilized— once
showing up in force on the basis of a false rumor — and the Sun papers continued to
give the CP a remarkable degree of coverage. Furthermore, the Turnipseed
syndrome was to repeat itself: the party again refused to get a permit for its May
Day demonstration in 1930, and again a permit was given to a person (this time
named Joseph Jones) who was unknown the party and whose address was false;
again this fictitious person was Black. Clearly myths and realities of party practice
nationally and internationally entered into the assessments by Baltimore's elites of
the local Communist "threat." Because of the alarm in the more extreme recesses
of the city's ruling circles as early as the end of 1930, Hamilton Fish, Jr.'s
Congressional investigating committee was called in, and lurid testimony on the
situation in the city was given (especially by a Mrs. Reuben Ross Holloway, who
was particularly shocked by Communist "race mingling" and its effect on children).
As a result, Congressman Fish, accompanied by a bevy of Baltimore and