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Dennis Donovan

(18,770 posts)
Tue Jul 28, 2020, 01:22 PM Jul 2020

103 Years Ago Today; The Silent Parade in NYC



Jeffrey Guterman @JeffreyGuterman

On this date July 28 in 1917, the Silent Parade took place in New York City, to protest murders, lynchings, and other violence directed towards Black persons. Photograph in the public domain, photographer not known. #OTD



1:00 PM · Jul 28, 2020


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_Parade


Children in the silent parade.

The Negro Silent Protest Parade, commonly known as the Silent Parade, was a silent march of about 10,000 African Americans along Fifth Avenue starting at 57th Street in New York City on July 28, 1917. The event was organized by the NAACP, church, and community leaders to protest violence directed towards African Americans, such as recent lynchings in Waco and Memphis. The parade was precipitated by the East St. Louis riots in May and July 1917 where at least 40 black people were killed by white mobs, in part touched off by a labor dispute where blacks were used for strike breaking

Protest in New York
In the midst of record heat in New York City on July 28, an estimated 8,000 to 15,000 African Americans marched in silent protest to the lynchings, as in Waco, Memphis, and especially the East St. Louis riots. The march began at 57th Street, down Fifth Avenue, to its end at 23rd Street. Protesters carried signs that highlighted their discontent. Some signs and banners appealed directly to President Woodrow Wilson. A mounted police escort led the parade. Women and children were next, dressed in white. They were followed by the men, dressed in black. People of all races looked on from both sides of Fifth Avenue. The New York Age estimated that "fully fifteen thousand Negroes, who should have taken an active part, looked on." Black boy scouts handed out fliers describing why they were marching. During the parade, white people stopped to listen to black people explain the reasons for the march and other white bystanders expressed support and sympathy. Some of the messages written on fliers were:

We march because by the Grace of God and the force of truth, the dangerous, hampering walls of prejudice and inhuman injustices must fall.

We march because we deem it a crime to be silent in the face of such barbaric acts.

We march because we want our children to live a better life and enjoy fairer conditions than have fallen to our lot.


The parade marked the first large black-only protest parade in New York. The New York Times described it the following day:

To the beat of muffled drums 8,000 negro men, women and children marched down Fifth Avenue yesterday in a parade of "silent protest against acts of discrimination and oppression" inflicted upon them in this country, and in other parts of the world. Without a shout or a cheer they made their cause known through many banners which they carried, calling attention to "Jim Crowism," segregation, disenfranchisement, and the riots of Waco, Memphis, and East St. Louis.


Media coverage of the march helped to counter the dehumanization of black people in the United States. The parade and its coverage helped depict the NAACP as a "well-organized and mannerly group" and also helped increase its visibility both among white and black people alike.

Marchers hoped to influence Democratic President Wilson to carry through on his election promises to African American voters to implement anti-lynching legislation and promote Black causes. Four days after the silent parade, black leaders involved in the protest, including Madame C.J. Walker, went to Washington D.C. for a planned appointment with the president. The appointment was not kept, as the group of leaders were told that Wilson had "another appointment." They left their petition for Wilson, which reminded him of African Americans serving in World War I and urged him to prevent riots and lynchings in the future. Wilson did not do so and repudiated his promises. Federal discrimination against African Americans increased during Wilson's presidency.

Legacy
The parade was the very first protest of its kind in New York, and the second instance of African Americans publicly demonstrating for civil rights. The Silent Parade evoked empathy by Jewish people who remembered pogroms against them and also inspired the media to express support of African Americans in their struggle against lynching and oppression.

Another large silent parade took place in Newark in 1918. On the day before the parade, members of the NAACP spoke at local churches about the parade and the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill. Women from the New Jersey Federation of Colored Women's Clubs (NJFCWC) marched along with men and other women carrying signs. A large meeting was held in the Newark Armory when the parade was complete. Another NAACP-sponsored silent march happened on August 26, 1989 to protest recent Supreme Court decisions. The U.S. Park Service estimated over 35,000 people participated. The march was encouraged by NAACP director, Benjamin L. Hooks.

In East St. Louis, there was a week-long commemoration of the riots and march in the weeks prior to the 100th anniversary on July 28, 2017. Around 300 people marched from the SIUE East St. Louis Higher Learning Center to the Eads Bridge. Everyone marched in silence, with many women in white and men wearing black suits. Those who couldn't walk followed by car.

On the 100th anniversary, Google commemorated the parade in a Google Doodle. Many people in 2017 expressed online that they first learned about the Silent Parade through the day's Google Doodle.

A group of artists, along with the NAACP, planned a re-enactment of the silent march in New York for the evening on July 28, 2017. The event, with around 100 people and many participants wearing white, was not able to march down Fifth Avenue because the city would not grant access due to Trump Tower being located there. The commemoration took place on Sixth Avenue instead, and the group held up portraits of contemporary victims of violence by both police and vigilantes in the United States.

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103 Years Ago Today; The Silent Parade in NYC (Original Post) Dennis Donovan Jul 2020 OP
Ironically, the parade started on the corner of what is now Trump Tower. HotTeaBag Jul 2020 #1
K and R dewsgirl Jul 2020 #2
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