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The '''Silent Parade''' was a [[silent protest]] march of 8,000-10,000 [[African American]]s along Fifth Avenue starting at 57th Street in [[New York City]] on July 28, 1917. |
The '''Silent Parade''' was a [[silent protest]] march of 8,000-10,000 [[African American]]s along Fifth Avenue starting at 57th Street in [[New York City]] on July 28, 1917. The parade was in protest to murders, [[lynching|lynchings]], and other violence directed towards African Americans and was precipitated by the [[East St. Louis riots]] in May and July 1917, when between 100 to 300 African Americans were killed by Caucasian mobs and over 6000 were left homeless (Conservative numbers from the NAACP, based on local reports at that time). The mobs were whipped into a frenzy by labor unions in order to resist strike breaking efforts.<ref>{{cite book |date=2004 |title=Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance: K-Y |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NgIYlUbaoAoC&pg=PA752&dq=1917+Silent+Parade&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiGu7Koo6zVAhUCLmMKHdDEBmYQ6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&q=1917%20Silent%20Parade&f=false |publisher=Routledge |page=752 |isbn=157958389X }}</ref> |
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== East St. Louis riots == |
== East St. Louis riots == |
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Revision as of 15:50, 28 July 2017
| Silent Parade | |
|---|---|
 The 1917 Silent Parade in New York | |
| Date | July 28, 1917 |
| Location | 40°45′47″N 73°58′26″W / 40.762960°N 73.973946°W |
| Caused by | African American deaths during the East St. Louis riots |
| Goals | To protest murders, lynchings, and other anti-Black violence; to promote anti-lynching legislation, and promote Black causes |
| Methods | Parade / public demonstration |
| Resulted in | Woodrow Wilson did not implement anti-lynching legislation[1] |
The Silent Parade was a silent protest march of 8,000-10,000 African Americans along Fifth Avenue starting at 57th Street in New York City on July 28, 1917. The parade was in protest to murders, lynchings, and other violence directed towards African Americans and was precipitated by the East St. Louis riots in May and July 1917, when between 100 to 300 African Americans were killed by Caucasian mobs and over 6000 were left homeless (Conservative numbers from the NAACP, based on local reports at that time). The mobs were whipped into a frenzy by labor unions in order to resist strike breaking efforts.[2]
East St. Louis riots
The ferocious brutality of the attacks by murderous white mobs, and the refusal by the authorities to protect innocent lives contributed to the responsive measures of some African Americans in St. Louis and the nation.[3] Marcus Garvey declared in a speech that the riot was "one of the bloodiest outrages against mankind" and a "wholesale massacre of our people", insisting that "This is no time for fine words, but a time to lift one's voice against the savagery of a people who claim to be the dispensers of democracy."[4][5]
Protest in New York
In New York City on July 28, as many as ten thousand African Americans marched down Fifth Avenue in a silent protest march in response to the East St. Louis riots. They carried signs that highlighted protests about the riots. The march was organized by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), W. E. B. Du Bois, and groups in Harlem. Women and children were dressed in white; the men were dressed in black.[3]
They hoped to influence Democratic President Woodrow Wilson to carry through on his election promises to African-American voters to implement anti-lynching legislation, and promote Black causes. Wilson did not do so and repudiated his promises; federal discrimination increased during Wilson's presidency.[1]
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 so bravely.[6]
References
- ^ a b King, William, "Silent Protest Against Lynching", in W. E. B. Du Bois: An Encyclopedia, Greenwood, p. 191.
- ^ Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance: K-Y. Routledge. 2004. p. 752. ISBN 157958389X.
- ^ a b James (1998), Holding Aloft the Banner of Ethiopia, p. 96.
- ^ Herbert Shapiro, White Violence and Black Response: From Reconstruction to Montgomery, University of Massachusetts Press, 1988, p. 163.
- ^ "Speech by Marcus Garvey, July 8, 1917". Excerpts from Robert A. Hill, ed. The Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Improvement Association Papers, Volume I, 1826 – August 1919. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1983, accessed 1 February 2009, PBS, American Experience.
- ^ David Levering Lewis, W. E. B. Du Bois: A Biography (Henry Holt & Company, 2009), p. 352. The first instance was picketing against the 1915 film The Birth of a Nation.
External links
"Centennial of the 1917 Negro Silent Protest Parade: Marching Mission to Petition Congress for Progress", by Dante Haughton, (Nancy Kuhl), Yale University Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library website, 26 July 2017.
- Civil rights protests in the United States
- Protest marches in New York City
- African-American history in New York City
- African-American history between emancipation and the Civil Rights Movement
- History of African-American civil rights
- Racially motivated violence against African Americans
- Lynching in the United States
- 1917 in New York
- United States home front during World War I
- July 1917 events