Silent Parade

{{Short description|1917 African American protest in New York City}}

{{good article}}

{{Infobox civil conflict

| title = Silent Parade

| partof = the anti-lynching movement

| image = Silent Parade, 28 July 28, 1917, New York City.jpg

| alt = A large group of people, wearing suits, marching in an orderly fashion down a wide street

| caption = The 1917 Silent Parade in New York City

| date = July 28, 1917

| place = Fifth Avenue, New York City, United States

| causes = Murders of African Americans from lynchings and in the East St. Louis massacre

| goals = To protest anti-black violence; to promote anti-lynching legislation, and advance black civil rights

| methods = Public demonstration

}}

The Negro Silent Protest Parade, commonly known as the Silent Parade, was a political protest in New York City on July 28, 1917. The purpose of the parade was to bring attention to discrimination and violence faced by African Americans; particularly the recent East St. Louis massacre, and lynchings in Waco and Memphis. Organizers of the parade included several African American groups, led by the recently formed National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Starting at 57th Street, the parade route proceeded down Fifth Avenue, ending at Madison Square. An estimated 8,000 to 15,000 African Americans marched in silence, accompanied by a muffled drum beat. The parade was widely publicized and drew attention to violence against African Americans. Parade organizers hoped the parade would prompt the federal government to enact anti-lynching legislation, but President Woodrow Wilson did not act on the demands of the African Americans. The federal government would not pass an anti-lynching law until 2022, when the Emmett Till Antilynching Act was passed.

Background

=Lynching=

File:Jesse Washington hanging.jpg was one of the events prompting the Silent Parade. He was repeatedly lowered into fire for two hours in front of 15,000 white spectators.{{sfn|SoRelle|2007}}{{sfn|Lewis|2009|p=335-336}}{{efn|This photograph of Washington is an example of many photographs of lynchings printed on postcards, and distributed by white people to celebrate successful lynchings.{{sfn|Kim|2012}}}}]]

{{see also|Lynching in the United States}}

Lynchings were widespread extrajudicial killings which began in the United States' pre–Civil War South in the 1830s and continued until 1981.{{cite web

|title=Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror

|publisher=Equal Justice Initiative

|edition=3rd |url=https://lynchinginamerica.eji.org/report/

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180510151602/https://lynchinginamerica.eji.org/report/

|archive-date=May 10, 2018

|year=2017

|url-status=live}}{{cite book

| title=Rough Justice: Lynching and American Society, 1874–1947

| publisher=North Carolina University Press

| author=Wood, Amy Louise

| year=2009

| isbn=9780807878118|oclc = 701719807}} Along with disenfranchisement, Jim Crow laws, and discrimination, lynching was one of many forms of racism inflicted on African Americans.{{Cite book

|title=The betrayal of the Negro, from Rutherford B. Hayes to Woodrow Wilson

|last=Logan

|first=Rayford Whittingham

|publisher=Da Capo Press

|year=1997

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rfE9zwEACAAJ

|access-date=April 1, 2025

|orig-year=1965

|isbn=978-0306807589

|edition=Reprint

|oclc=35777358

}}{{efn|For more details of the racism of that era, see Nadir of American race relations.}} The frequency of lynchings steadily increased after the Civil War, peaking around 1892. They remained common into the early 1900s, experiencing a resurgence in 1915 following the founding of the Second Ku Klux Klan.{{sfn|Kim|2012}}{{cite book

|last=Ifill

|first=Sherrilyn A.

|title=On the Courthouse Lawn: Confronting the Legacy of Lynching in the Twenty-First Century

|publisher=Beacon

|year=2007

|place=Boston

|page=58

|isbn=978-0-8070-0988-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Hzww6psskK0C

|access-date=March 31, 2025

}} One study counted 3,265 African American victims of lynching from 1883 to 1941.{{sfn|SeguinRigby |2019}}

The Silent Parade took place at a time when lynchings were beginning to be widely publicized{{snd}}particularly by the NAACP under the leadership of W. E. B. Du Bois. Two years before the Silent Parade, the NAACP's magazine The Crisis published an article titled "The Lynching Industry", which contained a year-by-year tabulation of 2,732 lynchings, spanning the years 1884 to 1914.{{sfn|Lewis|2009|p=335}}{{cite magazine

|magazine=The Crisis

|title=The Lynching Industry

|url=https://archive.org/details/crisis910dubo/page/n201/mode/2up

|access-date= {{date| March 29, 2025 |MDY}}

|date= {{date| February 1915|MDY}}

|issn=0011-1422

|volume=9

|issue=4

|editor-first=W. E. B.

|editor-last=Du Bois

|editor-link=W. E. B. Du Bois

|pages=196–198

}}{{cite book

|editor-first=John

|editor-last=Shillady

| title=Thirty Years of Lynching in the United States, 1889-1918

|lccn=20013596

| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qo9qPhcLJGoC

|access-date=April 21, 2025

| year=1919

| publisher=National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

}} During the year leading up to the parade, The Crisis published a series of articles documenting specific lynchings, including: a group lynching of six African Americans in Lee County, Georgia;{{sfn|Lewis|2009|p=335}}{{cite magazine

|magazine=The Crisis

|title=The Lynching in Lee County GA

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RFFh8BonnVQC&dq=%22the+crisis%22+april+1916++%22lee+county%22&pg=PA279

|access-date=March 29, 2025

|date=April 1916

|editor-first=W. E. B.

|editor-last=Du Bois

|editor-link=W. E. B. Du Bois

|volume=11

|issue=6

|issn=0011-1422

|pages=303–310

}} the lynching of Jesse Washington, a mentally impaired 17-year-old African American, in Waco, Texas; {{sfn|Du Bois|1916a}}{{efn|The article broke new ground by utilizing undercover reporting to expose the conduct of local whites in Waco, Texas.{{sfn|Lewis|2009|p=336}} The Crisis included photographs of the lynching.{{sfn|Du Bois|1916a}}}} and the lynching of Ell Persons in Memphis, Tennessee.{{cite magazine

|magazine=The Crisis

|title=Memphis: May 22, AD, 1917

|url=https://library.brown.edu/pdfs/1292427315695375.pdf

|access-date= {{date| April 17, 2025 |MDY}}

|date= {{date| July 1917|MDY}}

|issn=0011-1422

|volume=14

|issue=3

|last=Johnson

|first=James Weldon

|editor-first=W. E. B.

|editor-last=Du Bois

|editor-link=W. E. B. Du Bois

}} The Ell Person article was a one page supplement to this issue.

{{sfn|Young|2018|pp=53-54}}{{sfn|Du Bois|1917b}}{{efn|The Crisis published a second article about the Ell Persons lynching, in August 1917, after the Silent Parade had occurred.{{sfn|Du Bois|1917b}}}} These lynchings were precursors to the Silent Parade.{{sfn|Young|2018|pp=53-54}}

= East St. Louis massacre=

File:Why not make America safe.png ignoring the plight of African Americans amidst the riots in East St. Louis.{{sfn|Gray|2018}}{{efn|Cartoon published in The Kansas City Sun, July 14, 1917.{{sfn|Gray|2018}}}}]]

{{see also|East St. Louis massacre}}

The specific events that precipitated the Silent Parade were a series of riots that took place in East St. Louis from May to July 1917. The rioting, by white residents, originated when the mostly white employees of the Aluminum Ore Company voted in Spring 1917 for a labor strike and the Company recruited hundreds of African Americans to replace them.{{cite magazine

|url=http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/east-st-louis-race-riot-left-dozens-dead-devastating-community-on-the-rise-180963885/

|title=The East St. Louis Race Riot Left Dozens Dead, Devastating a Community on the Rise

|magazine=Smithsonian Magazine

|last=Keyes

|first=Allison

|date=June 30, 2017

|publisher=Smithsonian Institution

|access-date=July 28, 2017

|archive-date=July 28, 2017

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170728211733/http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/east-st-louis-race-riot-left-dozens-dead-devastating-community-on-the-rise-180963885/

|url-status=live }}{{cite book

| title=Race Riot at East St. Louis, July 2, 1917

| author-last=Rudwick

|author-first= E.M.

| isbn=0689703368

| year=1972

|pages=17-23

| series=Blacks in the New World

| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9Zl6C8TQeMUC

|access-date=April 2, 2025

| publisher=Simon & Schuster

}}

Estimates of the number of African Americans killed by white mobs range from 39 to 200; hundreds were injured; and thousands were made homeless.{{sfn|The Negro Silent Protest Parade, National Humanities Center|2014}}{{sfn|Meacham|2004 }}{{cite book

| title = Never Been a Time: The 1917 Race Riot That Sparked the Civil Rights Movement

| author= Barnes

| first= Harper

| isbn=9780802779748

| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_g2iAwAAQBAJ

| year=2011

| page= 2

| publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing

}}

Du Bois and activist Martha Gruening visited the city after the massacre and spoke with witnesses and survivors. They wrote an article describing the riots in the September 1917 issue of The Crisis, using unusually explicit descriptions.{{Cite magazine

|url=https://time.com/4828991/east-saint-louis-riots-1917/

|title=The Forgotten March That Started the National Civil Rights Movement Took Place 100 Years Ago

|last=Waxman

|first=Olivia B.

|magazine=Time

|access-date=2017-07-29

}}{{Cite journal |date=September 1917

|title=The Massacre of East St. Louis

|url=http://library.brown.edu/pdfs/1292426769648500.pdf

|journal=The Crisis

|issn=0011-1422

|volume=14

|issue=5

|pages=219–238

|editor-first=W. E. B.

|editor-last=Du Bois

|editor-link=W. E. B. Du Bois

|access-date= {{date| 2017-07-28 |MDY}}

|archive-date= {{date| 2018-02-06 |MDY}}

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180206140507/https://library.brown.edu/pdfs/1292426769648500.pdf

|url-status=live

}} After the riots, many African Americans were discouraged, and felt that it was unlikely that the United States would ever permit African Americans to enjoy full citizenship and equal rights.{{sfn|Ellis|2001|p=43}} The brutality of the attacks by mobs of white people, coupled with the failure of police to protect the African American community, led to renewed calls for African American civil rights from leaders such as Du Bois, Hubert Harrison, and Marcus Garvey.{{sfn|Ellis|2001|p=43}}{{sfn|James|1998}}{{cite book

| title=White Violence and Black Response: From Reconstruction to Montgomery

| author-last=Shapiro

|author-first=Herbert

| isbn=9780870235788

| lccn=87006009

| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8kEOAQAAMAAJ

|access-date=April 2, 2025

| year=1988

| publisher=University of Massachusetts Press

| page= 163

}}

{{cite book

| title=The Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Improvement Association Papers, Vol. I: 1826 – August 1919

| author-last=Garvey

|author-first= Marcus

| isbn=9780520342224

| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HO3QEAAAQBAJ

|access-date=April 2, 2025

| year=2023

| publisher=University of California Press

}}

=World War I =

{{see|United States in World War I#African Americans in the military}}

In April 1917, one month before the East St. Louis massacre, the United States declared war on the German Empire and joined the Allied Powers of World War I. The mobilization effort dominated the headlines in the United States, and served as a backdrop to the events leading up to the Silent Parade. African Americans soldiers of that era were treated as second-class citizens, and were segregated from white troops.{{

Cite journal

|last=Bryan

|first=Jami L.

|date=2002

|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44610299

|access-date=April 3, 2025

|title=Fighting for Respect: African Americans in World War I

|journal=On Point

|volume=8

|issue=4

|pages=11–14

|jstor=44610299

|issn=2577-1337

}} African Americans had mixed feelings about the war: some recognized military service as an opportunity to demonstrate their worth; others viewed it as yet another situation where they would be exploited by their country.{{cite journal

| title=World War I in the Historical Imagination of W. E. B. Du Bois

| volume=1

| doi=10.1017/mah.2017.20

| issue=1

| journal=Modern American History

| last=Williams

|first= Chad

| year=2018

| pages=3–22

}} Some African American leaders, such as W. E. B. Du Bois, voiced pro-war sentiments, and encouraged African Americans to join the military.{{ cite magazine

|title=Resolutions of the Washington Conference

|magazine=The Crisis

|editor-first= W. E. B.

|editor-last= Du Bois

|editor-link=W. E. B. Du Bois

| volume= 14

|issue= 2

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uLcrWer2C2sC

|pages=59–62

|access-date=April 3, 2025

| date= June 1917

}}{{cite magazine

|last=Du Bois

|first= W. E. B.

|author-link=W. E. B. Du Bois

|title=Close Ranks

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3zOaz0lxzN8C&q=%22close%20ranks%22

|access-date=April 3, 2025

|magazine=The Crisis

|volume=16

|issue= 3

|date=July 1918

|page= 111

}}

The parade

=Planning=

File:Silent Parade flyer from 1917.png.{{sfn|The Negro Silent Protest Parade, National Humanities Center|2014}}]]

James Weldon Johnson, the Field Secretary of the NAACP, worked with a group of influential community leaders at the St. Philip's Church in New York to determine how best to protest the recent violence against African Americans.{{sfn|Du Bois|1917a}}{{cite book

|last1=Milward

|first1=Jessica

|author-link =Jessica Millward

|title=Finding Charity's Folks

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DgboCgAAQBAJ&q=hutchens+chew+bishop+obituary&pg=PA70

|year=2015

|publisher=University of Georgia Press

|isbn=978-0820348797

|access-date= {{date| 31 July 2017 |MDY}}

|archive-date= {{date| 28 July 2023 |MDY}}

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230728064021/https://books.google.com/books?id=DgboCgAAQBAJ&q=hutchens+chew+bishop+obituary&pg=PA70 |url-status=live }}{{sfn|Newman|2017}} The concept of a silent protest was suggested by Oswald Garrison Villard during a 1916 NAACP Conference.{{sfn|Newman|2017}} Villard's mother, anti-war activist Fanny Garrison Villard, had organized a silent march in 1914 to protest the war.{{sfn|Ellis|2001|p=43}}{{sfn|Marchand|2015|p=189}} One month before the Silent Parade, African American women in New York participated in a silent march, alongside white women, to support the Red Cross.{{cite newspaper

|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/12696455/

|title=Colored Women Take Part in "Silent Parde" on Fifth Avenue for Red Cross

|date= {{date| 28 June 1917 |MDY}}

|newspaper=The New York Age

|access-date= {{date| 28 July 2017 |MDY}}

|via=Newspapers.com

|archive-date= {{date|28 July 2023 |MDY}}

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230728064020/https://www.newspapers.com/article/12696455/

|url-status=live }}

Unlike the anti-war parade of 1914, to which all persons were invited, organizers of the Silent Parade felt that it was important that only African American people participate, because they were the primary victims of the recent violence.{{sfn|Newman|2017}}

A week before the parade, an announcement in the African American newspaper The New York Age described it as a "mute but solemn protest against the atrocities and discrimination practiced against the race in various parts of the country."{{sfn|The Silent Parade proposed to be held, New York Age,|1917}} The official name of the parade was the Negro Silent Protest Parade, although some contemporary sources referred to it as the Negro Silent Parade.{{sfn|The Negro Silent Protest Parade, National Humanities Center|2014}} Men, women, and children alike were invited to take part. It was hoped that ten thousand people would participate, and that African Americans in other cities might hold their own parades.{{sfn|The Silent Parade proposed to be held, New York Age,|1917}}{{cite news

|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/12698371/

|title=The Silent Parade

|date= {{date| 26 July 1917 |MDY}}

|work=The New York Age

|access-date= {{date| 28 July 2017|MDY}}

|via=Newspapers.com

|archive-date= {{date| 28 July 2023 |MDY}}

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230728064020/https://www.newspapers.com/article/12698371/

|url-status=live }} During the week before the parade, major newspapers in several states published articles announcing the march.{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/12696673/

|title=Negroes to Hold a Silent Parade

|date={{date| 25 July 1917|MDY}}

|work=The Daily Times

|access-date={{date| 28 July 2017 |MDY}}

|via=Newspapers.com

|archive-date={{date| 28 July 2023 |MDY}}

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230728064522/https://www.newspapers.com/article/12696673/

|url-status=live }}{{cite news

|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/12696804/

|title=To Have Silent Parade

|date={{date| 25 July 1917 |MDY}}

|work=Palladium-Item

|access-date={{date| 28 July 2017 |MDY}}

|via=Newspapers.com

|archive-date={{date| 28 July 2023 |MDY}}

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230728064521/https://www.newspapers.com/article/12696804/

|url-status=live }}{{cite news

|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/12696852/

|title=New York Negro to Protest Riots

|date= {{date| 25 July 1917 |MDY}}

|work=The Oklahoma City Times

|access-date= {{date| 28 July 2017 |MDY}}

|via=Newspapers.com

|archive-date= {{date|28 July 2023 |MDY}}

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230728064526/https://www.newspapers.com/article/12696852

|url-status=live

}}

=Leadership=

The parade was organized by the Harlem branch of the NAACP, with the help of several church and business leaders. Two prominent members of the New York clergy served as executives of the parade: the president was Hutchens Chews Bishop, rector of the city's oldest African American Episcopal parish; and the secretary was Charles Martin, founder of the Fourth Moravian Church.{{sfn|The Negro Silent Protest Parade, National Humanities Center|2014}}

Frederick Asbury Cullen served as vice president.{{sfn|Du Bois|1917a}} Parade marshalls included J. Rosamond Johnson, A. B. Cosey, Christopher Payne, Everard W. Daniel, Allen Wood, James Weldon Johnson, and John E. Nail. W. E. B. Du Bois marched within the group of parade leaders.{{sfn|Du Bois|1917a}}

=Motivation=

The goal of the parade was to protest lynching in particular, and violence against African Americans in general.{{sfn|Colbert|2017}}{{efn|The African American newspaper The New York Age publicized the parade a week beforehand, writing: "The Silent Parade ... should be made a mute but solemn protest against the atrocities and discriminations practiced against the race in various parts of the country.... As a sober, dignified protest against the wrongs complained of, as well as a protest against the failure of the proper authorities to provide adequate protection and redress, the parade should be made as imposing as numbers and bearing can make it. The ministers of the various churches, together with all race organizations and societies, should rally to make this movement a monster success."{{sfn|The Silent Parade proposed to be held, New York Age,|1917}}}} Organizer Charles Martin prepared a flyer which was distributed before the parade as an invitation, and during the parade to bystanders.{{sfn|The Negro Silent Protest Parade, National Humanities Center|2014}}{{sfn|Colbert|2017}} The flyer had a section titled "Why We March" which read, in part:{{sfn|Du Bois|1917a}}{{sfn|Debotch |2019}}

{{blockquote|text=We march because we want to make impossible a repetition of Waco, Memphis, and East St. Louis ... and to bring the murderers of our brothers, sisters and innocent children to justice. We march because we deem it a crime to be silent in the face of such barbaric acts. We march because we are thoroughly opposed to Jim Crow cars, etc., segregation, discrimination, disfranchisement, lynching, and the host of evils that are forced on us.... We march because we want our children to live in a better land and enjoy fairer conditions than have fallen to our lot. We march in memory of our butchered dead...{{sfn|The Negro Silent Protest Parade, National Humanities Center|2014}} }}

The flyer was signed by Martin "Yours in righteous indignation."{{sfn|Debotch |2019}}

=The march=

File:Negroes' Protest a Silent Parade 1917.webm footage of the parade, discovered in the Yukon in 1978 after being buried in permafrost for 50 years.{{cite magazine

|magazine= Black Maria Film Festival program

|title=Bill Morrison: The Art of the Archive

|first=Sally

|last=Berger

|year=2018

|page=25

|url= https://tefilmfest.org/pdf/2018_37th_Season_BMFF_Program.pdf

|access-date=April 17, 2025}}]]

In the midst of a record heat wave in New York City on Saturday, July 28, an estimated 8,000 to 15,000 African Americans marched in silent protest.{{sfn|Walton|1917}}{{sfn|Negroes in Protest March, New York Times,|1917}}{{Cite news

|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/7389461/silent_parade/

|title=15,000 Negroes in Anti-Riot Parade

|date={{date| 29 July 1917 |MDY}}

|work=New York Herald

|access-date={{date| 28 July 2017 |MDY}}

|via=Newspapers.com

|archive-date={{date| 31 July 2017 |MDY}}

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170731060632/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/7389461/silent_parade/

|url-status=live }} The march began at 57th Street , and proceeded down Fifth Avenue, ending at Madison Square.{{sfn|Du Bois|1917a}}{{sfn|Walton|1917}} Mounted police escorted the parade.{{sfn|Meacham|2004 }}{{sfn|James|1998}}{{sfn|Walton|1917}}

Eight hundred children led the parade, followed by women dressed in white, then men dressed in black. Their attire was formal and uniform, and they marched in rows.{{sfn|James|1998}}{{sfn|Meacham|2004 }}{{sfn|Walton|1917}} Academic Soyica Colbert analyzed the performative aspects of the parade: "...the deliberate refinement of the clothing reinforced the relationship between rights and

respectability. The protestors presented themselves as citizens while affirming the look of citizenship."{{sfn|Colbert|2017}}

People of all races looked on from both sides of Fifth Avenue, including an estimated 15,000 African Americans, according to The New York Age."{{sfn|Walton|1917}} African American boy scouts handed out flyers describing why they were marching.{{sfn|Colbert|2017}} During the parade, white people stopped to listen to marchers explain the reasons for the march, and other white bystanders expressed support.{{sfn|Walton|1917}}

Many spectators were moved by the spectacle; in his autobiography, organizer James Johnson wrote “the streets of New York have witnessed many strange sites, but I judge, never one stranger than this; among the watchers were those with tears in their eyes.”{{cite book

| page=321

| title=Along This Way: The Autobiography of James Weldon Johnson

| last=Johnson

| first= J.W.

|author-link=James Weldon Johnson

| isbn=9780143105176

| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XpFPEAAAQBAJ

|access-date=April 2, 2025

| year=2008

| publisher=Penguin Publishing Group

}}

Although the marchers were silent, many of them carried signs and banners that described contributions of African Americans to American society, or gave reasons for the protest.{{sfn|Du Bois|1917a}}{{efn|After the parade, an issue of The Crisis magazine included an article that listed approximately 60 slogans that were displayed on placards.{{sfn|Du Bois|1917a}} Some examples:

  • America has lynched without trial 2,867 Negroes in 31 years and not a single murderer has suffered
  • We have fought for the liberty of white Americans in 6 wars; our reward is East St. Louis
  • We are maligned as lazy and murdered when we work
  • Our music is the only American music

}}

Many of the placards contained slogans highlighting military service by African Americans, reflecting the fact that the country had just entered World War I.{{sfn|Du Bois|1917a}} Some signs appealed directly to President Woodrow Wilson.{{sfn|Ellis|2001|p=43}} One notable banner displayed an African American family in the ruins of East St. Louis, pleading with Wilson to bring democracy to the U.S. before he brought it to Europe (World War I was in progress at the time). Police deemed the banner in "poor taste", so parade organizers withdrew the banner before the parade began.{{sfn|Ellis|2001|p=43}}{{sfn|Negroes in Protest March, New York Times,|1917}}{{efn|The banner was an enlargement of a political cartoon from the The Kansas City Sun.{{sfn|Ellis|2001|p=43}}{{sfn|Gray|2018}}}}

The New York Times described the parade in an article published the following day: {{Quote|text="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."{{sfn|Negroes in Protest March, New York Times,|1917}} }}

Aftermath and legacy

=Aftermath=

File:1917 Silent Parade large sharp E.jpg

The parade was the first large, exclusively African American protest in New York; and was the second instance of African Americans publicly demonstrating for civil rights.{{sfn|Lewis|2009|p=352}}{{cite web

|url=http://www.boweryboyshistory.com/2017/07/listening-silent-parade-1917-forgotten-civil-rights-march.html

|title=Listening to the Silent Parade of 1917: The Forgotten Civil Rights March

|date= {{date| 27 July 2017 |MDY}}

|publisher=The Bowery Boys: New York City History

|access-date={{date| 28 July 2017 |MDY}}

|archive-date={{date| July 27, 2017 |MDY}}

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170727203004/http://www.boweryboyshistory.com/2017/07/listening-silent-parade-1917-forgotten-civil-rights-march.html

|url-status=live

}}{{efn|The first instance was picketing against the 1915 film The Birth of a Nation.{{sfn|Lewis|2009|pp=330-332}} }} Media coverage of the march helped to counter the dehumanization of African Americans in the United States.{{sfn|Colbert|2017}} The parade and its coverage depicted the NAACP as well-organized and respectable, and also helped increase the visibility of the NAACP both among white and black people alike.{{Cite book

|title=Invisible Activists: Women of the Louisiana NAACP and the Struggle for Civil Rights, 1915–1945

|last=Sartain

|first=Lee

|publisher=Louisiana State University Press

|year=2007

|isbn=978-0807135761

|pages=20

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ow189iXylpgC

|access-date= {{date| 2025-03-30|MDY}}

}}

A silent parade of over 1,000 African American men took place in Providence, Rhode Island, later in 1917.{{cite newspaper

|newspaper=The New York Age

|date=October 18, 1917

|title=Silent Protest Parade Held in Providence

|via=Newspapers.com

|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-new-york-age-silent-protest-parade/52902840/

|access-date=April 17, 2025

}}

{{cite magazine

|magazine=The Crisis

|title=Social Progress

|url=https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/workers/civil-rights/crisis/1200-crisis-v15n02-w086.pdf

|access-date=March 29, 2025

|date=December 1917

|editor-first=W. E. B.

|editor-last=Du Bois

|editor-link=W. E. B. Du Bois

|volume=15

|issue=2

|issn=0011-1422

|page=88

}} Women members of the NAACP in Newark, New Jersey organized a Silent Parade in 1922. Prior to 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.{{Cite book

|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/book/49201

|title=Black Women's Christian Activism: Seeking Social Justice in a Northern Suburb

|chapter=Unholy and Unchristian Attitude: Interracial Dialogue in Segregated Spaces, 1920–1937

|last=Adams

|first=Betty Livingston

|publisher=NYU Press

|year=2016

|isbn=978-1479880324

|page=86

|url-access=subscription

|via=Project MUSE

|access-date= {{date| 2017-07-28 |MDY}}

|archive-date= {{date| 2017-07-29 |MDY}}

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170729084754/https://muse.jhu.edu/book/49201

|url-status=live }}

=Impact on lynching=

File:NAACP petition to President Wilson 1 August 1917.jpg

Marchers hoped to influence President Wilson to implement anti-lynching legislation and promote African American causes. Four days after the silent parade, a group of NAACP leaders traveled to Washington D.C. for a prearranged appointment with the Wilson.{{sfn|Morand |2020}}{{sfn|Stille|2007}} Upon arrival at the White House, the group of leaders were told that Wilson was unable to meet with them to due another appointment.{{sfn|Morand |2020}}{{sfn|Stille|2007}} They left a petition they had prepared for Wilson, which reminded him of African Americans serving in World War I and asked him to take steps to prevent riots and lynchings in the future.{{sfn|Morand |2020}}{{sfn|Stille|2007}}{{efn|The petition was signed by John E. Nail, James Weldon Johnson, Everard W. Daniel, George Frazier Miller, Fred R. Moore, A. B. Cosey, D. Ivison Hoage, Isaac B. Allen, Maria C. Lawton, Madam C. J. Walker, and Frederick A. Cullen (chairman).{{sfn|Morand |2020}}}} In July 1918, Wilson issued a written statement discouraging mob violence, but it fell short of the anti-lynching legislation the marchers hoped for.{{cite web

|url=https://www.amistadresource.org/documents/document_07_06_030_wilson.pdf

|access-date=April 3, 2025

|title=President Woodrow Wilson's proclamation of July 26, 1918, denouncing lynching

}} The printed proclamation was distributed as a press release, but was not recited in a speech by the president. Federal discrimination against African Americans significantly increased under the Wilson administration.{{cite encyclopedia

|last=King

|encyclopedia=W. E. B. Du Bois: An Encyclopedia

|isbn=0313296650

|first=William

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bpLDEAAAQBAJ

|access-date=April 1, 2025

|publisher=Greenwood Press

|title=Silent Protest Against Lynching

|pages=191

|date=2001

}}{{Cite journal

|last1=Aneja

|first1=Abhay

|last2=Xu

|first2=Guo

|date=2021

|title=The Costs of Employment Segregation: Evidence from the Federal Government Under Woodrow Wilson

|url=https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjab040|journal=The Quarterly Journal of Economics

|access-date= April 22, 2025

|volume=137

|issue=2

|pages=911–958

|doi=10.1093/qje/qjab040

|issn=0033-5533

}}{{Cite web

|url=https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/11/woodrow-wilson-racism-federal-agency-segregation-213315

|access-date=April 22, 2025

|title=How Woodrow Wilson Stoked the First Urban Race Riot

|date=November 2, 2015

|first=Tom

|last=Lewis

|publisher=Politico

}}

The Silent Parade failed to reduce the number of lynchings of African Americans; in fact, the number of lynchings per year increased after the parade.{{sfn|SeguinRigby |2019}} It was not until 1923 that the number of lynchings fell below the 1917 quantity. Lynchings continued into the 1960s.{{sfn|SeguinRigby |2019}}

Nearly 200 anti-lynching bills were introduced in Congress between the end of the Civil War and the Civil Rights movement, but none passed.{{cite web

|url=https://werehistory.org/the-history-of-american-anti-lynching-legislation/

|title= The History of American Anti-Lynching Legislation

|date=February 5, 2019

|first= Benjamin T.

|last= Arrington

|access-date=March 30, 2025

}}{{efn|Many anti-lynching bills passed the House of Representatives, but were defeated in the U.S. Senate by senators from Southern states.{{cite book

| title=The First Waco Horror: The Lynching of Jesse Washington and the Rise of the NAACP

| last=Bernstein

|first=Patricia

| isbn=9781603445474

| series=Centennial series of the Association of Former Students, Texas A & M University

| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ah9C4VhkCdoC

| year=2006

| publisher=Texas A & M University Press

|page=178

|access-date=March 30, 2025

}}}} The Civil Rights Act of 1968 created defined new federal crimes for violent acts based on the race of the victim. In 2022, 67 years after the murder of Emmett Till, and after the end of the lynching era, the United States Congress passed the Emmett Till Antilynching Act, which extended existing federal hate crime laws to encompass any members of a mob which conspired to injure a victim.{{cite web

|last1=McDaniel

|first1=Eric

|last2=Moore

|first2=Elena

|title=Lynching is now a federal hate crime after a century of blocked efforts

|url=https://www.npr.org/2022/03/29/1086720579/lynching-is-now-a-federal-hate-crime-after-a-century-of-blocked-efforts

|publisher=NPR

|access-date=March 29, 2022

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220330040839/https://www.npr.org/2022/03/29/1086720579/lynching-is-now-a-federal-hate-crime-after-a-century-of-blocked-efforts

|archive-date=March 30, 2022

|date=March 29, 2022

|url-status=live}}{{Cite web

|last=Gamble

|first=Giselle Rhoden

|date=2022-03-01

|title=House passes Emmett Till Anti-lynching Act with overwhelmingly bipartisan support

|url=https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/01/politics/house-passes-emmett-till-antilynching-act/index.html

|access-date= {{date| 2023-10-21 |MDY}}

|publisher=CNN

|language=en

|archive-date=November 6, 2023

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231106221308/https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/01/politics/house-passes-emmett-till-antilynching-act/index.html

|url-status=live

}}

=Red Summer=

{{see also|Red Summer}}

As World War I drew to an end, there was considerable social tension as returning veterans of all races tried to find work, and black veterans struggled to gain better treatment after their war service.{{sfn|Krugler|2014|pp=1-34}} During the summer 1919, later called the Red Summer, racial riots of whites against blacks broke out in numerous industrial cities during these tensions and economic strife.{{sfn|Krugler|2014|pp=35-195}}{{cite news

|title=Red Summer

|first=Rebecca

|last=Onion

|date=March 4, 2015

|magazine=Slate

|url=https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2015/03/civil-rights-movement-history-the-long-tradition-of-black-americans-taking-up-arms-to-defend-themselves-against-racial-violence.html

}} In contrast to the East St. Louis massacre, the 1919 events were characterized by many instances of black people fighting back against their attackers.{{sfn|Krugler|2014|pp=296-309}}{{cite web

|last=Maxouris

|first=Christina

|date=July 27, 2019

|url = https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/27/us/red-summer-1919-racial-violence/index.html

|title =100 years ago, white mobs across the country attacked black people. And they fought back

|publisher = CNN

| access-date = July 29, 2019 }}{{efn|In May 1919, following the first serious racial incidents of the Red Summer, W. E. B. Du Bois published the editorial "Returning Soldiers" in The Crisis which read, in part: "We return from the slavery of uniform which the world's madness demanded us to don to the freedom of civil garb. We stand again to look America squarely in the face and call a spade a spade. We sing: This country of ours, despite all its better souls have done and dreamed, is yet a shameful land.… We return. We return from fighting. We return fighting."

{{cite magazine

|magazine=The Crisis

|title=Opinion - Returning Soldiers

|url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Crisis/Y4ETAAAAYAAJ

|access-date=March 29, 2025

|date=May 1919

|author-first=W. E. B.

|author-last=Du Bois

|author-link=W. E. B. Du Bois

|volume=18

|issue=1

|issn=0011-1422

|pages=13-14

}} Emphasis in original.}}

In October 1919, African American sociologist George Edmund Haynes, an employee of the federal government, published a detailed report outlining the white-on-black violence of the summer, and noted that states were unwilling to intervene. The report urged the U.S. Congress to take action and identified 38 separate racial riots against blacks in widely scattered cities, in which whites attacked black people.{{cite news

|title=For Action on Race Riot Peril

|date=October 5, 1919

|last=Haynes

|first=George

|author-link=George Edmund Haynes

|newspaper=New York Times

|page=112

|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1919/10/05/106999010.html?action=click&contentCollection=Archives&module=ArticleEndCTA®ion=ArchiveBody&pgtype=article&pageNumber=112}} In addition, Haynes reported that between January 1 and September 14, 1919, white mobs lynched at least 43 African Americans, with 16 hanged, some shot, and eight burned at the stake.

=Legacy and commemorations=

File:Oogle_Doodle_commemorating_100th_anniversary_of_the_Silent_Parade.png on the 100th anniversary of the march.]]

Seventy two years after the Silent Parade, another NAACP-sponsored silent march took place in Washington DC on August 26, 1989, to protest recent Supreme Court decisions which restricted affirmative action programs. The U.S. Park Service estimated over 35,000 people participated.{{cite web

|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-08-27-mn-1753-story.html

|title=Thousands Stage Silent March on Capitol : Civil Rights Gathering Protests Recent Supreme Court Decisions

|work=Los Angeles Times

|date= {{date| 1989-08-27 |MDY}}

|access-date= {{date| 2017-07-28 |MDY}}

|archive-date= {{date| 2015-10-21 |MDY}}

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151021092501/http://articles.latimes.com/1989-08-27/news/mn-1753_1_supreme-court-decisions

|url-status=live }} The march was organized by NAACP director Benjamin L. Hooks.{{Cite journal

|date= {{date| 21 August 1989|MDY}}

|title=NAACP to Hold Silent March in Washington to Protest New Supreme Court Ruling

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=orsDAAAAMBAJ&q=%22silent+march%22+1917&pg=PA6

|journal=Jet

|volume=76

|issue=20

|page=6

|access-date={{date| 17 October 2020 |MDY}}

|archive-date={{date| 28 July 2023 |MDY}} |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230728064522/https://books.google.com/books?id=orsDAAAAMBAJ&q=%22silent+march%22+1917&pg=PA6

|url-status=live }}

Several events commemorated the one hundredth anniversary of the parade, July 28, 2017. On that day, Google commemorated the Silent Parade with a Google Doodle.{{Cite magazine

|url=https://time.com/4877904/google-doodle-100th-anniversary-silent-parade/ |title=Google Doodle Commemorates 100th Anniversary of the Silent Parade

|last=Samuelson

|first=Kate

|date={{date| 28 July 2017 |MDY}}

|magazine=Time

|access-date={{date| 2017-07-28 |MDY}}

}} Many people stated that they first learned about the Silent Parade because of the Google Doodle.{{Cite web

|url=http://atlantablackstar.com/2017/07/29/many-learn-of-silentparade-for-first-time-after-google-honors-iconic-civil-rights-march/

|title=Many Learn of #SilentParade For First Time After Google Honors Iconic Civil Rights March

|last=Kenney

|first=Tanasia

|date= {{date| 2017-07-29|MDY}}

|publisher=Atlanta Black Star

|access-date= {{date| 2017-07-29 |MDY}}

|archive-date= {{date| 2017-07-29 |MDY}}

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170729225421/http://atlantablackstar.com/2017/07/29/many-learn-of-silentparade-for-first-time-after-google-honors-iconic-civil-rights-march/

|url-status=live

}}

In East St. Louis, a week-long commemoration of the riots and Silent Parade was held in July 2017, on the 100th anniversary of the riots.{{Cite news

|url=http://www.bnd.com/news/local/article159379064.html

|title=March in memory of race riot victims gives voice to history and healing

|last=Johnson

|first=Kaley

|date= {{date| 2 July 2017|MDY}}

|work=Belleville News-Democrat

|access-date= {{date| 2017-07-28 |MDY}}

|language=en

|archive-date= {{date| 2017-07-29|MDY}}

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170729052322/http://www.bnd.com/news/local/article159379064.html

|url-status=live

}} Around 300 people marched from the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Higher Learning Center to the Eads Bridge.{{sfn|Vaughn|2017}} Everyone marched in silence, with many women in white and men wearing black suits.{{sfn|Vaughn|2017}}

A group of artists, along with the NAACP, reenacted the silent march in New York on the evening on July 28, 2017.{{Cite news |url=http://theartnewspaper.com/news/arts-group-to-restage-historic-civil-rights-protest-in-new-york/ |title=Arts group to restage historic civil rights protest in New York

|last=Angeleti

|first=Gabriella

|date= {{date| 28 July 2017|MDY}}

|work=The Art Newspaper

|access-date= {{date| 28 July 2017 |MDY}}

|archive-date= {{date| 29 July 2017 |MDY}}

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170729052505/http://theartnewspaper.com/news/arts-group-to-restage-historic-civil-rights-protest-in-new-york/

|url-status=live

}} 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's location on that street.{{sfn|Lartey|2017}} 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.{{sfn|Lartey|2017}}

References

=Notes=

{{notelist|30em}}

=Citations=

{{reflist|30em}}

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|language=en

|archive-date= {{date| 2017-07-14|MDY}}

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170714090111/http://www.stlamerican.com/news/local_news/esl-commemorated-th-anniversary-of-unparalleled-racial-terror/article_3fd5d24c-61e0-11e7-ba6b-d76f6593c28c.html

|url-status=live

}} "Sunday’s march was fashioned after the Silent Parade that paid homage to East St. Louis on July 28, 1917 in New York City."

  • {{cite web

|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/12690498/silent_negro_protest1917/

|title=Nearly Ten Thousand Take Part In Big Silent Protest Parade Down Fifth Avenue

|last=Walton

|first=Lester A.

|date=Aug 2, 1917

|publisher=New York Age

|access-date=July 28, 2017

|via=Newspapers.com

|archive-date=July 29, 2017

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170729011313/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/12690498/silent_negro_protest1917/

|url-status=live }}

  • {{cite book

| title=An Unseen Light: Black Struggles for Freedom in Memphis, Tennessee

| editor-last=Goudsouzian

|editor-first= Aram

| isbn=9780813175539

| series=Civil Rights and the Struggle for Black Equality in the Twentieth Century

| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zZ1NDwAAQBAJ

| year=2018

| publisher=University Press of Kentucky

|chapter= The Saving of Black America's Body and White America's Soul: The Lynching of Ell Persons and the Rise of Black Activism in Memphis

| first=Darius

| last=Young

}}

  • {{cite web

|ref = {{harvid|The Negro Silent Protest Parade, National Humanities Center|2014}}

|url=https://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/maai2/forward/text4/silentprotest.pdf

|title=The Negro Silent Protest Parade organized by the NAACP Fifth Ave., New York City July 28, 1917

|date=2014

|publisher=National Humanities Center

|access-date=July 28, 2017

|archive-date=July 28, 2017

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170728151035/https://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/maai2/forward/text4/silentprotest.pdf

|url-status=live

}}

  • {{cite web

|ref = {{harvid|Negroes in Protest March, New York Times,|1917}}

|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1917/07/29/96262006.pdf

|title=Negroes in Protest March in Fifth Av.; 8,000 Men, Women, and Children Demand That Discrimination and Oppression End. Tell Woes on Banners Parade in Silence While Thousands of Their Race Look On with Never a Cheer.

|date=July 29, 1917

|work=The New York Times

|access-date=July 28, 2017

|archive-date=July 27, 2021

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210727150451/https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1917/07/29/96262006.pdf

|url-status=live }}

  • {{cite news

|ref = {{harvid|The Silent Parade proposed to be held, New York Age,|1917}}

|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/12696534/

|title=The Silent Parade proposed to be held ...

|date=19 July 1917

|work=The New York Age

|access-date= {{date| 28 July 2017 |MDY}}

|via=Newspapers.com

}}

{{refend}}