Google remembers the Silent Parade of 1917 on its 100th anniversary

Today’s featured Google Doodle on the US home page honors the Silent Parade of 1917 on its 100th anniversary. The Silent Parade of 1917 included approximately 10,000 African Americans marching down Fifth Avenue in New York City in response to the East St. Louis Riots of 1917.

It was the first mass protest of lynching and anti-black violence in the United States and an important and significant step in US history.

Google wrote:

Organized by the NAACP, including leaders James Weldon Johnson and W.E.B Du Bois, the protest demanded that President Woodrow Wilson take the legislative action to protect African Americans that he had touched on during his presidential campaign. Although the demonstrators marched in silence, their message was very clear. One sign read, “Mr. President, why not make America safe for democracy” — a challenge at a time where the President was promising to bring democracy to the world through World War I while Black Americans were being stripped of their civil rights at home.

Today’s Doodle commemorates the 100th anniversary of the Silent Parade, and honors those whose silence resonates a century later.

Google links to https://lynchinginamerica.eji.org/ for more information.