The 1917 Silent Protest Summary

The 1917 Silent Protest
Student's Name
Institutional Affiliation
Course Title
Due Date
Introduction
The National Association of the Advancement of Colored People's (NAACP)) conducted a peaceful demonstration widely known as the Negro silent parade, which occurred on the 28th of July 1917. It was during the Harlem Renaissance period. It was a retort to demonstrators attacking the Black populace in East St, Louis, and Memphis, and Waco's execution. The protests led to hundreds of injured, hundred deaths, and thousands of Afro-Americans leaving their homes since they were mobbed and burned to the ground (Finley, 2017). In East St. Louis, Illinois, many white men started raiding African-American homes in what is commonly regarded as East St. Louis demonstrations. The Aluminium Ore Company had employed hundreds of African-Americans when the white employees arranged to go on strike. The situation was even worse when rumors of white women and African-American men were intermingling, thus exasperating the white men.
How these riots were handled is what led it to be framed as a legendary protest. It was a silent protest which happened to be a catalyst of many civil rights demonstrations of the past century. The notion of the silent protest was projected by James Weldon Johnson, a prominent leader during that time. It included nearly ten thousand Black women, men, and children. They carried banners and paraded behind a row of drummers calling for equality and justice. Only the sound of muffled drums was heard. During the demonstrations, flyers were passed out, reciting the NAACP's struggle against lynching, segregation, discrimination, and another manner of racial domination. The demonstrators necessitated President Woodrow Wilson ...