On this day in 108 years ago, the Silent Parade was held in New York City in protest of violence against African-Americans in the United States. The parade was organized by the NAACP.
Actual footage of the march is here:
More details:
I like the way the last video ties in Woodrow Wilson. You can draw some striking parallels between Wilson and Donald Trump. There are multiple sources detailing Wilson’s racism. (Here’s a link to one.) If you’re interested in doing a Venn diagram comparing and contrasting Wilson and Trump, you should also read the open letters written by W.E.B. DuBois to Woodrow Wilson. (Here’s a link.) (Here’s a link to a site that has multiple graphic organizers including a Venn diagram.)
The parade was specifically in response to the East St. Louis Race Riots in Illinois. This video detailing the event will show you again how history may not repeat per se, but it definitely rhymes. This video’s imagery may be too much for some viewers.
I found interesting more details about what happened in East St. Louis after this heinous event, specifically white flight. (Here’s a link with some details.) After reading that information, I decided that this week we will re-read Judy Blume’s Iggie’s House, which was one book we read five years ago after George Floyd was murdered. Iggie’s House is loosely about an African-American family who moves into a house in a “white” neighborhood. When I was a 7-year-old child in a segregated community in the deep South in a racist cultish family, I read the book and specifically the quotation, “They even use the same kind of peanut butter. That’s how different they are!” and was floored. Reading those words was one of three events that set me on the path I travel today.
Never say reading can’t change someone’s story because it changed mine. Never say reading can’t change the world.
Never stop learning/reading,
Erin
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