Things We Say Today: Google Doodle Pays Tribute to the Silent Parade, a Mass Protest Against Anti-Black Violence

Today’s Google Doodle pays tribute to the 100th anniversary of the Silent Parade. In 1917, “the only sound on New York City’s Fifth Avenue was the muffled beat of drums as nearly 10,000 African American children, women, and men marched in silence in what came to be known as the Silent Parade. It was one of the first mass protests of lynching and anti-black violence in the United States. The parade was precipitated by the East St. Louis Riots of 1917, during which between 40 and 250 Black people were killed and thousands more displaced by white mobs.”

The demands by the protesters, organized by the NAACP (including leaders James Weldon Johnson and W.E.B Du Bois), called for legislative action from President Woodrow Wilson. One sign, which read, “Mr. President, why not make America safe for democracy,” alluded to the hypocrisy of claiming to fight for freedom in World War I “while Black Americans were being stripped of their civil rights at home.” The protest still resonates a lot with our current moment, and you can learn more about it here.

• Mark and Jay Duplass’s HBO series Room 104 is over 50% directed by women! (via Women and Hollywood)
• Even before season 3 has arrived, UnReal has been renewed for a fourth season. We’re a bit cautious.
• Michael Emerson joins the new season of Mozart in the Jungle to play Morton Norton (the most Mozart in the Jungle name ever), an eccentric collector of classical music ephemera who lives in a bizarre gothic mansion. (via Deadline)

• Oh dang, Polygon shared the teaser for Neon Genesis Evangelion’s final film, which fans have been waiting for after a half-decade.
• A male tech CEO posed as a woman online to accuse a competitor of sexual harassment, and when they traced the IP to his house he said someone else with access to his password-protected wifi must have done it. (via Jezebel)
• In case you were wondering Martin Shkreli is still as terrible and misogynistic and creepy as ever.

That’s it for what we saw today! What did you see this Friday?

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Charline Jao

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