New Google Doodle recognizes 100th anniversary of the Silent Parade

Google is paying tribute to one of America's landmark civil rights protests: the Silent Parade.

In honor of the demonstration's 100th anniversary, Google's homepage is commemorating the July 28, 1917 New York march to protest racism and violence against black people.

Organized and led by the NAACP, it saw around 10,000 men, women, and children — including prominent civil rights activists like W.E.B. Du Bois and James Weldon Johnson — gathered to march down Fifth Avenue to Madison Square.

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As Google explains, the march was "one of the first mass protests of lynching and anti-black violence in the United States," prompted by the East St. Louis Riots of 1917, which resulted in the death of between 40 and 250 black people.

Protesters taking part in the Silent Parade were appealing to then President Woodrow Wilson in an effort to inspire him to live up to his campaign promises by taking action to fight racism and protect members of the black community.

While the protest was silent, marchers held up signs with messages like, "Mr. President, why not make America safe for democracy."

Google wrote that the doodle was not simply intended to remember the past, but to "honor those whose silence resonates a century later."