Negro Silent Protest Parade Committee

We, the Committee of the Negro Silent Protest Parade, in which 1500 colored men, women and children took part last Saturday in New York, come to present to you and through you to the President and Congress a petition for redress of certain grievances. We come representing not only the Negro Silent Protest Parade, but the colored people of greater New York, and the sentiments and aspirations and sorrowes too of the entire Negro Population of the United States.

We come representing Twelve Million Citizens whose devotion and loyalty to the nation have never been questioned. Twelve Million Citizens, Twelve Million Citizens, who, where the present storm broke over our land, took their unqualified stand side by side with the original American stocks that landed at Plymouth Rock and at Jamestown.

We feel that in coming to you, we are well within our rights. The right given by the birth, the right given by labor and the right given by loyalty. We feel further that it is especially fitting that we come at this time when the heart of the nation is so deeply touched by the cause of demorcracy and of humanity.

We come asking that the President use his great powers to have granted to us some redress for the grievances set forth in our petition, and we come further praying that the President may find it in his heart to speak some public word that will give hope and courage to our people, thus using his great personal and moral influence in our behalf.

And to these ends, I have the honor to read and respectfully present the following petition:James W. JohnsonTO THE PRESIDENT AND CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES:We, the committee of the Negro Silent Protest Parade, representing the colored people of Greater New York and the sentiment of the people of Negro descent throughout this land, come to you to present a petition for redress of grievances.

In the last thirty-one years 2,867 colored men and women have been lynched by mobs without trial. Less than a half dozen persons out of the tens of thousands involved have received any punishment whatsoever for these crimes, and not a single one has been punished for murder. In addition to this, mobs have harried and murdered colored citizens time and time again with impunity, culminating in the latest atrocity at East St. Louis where nearly a hundred innocent, hard working citizens were done to death in broad daylight for seeking to earn an honest living.

We believe that this spirit of lawlessness is doing untold injury to our country and we submit that the record proves that the states are either unwilling or unable to put down lynching and mob violence.

We ask, therefore, that lynching and mob violence be made a national crime punishable by the laws of the United States and that this be done by federal enactment, or if necessary, by constitutional amendment. We believe that there can be found in recent legislation abundant precedent for action of this sort, and whether this be true or not, no nation that seeks to fight the battles of civilization can afford to march in blood-smeared garments.

We ask, therefore, immediate action by the Congress and the President of the United States.