Not Exactly an American Welcome Mat

Note: For the complete list of posts, go HERE.

Elisabetta, Dominick and her sister-in-law were traveling in a bit more exalted style to the United States than many. Or more precisely, they were on a pretty fancy Titanic duplicate with some famous people sharing their passage. According to wikipedia, Cary Grant (then 16 year old Archibald Leach), first set sail to New York on the Olympic on 21 July 1920 on the same voyage on which Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford were celebrating their honeymoon. Douglas and Mary were in 1st class; Archie was in 2nd class; Elisabetta and company were in  3rd class.

I wonder a bit about what kind of reception my little crew of immigrants received in America and decide this context might be useful in understanding their experiences.

I type “Discrimination against Italian immigrants” into my handy search bar and up pops the first ten of 13.7 million results. And article number one in the search results is The Grisly Story of America’s Worst Lynching from the History channel.

Well, this doesn’t sound exactly like lifting the lamp beside the golden door.  Reading on…

Between 1884 and 1924, nearly 300,000 Italian immigrants, most of them Sicilian, moved to New Orleans. The lynching was triggered by the murder of the New Orleans police chief, David Hennessey. As he lay dying, a witness asked him who did it. “Dagoes,” he reportedly whispered. Hundreds of Italians were arrested in response, and nine put on trial for the murder.

After the trial resulted in six non-guilty verdicts and three mistrials, all hell broke loose. “A mob of tens of thousands of angry men surrounded a New Orleans jail, shouting angry slurs and calling for blood. By the time they were done, 11 men would be dead—shot and mutilated in an act of brutal mob violence that took place in front of a cheering crowd. It was 1891, and the crowd was about to participate in the largest lynching in U.S. history.

Lest some of my friends in blue states nod their heads smugly about all of this, here’s what the New York Times had to say about the situation:

These sneaking and cowardly Sicilians, the descendants of bandits and assassins, who have transported to this country the lawless passions, the cut-throat practices, and the oath-bound societies of their native country, are to us a pest without mitigations…These men of the Mafia killed chief Hennessy in circumstances of peculiar atrocity…Lynch law was the only course open to the people of New Orleans to stay the issue of a new license to the Mafia to continue its bloody practices.

Teddy Roosevelt described the lynchings as “a rather good thing.” According to CNN’s Ed Falco, a local leader named John Parker helped organize the lynch mob. What became of him? Did he go to jail? Did he face disgrace? He later went on to be governor of Louisiana. In 1911, he said Italians were "just a little worse than the Negro, being if anything filthier in [their] habits, lawless, and treacherous." Sigh.

Of course, the sins of immigrant "otherness" are written more broadly than just these. Ironically, in my grandparents' little home town of Itri there was an immigration related massacre in 1912 just a few years before their departure for America. The targets? Sardinians eager for work on a railroad construction project. 

But the real issue -- which no one dared say -- was that the foolish Sardinians refused to pay the “lace” -- protection money -- to the organized crime Camorra, which controlled the entire railway project. The Camorra blew hatred on what was a difficult situation.

All hell broke loose on the morning of July 12 -- payday -- in the Piazza Incoronazione. A group of Sardinians took offense at a comment made by a man on horseback in the Piazza. The carabiniere arrested a Sardinian -- Giovanni Cuccuru of Silanus. The other Sardinians considered this a grave injustice and protested. The carabiniere threatened to kill Cuccuru if the protests did not cease.

And then, assisted by the mayor, councilors, rural guards and carabinieri, Itranis hurled themselves against the workers shouting "Fuori i sardignoli,” injuring and killing some of them. Nothing could be done before the pitchforks, the daggers, the sticks and the guns of the attackers. The Sardinians fled to the countryside and went into hiding, and residents of Itri formed gangs to track them down. 

By the time everything was over, ten Sardinians were dead. Sixty were injured. Many Sardinians who escaped the massacre were arrested on charges of being “quarrelsome.” Others were sent back to Sardinia.

Lest I feel too complacent, I am painfully aware of my own sins of "otherness." Jokes laughed at. Awful comments left unchallenged. Some of this is perhaps traceable to inheriting my father's penchant for conflict avoidance. But that's a pretty feeble excuse.