ITALIAN IMMIGRANTS SUFFERED AS DID ALL IMMIGRANTS

 

ITALIAN IMMIGRANTS SUFFERED AS DID ALL IMMIGRANTS

By Domenick J. Maglio PhD. Traditional Realist

 

The immigration of Italians exploded on the American scene in the late 19^th century to the early 20^th century. Six million Italian refugees arrived mostly from southern Italy. The part of the peninsula which at that time belonged to the Bourbons was called “Two Sicilys.”

The Bourbon elites usually did not reside on the land of their estates in southern Italy. These landholders used their political power to increase their holdings by lobbying for higher taxes on the peasant’s subsistence plots to gain ownership. This process left many native families with miniscule opportunity to raise themselves out of serfdom. Even after General Garibaldi united Italy, the abusive taxation of the southern Italian by northern Italians changed little.

 

The ability to survive under this economic exploitation became almost impossible. It left the peasants two options: to stay with no means of extricating themselves from this vicious cycle or leave. Millions of these southern Italians returned several times to Italy to visit family then eventually returned to the US with their family and settled down to start a new life.

 

Once these men arrived in America, they often were scammed by shysters and criminals. These highly motivated people moved all over the nation to find better opportunities. They were proud people who never asked for government help. Their wages as initial arrivals were an average of $1.60 for a day’s labor, below black laborers’ pay in the NYC market. Conditions were dangerous but gave an opportunity to better themselves in the US than by remaining in feudal southern Italy.

 

These immigrants moved into communities with other Italians. These “Little Italys” had people who spoke their local dialect and sold their own native foods. Being suspicious of legal authorities in Italy, these immigrants did not attempt to develop relationships with authority figures. Many police were Irish who had little empathy for this immigrant subculture. These Italians immigrants shied away from relying on authorities to deal with any problems in their communities.

 

The distrust between some American citizens and immigrant Italians blew up in New Orleans. On March 14, 1891 the death of police chief, David Hennessey, triggered a nightmare. Over 250 Italian Americans were rounded up to retaliate against the chief’s death, 17 were tried. After deliberating, the jury came back with a verdict of not guilty. The day after an agitated crowd of thousands of citizens was held against this sentence of acquittal. “The mostly white mob with some negroes” resulted in the largest mass lynching in the United States. Eleven so-called “villainous dagos” were hung from trees. Newspapers throughout the United States including the NY Times and Washington Post defiled the Italian and glorified the mob.

 

Italian immigrants’ problem with many southern communities was not their work ethic. It was the Italian blurring of the “color line.” Some southern Italians had darker skin than most Americans and some were listed as “negro” at Ellis Island.  The Italian immigrants replaced blacks on sugar plantations and other intensive manual labor jobs.

 

During WWII more than 600,000 Italian immigrants were put into internment camps. In this “Estoria Segreta” (secret history) internment camps were many prominent citizens who greatly contributed to their communities and nation. Just like the Japanese they were stripped of their businesses, positions, and everything they owned along with their liberties. Yet, when mentioning the indignity the Japanese suffered, the Italian immigrants were rarely acknowledged as facing the same fate. During the same WWII period, American Italians contributed half a million troops to the US military.  These American-Italian soldiers received great recognition earning more Medals of Honor than any other ethnic group.

 

Discrimination against ethnic minorities still exists today. As an Italian-American I was denied the rental of a house in Kentucky, was served a WOP salad in Arkansas, was shown the cages where Italian working men were kept in Connecticut when their work day was finished to keep them from socializing with the local women. I was often shadowed by a security person when entering a department store.

 

In this era of revisionist history, a narrative was created that Americans were exploiters of people of color but accepted all others with open arms. This narrative was sold to the American education system. Chinese, Arabs, Hispanics, Irish, Koreans, and a host of other ethnic groups were also mistreated. Students have not heard about the blatant discrimination suffered by the southern Italian and other ethnic groups who did not accept victimhood but worked their way up in society.

 

All immigrants had to pay a significant price for assimilating into America. These repugnant experiences should not be hidden but heralded to show all immigrants that becoming a member of the greatest nation in the world takes persistence and dedication. The immigrant groups did not need government preferential treatment and handouts, just opportunity.

 

 

 

 

Domenick Maglio, PhD. is a columnist carried by various newspapers, an author of several books and owner/director of Wider Horizons School, a college prep program. Dr. Maglio is an author of weekly newspaper articles, INVASION WITHIN  and a recent book entitled, IN CHARGE PARENTING In a PC World. You can see many of Dr. Maglio’s articles at www.drmaglioblogspot.com.