10/14/2026
https://www.facebook.com/share/1EWeT3mTbj/?mibextid=wwXIfr
On March 14, 1891, eleven Italians were lynched in New Orleans. It was the largest mass lynching in the American South.
"He (President Harrison) knew Italians faced bigotry and institutionalized discrimination. He knew they faced mob violence throughout the land. He wanted to make things right — and in the process show the world a different side of America.
"He settled on two courses of action. First, he agreed to pay each family of the lynched Italians $25,000, a substantial sum in 1891. Then he did something remarkable: he decided to use the office of the president to acknowledge the contributions of Italians and Italian Americans to the United States.
"An American president, for the first time, would affirm officially the rightful place of Italians in the fabric of American life, turning a new page in how Protestant America saw Catholic immigrants. No longer, he wanted to make clear, could the racist editors at the New York Times approve of the lynching of anyone anywhere in the United States without rebuke."
The Italian men lynched were Antonio Bagnetto, James Caruso, Loreto Comitis, Rocco Geraci, Joseph P. Macheca, Antonio Marchesi, Pietro Monasterio, Emmanuele Polizzi, Frank Romero, Antonio Scaffidi, and Charles Traina.
medium.com//the-lynching-that-gave-us-columbus-day-eb5179b01aca
