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The Italian lynchings of 1891 is what gave us "Columbus day".
History ^ | 10/25/2017 | History

Posted on 10/09/2023 11:40:50 AM PDT by mikelets456

In short, March 14, 1891 there were several Italians on trial. They were found "not guilty" which sent a mob of thousands in a frenzy (along with government). In the end, 11 Italians were lynched and numerous others treated harshly. As a consolation to this tragedy, our government gave them a day---Columbus day.

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 one of the largest lynchings in U.S. history.

Nearly 5,000 lynchings—vigilante murders that included shootings, hangings and other forms of mob “justice”—were recorded in the United States between 1882 and 1968. Most of their victims were African American men. But though the New Orleans lynch mob was driven by bigotry, its targets weren’t Black people.

They were Italian Americans. March 14, 1891, would go down in history as one of the darkest moments in the United States’ long history of anti-Italian discrimination.

(Excerpt) Read more at history.com ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; History; Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: 1891; christophercolumbus; columbus; columbusday; crimefamilies; day; hangings; immigrants; immigration; mafia; mobsters; sicilians
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To: mikelets456
A part that often gets left out is that the lynch mob in New Orleans was furious at the local Mafia, which was notoriously brutal, corrupt, and powerful and deeply rooted among Italian immigrants. Since the Mafia usually was able to escape the mechanisms of justice, a lynch mob made a certain sense.

Eventually, conditions settled, and, as elsewhere, the Mafia in New Orleans came to avoid the provocation of prominent threats and violence. The various immigrant communities separated and settled along ethnic lines, black, Italian, German, French, and Irish. Each community built their own separate churches, schools, and business districts, often within a block or two.

21 posted on 10/09/2023 1:12:38 PM PDT by Rockingham
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To: Rockingham

Two gangs were fighting for control of the waterfront. One gang thought the sheriff was in the pocket of the other, so they did a hit on the sheriff. The jury wouldn’t convict, maybe due to lack of evidence, but maybe due to bribery and intimidation of various people. There wasn’t much evidence that all those gang members were directly involved. The mob lynched most of those acquited of murdet..


22 posted on 10/09/2023 1:40:28 PM PDT by xxqqzz
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To: Rockingham
 
 
What I can tell you second hand, from someone who was there, that was Dixie Mob territory. Sometime, back in the '30's the Italian mob tried to make moves and take over and the Dixie bunch was having none of it. There were dead Italian Costra Nostra suddenly turning up dead all over the place. Message sent, message received.
 
 

23 posted on 10/09/2023 1:40:36 PM PDT by lapsus calami (What's that stink? Code Pink ! ! And their buddy Murtha, too!)
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To: Secret Agent Man

and you’re point??? There are plenty of historical articles which result in people holding grudges


24 posted on 10/09/2023 1:50:17 PM PDT by God luvs America (63.5 million pay no income tax and vote for DemoKrats...)
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To: God luvs America

The point is don’t make this out to be something that isn’t by your strawman argument.


25 posted on 10/09/2023 5:30:50 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; not averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: Secret Agent Man

LOL- did you read what i posted?? Or are you just that ignorant?


26 posted on 10/09/2023 5:42:28 PM PDT by God luvs America (63.5 million pay no income tax and vote for DemoKrats...)
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To: God luvs America

I read your post, #12.


27 posted on 10/09/2023 5:45:04 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; not averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: Secret Agent Man

Obvious to had no ability to comprehend what was written


28 posted on 10/09/2023 5:47:00 PM PDT by God luvs America (63.5 million pay no income tax and vote for DemoKrats...)
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