[mikelets456]

As an Italian, I’m upset at myself for not know this horrible history.

[lowbridge]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1891_New_Orleans_lynchings

[lapsus calami]

 

 

There were industries that used to scour Europe for labor to bring in over here. The lumber business was one of them. They would bring in folk like Bulgarians, Italians to work in timber camps, doing hard physical labor to get timber to the sawmills. A lot of Italians were in Louisiana for that sort of work. And the locals, whether black or white, weren't exactly friendly towards what they perceived as an intrusion on their labor markets. Dig back through Louisiana newspapers in the early 20th century and you will find various accounts of fighting, organized robberies and outright mob attacks on Italian citizens, some serious enough to get the Italian consulate publicly upset. A bit of lost history you may find interesting.

 

 

[God luvs America]

I’ve known about this for a while. Yeh- its horrible but that’s what happened back then. Should we hold a grudge forever as the lefties do??

[lapsus calami]

 

 

Meriden Daily Journal, Meriden, Connecticut - December 1907-

 

 

 

 

[griswold3]

Go to NOLA and demand reparations! Do it! All the cool kids are!

[Made In The USA]

Same here. From this thread I’ve learned much today.

[Rockingham]

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.