The U.S. government’s proclamation of Columbus Day in 1892 exposes an attempt to wash over a case of mass lynching and anti-immigrant violence with a holiday that promotes American nationalism and imperialism. Columbus Day, a celebration of Columbus as a historical figure, was utilized as a tool for President Benjamin Harris to appeal to the Italian-American vote in the upcoming election. I argue that this celebration is not only offensive because of Columbus’s extreme violence towards Indigenous people but also a horrifically inadequate excuse for paying homage to the Sicilian victims of the mass lynching of 1891. The first Columbus Day, far from an innocent celebration of an honorable national, was an instance of the U.S. government transforming an incident of xenophobic violence into a day of American nationalist and imperialist fanfare.
The events that unfolded March 14, 1891 stemmed from the murder of New Orleans police chief David Hennessy in October 1890. When asked who shot him, Hennessy uttered a slur used at the time to describe Italian people before succumbing to his injuries. What followed exemplified the dangers of harmful anti-immigrant misinformation and stereotypes. Politicians and news outlets played a key role in the stereotyping of Sicilian immigrants in the late 19th century that would ultimately lead to the public mass lynching of 11 Sicilian and Italian men who were never proven guilty of Hennessy’s murder. Newspapers ran headlines such as “Vast Mafia in New Orleans,” and New Orleans mayor Joseph A. Shakspeare gave a speech that declared Hennessy a “victim of Sicilian Vengeance.” Associations of Sicilian and Italian immigrants with organized crime led to the arrests of over 45 people the day after Hennessy’s murder, and an estimated 250 Italian people were rounded up and questioned by authorities in the days following, though most were eventually released. The continued spread of misinformation and harmful stereotypes by newspapers and politicians soon led to a demonstration of extreme violence outside Parish Prison, where the 19 Sicilian and Italian men charged with the murder were being held. On March 14, 1891, an angry mob gathered outside the prison. They stormed the prison and dragged the Sicilian men outside. Several of the victims were repeatedly shot and several others were hanged, their bodies grossly put on display in the aftermath. Eleven men were lynched while the rest of the people in the prison managed to hide or escape. None of the men who were lynched were found guilty of being involved in Hennessy’s murder.
The violent lynching strained international relations between the U.S. and Italian governments, with Italy removing their U.S. ambassador from Washington, D.C. To appease the Italian government and to gain the vote of Italian Americans, U.S. president Benjamin Harrison proclaimed the first nationally-recognized Columbus Day celebration to be a one-time celebration on Oct. 21, 1892. Political gain was not the only motivation behind the proclamation. The holiday was also motivated by efforts to promote American nationalism and imperialism among the American public, particularly in the public education system. According to an article in The Washington Post titled, “The first Columbus Day was born of violence-and political calculation,” Harrison was urged to proclaim the holiday in order to “promote patriotism among American schoolchildren.” The article reveals that one of Harrison’s goals was to “impress upon our youth the patriotic duties of American citizenship.” The elevation of Columbus as a celebrated historical figure through the proclamation of Columbus Day was a decision driven by the U.S. government’s international and electoral political interests. It was an effort to increase the public’s loyalty to the U.S. empire and its violent nationalist and imperialist initiatives through the celebration of a colonizing, white supremist, and violent figure who acted as a tool for imperialistic empires.
Despite the clear evidence that Columbus Day was created for the political gain of the U.S. empire, the proclamation of Columbus Day as a tactic to coax Italian Americans to assimilate and align with white supremacy has unfortunately proved extremely effective. Many prominent Italian-American organizations still claim Columbus Day as a day “celebrating Italian-American heritage” despite the extreme violence Columbus committed against Indigenous people. An article titled “The Innocent 11 and the Creation of Columbus Day,” published by the Italian Sons and Daughters of America, voices support for Columbus Day celebrations and statues in the name of Italian-American heritage. The article argues that Columbus “statues and parades were designed to fuel assimilation in the face of bloody discrimination.” Strangely enough, I do have to agree with the article on one thing: Columbus Day was indeed created to fuel assimilation of Italian Americans. However, as a second-generation Sicilian, I reject any argument for the celebration of Columbus that uses the 1891 mass lynching a group largely comprised of Sicilians as justification. The proclamation of Columbus Day was never meant to honor the victims of the 1891 mass lynching. It is no accident that young children are taught in school to celebrate Columbus, a pillar of white supremacy and violent imperialism, yet there is no mention of the anti-immigrant violence and ethnic profiling of law enforcement that lead to the lynching of 11 men for a crime they did not commit. Moving forward, the holiday proclaimed as Columbus Day should be rightly celebrated as Indigenous People’s Day. And if the 1891 mass lynching of Sicilan and Italain men is to be remembered, let it be a reminder of anti-immigrant violence, ethnic profiling of law enforcement, lynching of people for crimes they did not commit, and the U.S. goverment’s elevation of a genocidal figure to hide their crimes of white supremacy and foster assimilation, nationalism, and imperialism.
