Early Italian Immigrants Faced Prejudice and Hostility

Published March 21, 2021

By Joseph Newkirk

The Statue of
Liberty dedicated in 1886 has inscribed the American ideal of this country as a
refuge for immigrants seeking a better life. “Give me your tired, your poor,
your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the unwanted refuse of your
teeming shores.” Established citizens, though, did not always welcome arriving
immigrants and often treated them harshly, especially those from southern
European countries like Italy.

Immigrants from
Italy first came to Quincy in the 1880s almost exclusively from the country’s
poor rural provinces. They believed brighter prospects resided near Midwestern
farmlands than in Eastern urban areas. After entering the U. S. by ship through
the New Orleans port, they traveled up the Mississippi to Quincy, where its
agrarian and river setting would allow them to cultivate large gardens and
supplement meals with fresh fish and game. A second wave of Italians settled
here following the massive 1908 earthquake around Naples and Sicily that killed
about 80,000 people and left 60,00 homeless.

Some residents
in Quincy shunned these “foreigners” and disparagingly called them “Dagos,”
“wops” or “spics.” Discrimination, black-listing, and occasional threats of
violence occurred. Even those who accepted Italians into the community lived
among pervasive xenophobia that relegated these olive-skinned
Mediterraneans—widely-viewed as “non-white” and inferior—to second-class
“hyphen” Americans.

Italian immigrants
struggled to learn English and overcome the language barrier. During the
divorce proceedings of Joseph and Josie Puglos, the November 1, 1894, Quincy
Daily Herald referred to the couple as “genuine macaroni eaters who don’t
‘spike Inglis.’” Frank Malambri, a 14-year-old first-generation American
offspring of immigrant parents, had to act as interpreter.

Stereotypes
abounded about Italians and they became objects of ridicule and parody. The
1892 Society of St. John’s Church banquet featured Miss Ella Doerr reciting the
poem “The Dago Banana Peeler.” The annual South Side Boat Club dance held at
Turnveiren (later known as Turner Hall) showcased a “Dago street organ grinder
with a hurdy-gurdy and monkey.” Local fireworks displays with “Dago bombs”
portrayed Italians as violent and the slur “Dollar-a-day-Dago-drunkards” as
boozers willing to do anything for a drink.

People of different
ethnic groups—mostly now American citizens—congregated separately in Quincy.
Turnveiren served only Germans and the Hibernian Society those of Irish
“blood”. Citing their “strange” demeanor
and rudimentary English, local companies rarely hired Italians and local unions
banned them from most trade organizations.

Italians lived close to each other in neighborhood enclaves and
frequently spoke their native language among themselves. They
usually made a living as store owners, self-employed craftsmen, or gardeners
who sold their produce locally. Children often quit school after only a few
years of formal education to help support the household. About 40 percent of Italian immigrants left
Quincy and returned to live in their native country.

Although Italians
professed traditional Roman Catholic beliefs and attended Mass at St. Peter
Church, they harbored some ancient beliefs that many people found bizarre.
Wearing charms shaped like a horn around their necks to ward off “malocchio,”
or evil eye, and having unmarried women walk three times around the church nave
on St. Nicholas Day to find good (Italian) husbands and avoid a “mixed”
marriage evoked outcries of “superstition” and “pagan.”

Insurance
companies denied policies to Italians—as well as nearly all Catholics in the
city. To counter this bias, the Hibernian Society of St. Rose of Lima Church
offered mutual benefit programs for its (Irish) members and the Labor Temple
provided some security for its unions. But only after the local Knights of
Columbus formed in 1901 could Catholics of Italian descent get insurance for
their families.

A New Orleans
mob lynched 11 Italian residents of that city in 1889 (the largest mass
lynching in American history) after a court acquitted some of the Italian
defendants on trial for the murder of Police Chief David Hennessey. The aftermath
of this episode fueled more hostility in Quincy.

In January
1891, the local Ku Klux Klan threatened the lives of Mr. and Mrs. William
Martin, Italian immigrants who owned a fruit store on 6th and
Hampshire. Similar incidents occurred in Quincy over the next two decades.
An
editorial in the April 9, 1891, Quincy Whig stated. “The blatant Italians who
are howling for war ought to be kicked out of the country. It is now concluded
that the people of New Orleans made a bad mistake. There are a lot more Dagos
in this country who need killing.”

Associating
Italians with the crime syndicate La Cosa Nostra or, as it became known,
“Mafia” ran deep. After Adams County Game Warden Charlie Clarke received a
threatening unsigned letter from a fisherman, he had fined for not having a
valid license, he accused—without evidence—the local Mafia.

Gangsters like
Al Capone and Frank Costello cast more images of Italians as violent criminals,
further stigmatizing citizens of this heritage living peacefully in Quincy.
Capone himself sometimes stayed here to escape police pressure, and the Gem
City gained notoriety as “Little Chicago.” Citizens opposed to illegal alcohol
consumption, gambling, and prostitution often blamed Italians.

Overcoming
deep-rooted prejudice and animosity took time and familiarity with immigrant
families. Rev. Daniel Sands, pastor of Quincy’s Unitarian Church and a former
welfare worker in Chicago, explained to the public that the Mafia arose from
social problems like “white slave trade” and “bootlegging of hootch.” Rev. John
H. Lemkan of Quincy’s German Methodist Episcopal Church stated that degrading
immigrants with slurs prevents them from becoming good American citizens.

World War I
began to change attitudes toward people of Italian descent. Adams County
deployed about 50 men of this heritage, mostly offspring of immigrants, into
military action and they served honorably and often with distinction. Most
local Italian families supported the American effort. In the years following
the war’s end, Quincy honored—along with all soldiers—those of Italian ancestry
and their families. Their show of patriotism for their adopted country
diminished the stigma of “hyphens” and allayed distorted ideas about race and
ethnic origin.

Sources

“Another
Divorce Day.”

Quincy Daily Herald

, Nov. 1, 1894, 8.

“Editorial.”

Quincy Whig

, April 9, 1891, 4.

“Game
Warden’s Life Threatened.”

Quincy Daily Herald

, Oct. 4, 1913, 4.

Gesvaldi,
Louis J.

The Italian/American Experience

. Lanham, MD: University Press
of America, 2012.

“Hundreds
Attend Boat Club Dance.”

Quincy Daily Whig

, Feb. 4, 1910, 5.

“The
Italian Americans” 2014 [DVD]. Directed by John Maggio. Arlington, VA: PBS
Distribution.

“Quincy
Pastor Tells Story of Development of Chicago Bad-Lands.”

Quincy Herald-Whig

,
Dec. 1, 1929, 7.

“Threatened
By White Caps.”

Quincy Daily Journal

, June 28, 1893, 1.

Wilcox, David F. Ed.

Quincy and Adams
County History and Representative Men.

Vol. 1 Index. Quincy, IL: Great
River Genealogical Society,
1985, pp. 76-79.

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