March 14, 1891: In a disgusting reminder that the already-famous city was a part of the American South, 11 Italian immigrants living in New Orleans are murdered by a mob, for their alleged role in the October 16, 1890 murder of police Chief David Hennessy, after some of them had been acquitted at trial.
Although they were shot, rather than "lynched," a term usually meaning hanging without sanction of the government, it was, and remains, considered the largest single "mass lynching" in American history.
Most of the lynching victims accused in the murder had been rounded up and charged due to their Italian ethnicity. Just as it would take until World War I for America to accept Irish-Americans as "white," so, too, would it take until World War II to accept Italian-Americans as such.
The lynching took place the day after the trial of 9 of the 19 men indicted in Hennessy's murder. Of these defendants, 6 were acquitted, and a mistrial was declared for the remaining 3, because the jury failed to agree on their verdicts.
There was a widespread belief in the city that Italian-American organized crime was responsible for the killing of the police chief, in a period of anti-Italian sentiment and rising crime. Italian-American voters were also known to prefer the scandal-plagued city political machine to the new Mayor, Joseph Shakspeare, a Reform Democrat, whose own role in inciting the violence that followed may well have been an attempt to misuse government power for the repression of his political opponents.
Believing the jury had been fixed by organized crime, a mob broke into the jail where the men were being held, and killed 11 of the prisoners, most by shooting. The mob outside the jail numbered in the thousands, and included some of the city's most prominent citizens.
The incident had serious national repercussions. The Italian consul in New Orleans, Pasquale Corte registered a protest, and left the city in May 1891 at his government's direction. The New York Times published a lengthy statement charging city politicians with responsibility for the lynching of the Italians. Italy cut off diplomatic relations with the United States, sparking rumors of war.
Increased anti-Italian sentiment led to calls for restrictions on immigration. The word "Mafia" entered the American lexicon, and this incident increased awareness of it, establishing it in the popular imagination of Americans.
I had long been under the impression that the word "Mafia" was an anagram, for "Morte alla Francia, Italia anela," is an Italian phrase that translates to "Death to France, Italy cries out." This turned out not to be true. It is now believed that it comes from mafiusu, a word in the Sicilian dialect of Italian, which roughly translated means "swagger," but can also be translated as "boldness" or "bravado." This is a bit ironic, since a big part of "the life" is keeping quiet, so as not to give yourself away, and bravado would tend to do that.
A former ironworker, Joseph Shakspeare (not "Shakespeare") was Mayor of New Orleans twice, from 1880 to 1882, and again from 1888 to 1892. He ran for a 3rd term in 1892, but lost. He died in 1896, only 58 years old, but apparently from natural causes.
The "lynchings" led to the establishment of Columbus Day as a holiday, to honor Italian-Americans. In 1892, for the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's voyage, President Benjamin Harrison declared Columbus Day as a one-time national celebration. The proclamation was part of a wider effort after the lynching incident to placate Italian Americans and ease diplomatic tensions with Italy. In 1934, the holiday became permanent, on the 2nd Monday in October, in honor of Columbus sighting land in the Western Hemisphere on October 12, 1492.
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March 14, 1891 was a Saturday. There were no scores in North American sports on this day: Baseball was in Spring Training, football was out of season, hockey was all-amateur, and basketball wouldn't be invented for another 9 months.
But, being a Saturday, there was action in English soccer. Royal Arsenal, the original version of the North London team I would one day support, took the pitch at what was then their home field, the Invicta Ground in Plumstead, then part of Kent but now part of South-East London, and won, 5-1 over Old Harrovians, a team made up of graduates of the prestigious Harrow School of North-West London.
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