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enjoy this writing from Michael Ceraolo in the cc&d free 2014 PDF file chapbook: an Almost-Lost World (click on the front cover image or the title text to download the free PDF file)

Order this writing in the book a New Pen the cc&d Jan. - June 2014 collection book		get the 394 page Jan. - June 2014 cc&d magazine issue collection 6" x 9" ISBN# paperback book:

A Flood of Hate

Michael Ceraolo

When a city has a mayor named Shakspeare
it is only a matter of time before tragedy ensues
(the comedy of politics is a given)
The tragedy
would be the sin of bigotry, and its aftermath,
and
this being real life and not a play
(and decidedly not well-written),
the committers of the sin wouldn’t suffer,
the victims of the bigotry would
And
the Southern-fried Shakspeare didn’t come near
the eloquence of his English counterpart

The police chief of New Orleans had been murdered,
and,
despite a moral and political climate that
produced an almost infinite army of suspects,
somehow,
Italian immigrants were fixated upon

Mayor Shakspeare:
“Arrest every Italian you come across”
“we find them
the most idle, vicious and worthless people among us”

Nineteen men of Italian descent were arrested,
and were to be put on trial in two groups
The first group of nine was tried:
six were acquitted,
the jury was unable to reach a verdict on the other three,
yet all nine were put back in prison
A mass meeting was called fro March 14, 1891

“Come prepared for action”
and
“several thousands of the first,
best and even the most law-abiding
of the citizens of this city”
answered the call
deciding
“We must teach these people a lesson
that they will not forget for all time”
The army of injustice marched to the prison,
where they battered down the locked gates,
where a hundred ‘elite troops’ selected in advance of the gathering
searched the prison for the nineteen
(The warden had performed a ‘kindness’,
letting the nineteen out of their cells though not out of the prison,
forcing them to play hide-and-seek for their lives
Eleven were caught,
and
shot untold numbers of times
Two who weren’t quite dead yet
were passed outside to the mob,
where they were strung up and shot some more
Bloodlust satisfied by
“a movement conceived by gentlemen,
and carried out by gentlemen”,
the search for the remaining eight wouldn’t take place
One of the aforementioned ‘gentlemen’
announced the names of each of the dead,
to the great cheers of the crowd
Then
the nine victims still inside the prison
were placed in a viewing room,
and
thousands filed by in five hours
to acclaim their handiwork
When word of the event got out
half of the nation’s newspapers,
most organizations and institutions,
and
at least one future President
(the alleged progressive Theodore Roosevelt)
voiced their collective approval

Of course,
no one was ever tried for the crime,
and
the eight Italian-Americans not lynched
were quietly let go without being tried (or tried again)
The city of New Orleans quickly moved to remove
Italian-Americans from handling any of the busy port’s business;
some opposed the move

Mayor Shakspeare again:
“You have not yet learned the lesson taught your race
by the people of New Orleans”
But they had:
the income of Italian-Americans didn’t catch up to other whites
for over 60 years

A tolling for the dead,
guilty of the twin ‘crimes’
of not assimilating American bigotry
and daring to challenge Anglo economic supremacy:

Joseph Macheca (acquitted)

Anthony Marchesi (acquitted)

Anthony Bagnetto (acquitted)

Pietro Monasterio (hung jury)

Anthony Scaffidi (hung jury)

Emmanuele Polizzi (hung jury)

James Caruso (not tried)

Rocco Geraci (not tried)

Frank Romero (not tried)

Loretto Comitz (not tried)

Charles Traina (not tried)

Riposi In Pace

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