New Orleans did not welcome immigrants arriving from Italy. No matter how long they had lived in the city, they were seen as outsiders that did not fit in or even belong in the city. Newspaper stories portrayed them as dangerous and a criminal menace. Stories would often use a derogatory slur in place of the term "Italian-American." One newspaper story listed the number of Italians arriving in New Orleans by ship, with a chart listing the monthly totals.
"Often these persons arrive in large numbers, in some cases
OVER FIVE HUNDRED ON A SINGLE VESSEL." *
The article then listed the names of two ships which had set out from Palermo, currently at sea, and the number of Italians on board, along with the expected arrival dates. Clearly, the press was doing its best to whip up anti-Italian fears and prejudice.
* The Daily Picayune, October 17, 1890 "Italian Immigrants"
A story in the June 18, 1890 edition of the Daily Picayune has the headline "An Italian Assassinated." The victim had been in the country for ten years, but was still referred to as an "Italian." The story states "[t]he police at once began a minute investigation of the murder, but as is usual in Italian homicides, little information could be elicited."
On October 15, 1890, Police Chief David Hennessy was shot in the street by a group of men when he arrived home that night. At the scene, he told an officer that the men were Italians, but used a derogatory slur. During the night at the hospital, he did not talk about the shooters. He died early the next day.
