US Senators Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and George Allen of Virginia proposed a resolution that apologizes for the U.S. Senate's failure to enact anti-lynching legislation because of being thwarted three times, in 1938, 1960's, 1990's.

"Linciati: Lynchings of Italians in America" (Dark Legacy) is a 51 minute Documentary of Lynchings of Italian Americans in Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida, Colorado, Kentucky, Illinois, Washington, and New York, merely between the 20 years of 1885 and 1915, documented some 50 killings in all. Dark Legacy  << http://www.rps.psu.edu/0405/dark.html >>

In one incident, on March 14, 1891, a New Orleans mob lynched 11 Italian Americans who had been ACQUITED in the Alleged "Mafiosi linked" murder of Police Chief David Hennessy. Among the victims, US Senator Landrieu said, was a cousin on her mother's side, Antonio Marchesi.

This Lynching of 11 Italians was the Largest Lynching in the History of the US!
Antoino Scoffedi, Joseph Macheca, Pietro Monasterio, James Caruso, Rocco Gerachi, Frank Romero, Antonio Marchesi, Charles Traina, Loretto Comitz, Antonio Bagnetto, and Manuel Politz.

The government of Italy registered the strongest objections to the US government, for this "infamia", but when the US federal government refused to intervene on grounds that crime is a state matter, and caused a disconnect between the President and Congress of the United States, and caused Italy to recall its ambassador to U. S., and a real threat of war existed between those two countries. In 1982, The Matter was settled when U. S. apologized and paid Italy $25,000 indemnity.

Times Picayune
New Orleans
By Bruce Alpert
Washington Bureau
Thursday, September 30, 2004

WASHINGTON -- Sens. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and George Allen of Virginia proposed a resolution Wednesday that apologizes for the U.S. Senate's failure to enact anti-lynching legislation at a time when thousands of people were being killed and terrorized by the practice.

Landrieu, a Democrat, said the lynchings were a "shameful" period of U.S. history, and that it is appropriate for the Senate to apologize for its failure to act. The Committee for a Formal Apology, a group formed on behalf of lynching victims, survivors and their descendants, has cited historical statistics that show 4,749 lynchings between 1880 and 1960.

At a Capitol news conference, Landrieu said the House of Representatives three times passed lynching bills in the 20th century but the bills were thwarted by Senate filibusters, in some cases led by "senators from Louisiana and Virginia." It's important to acknowledge, she said, that two of the states' senators today are responding in an entirely different way.

Allen, a Republican senator from Virginia, said he was prompted to act after reading a letter from civil rights activist Dick Gregory, who told him that probably nobody would notice if he chose to do nothing. He said, however, that joining Landrieu in sponsoring the apology resolution was the right thing to do.

Lynching was a part of the nation's early and frontier history and continued well into the 20th century, notably in the South, where it was often used to enforce Jim Crow laws and intimidate black residents.

Michael Pfeifer, a history professor at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash., who has studied lynching in Louisiana, found a "lynching frenzy" in the 1890s in the state, particularly in Jefferson Parish and northern parts of the state such as Monroe and Shreveport. He said that in New Orleans some lynchings were carried out by police against black suspects.

But there were other victims. In 1891, a New Orleans mob lynched 11 Italian Americans who had been acquitted in the alleged "Mafiosi linked" murder of Police Chief David Hennessy. Among the victims, Landrieu said, was a cousin on her mother's side, Antonio Marchesi.

"Lynching was a crime that occurred throughout the nation with documented incidents in all but four states. It truly was a national problem," Landrieu said. "The Senate's failure to act in a way that could have prevented such crimes is a sad fact. While we cannot change this tragedy of history, we can acknowledge that it happened and own up to the responsibility that should have been taken many decades ago."

Landrieu and Allen said their resolution probably won't get much consideration in the final weeks before Congress adjourns for the year, but they expressed hope it would get quick consideration when the new Congress convenes in January.

The two senators said it would mark the first time that the Senate has apologized for inaction. Congress has approved reparations for the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II, although the legislation fell short of a formal apology.

In the 1990s, legislation was introduced in the House to apologize for slavery, but it got little consideration. President Clinton issued his own apology on behalf of the American people during a visit to Africa.

Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., a leader in the civil rights movement of the 1960s, said an apology from the Senate would have great symbolic impact.

"We must honor the memory of those this nation refused to protect," Lewis said. "We cannot bring back the lives that were lost or recapture the legacy they might have given, but we can try to right our wrongs."

In a 2002 paper, David Mayhew, a Yale University political scientist, said that in 1938, one year after the House had passed an anti-lynching bill, 70 senators were on record in support. And President Franklin Roosevelt, one of seven U.S. presidents who endorsed federal anti-lynching legislation, had said he would sign the bill into law.

But a filibuster, led by Sen. Allen Ellender, D-La., halted action and the Senate leadership declined to use rules that might have overcome it.

One news account at the time reported that Ellender spoke for four days against the legislation and showed no signs of stopping when Senate leaders gave up and moved on to another bill.

Bruce Alpert can be reached at bruce.alpert@newhouse.com or (202) 383-7861.

Senate inaction on lynching needs apology, Landrieu says
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