Their obsessive fixation on Fascism and Superstitious Folklore is such a Waste 
of limited precious Community Resources, and reflects a Negative I-A Image.

Marcantonio was one of the most important of an incredibly impressive list of 
Italian American Reformers, and "champions" of the little people.  
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The Vito Marcantonio Centennial Celebration

A Celebration of Life and Work of the Legendary East Harlem  Congressman

"The Vito Marcantonio Centennial Celebration," will occur on Sunday, December 8, 2002 at 1:00 pm in the auditorium of the Museum of the City of New York, 1220 Fifth Avenue at 104th Street, Manhattan.  For more information: (212) 534-1672.

The event will feature film footage of the life and career of Vito Marcantonio and presentations by author Annette Rubinstein, Gerald Meyer, author of Vito Marcantonio: Radical Politician, Roberto Ragone, President of FIERI International.

This event is a tribute to the life and work of the legendary East Harlem Congressman Vito Marcantonio (1902-1954) and a celebration of this major figure in the Italian American experience.  

>From 1934 to 1950, Marcantonio was one of only a handful of Italian Americans serving in the United States House of Representatives.  There, he served the East Harlem community, and all those who had been left out of the American dream.  

It is auspicious that this event is being held in his Congressional District where he 
lived his entire life as a protégé to Fiorello LaGuardia and then as a leader in his own right.  

In the House, Marcantonio became the major leader for civil rights, sponsoring the anti-lynching bill, the anti-poll tax bill, and the appropriation bill for the Fair 
Employment Practices Commission.  He ably represented Puerto Rico, which had no representative in Congress.  

He never forgot his own people, who he defended against defamation.  Marcantonio insisted that liberated Italy not be treated as a conquered Axis country, but an ally in the war against international fascism.  

In the postwar years, Marcantonio fought an increasingly lonely battle against the government's cold war policies at home and abroad.  In his district, he provided leadership and legendary service.  His availability and service to East Harlem's residents and anyone else who asked led many to revere him.  Marcantonio was born in 1902 on East 112th Street and when he died in 1954 he lived on East 116th Street.  A man who had attained a national reputation had in a sense never left the block. 

This event represents a great opportunity for the community's residents and all others who admire Marcantonio to recall and celebrate, as he liked to be called, "the people's politician."

The highlight of this event will be the announcement and presentation of the book 
" I Vote My Conscience: Debates, Speeches, and Writing of Vito Marcantonio ", edited by Annette T. Rubinstein in 1956, and reprinted in 2002 by the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute.  

This invaluable work consists of almost five hundred pages of the debates of Marcantonio in the House of Representatives where he served for sixteen years representing East Harlem as the sole member of the American Labor Party.  

This book also features  excerpts from the legal briefs of Marcantonio in the successful courtroom defense of  W. E. B. DuBois and William Patterson, as well as thirty pages of photographs.  This edition of the book also contains a new 
introduction and a biography of Annette Rubinstein by Gerald Meyer.

This event is co-sponsored by:  the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute, Queens College/CUNY, East Harlem Historical Organization, FIERI International, and the National Italian American Foundation.