The Library of Congress
Attorney General Francis Biddle took the stage on October 12, 1942, at New York City's Carnegie Hall to announce that 600,000 Italian immigrants living in the United States were no longer considered "enemy aliens."
"To those who are affected by this change, I say tonight: You have met the test," said Biddle. "Your loyalty to the democracy which has given you this chance, you have proved, and proved well."
After months of curfews, arrests, job losses, and the forced evacuation of 10,000 California Italians, families were told they could finally breathe again. Many had sons serving in the U.S. military even as their parents faced government suspicion.
"Make the most of it," he continued. "See to it that Italians remain loyal. We have trusted you; you must prove worthy of that trust, so that it may never be said hereafter that there are disloyal groups among American Italians.
The timing was strategic. For President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Administration, lifting restrictions on Italians was good politics, a strategic move to secure Italian American support ahead of the planned Allied invasion of Sicily, followed by the "liberation" of mainland Italy.
Wikimedia Commons
That same day, Roosevelt issued his own statement:
"It is 450 years since Christopher Columbus first saw the new western world off his bow… In the wake of his courageous and unprecedented voyage, there came to the Americas the seeking people of many countries—people who sought liberty, democracy, religious tolerance, the fuller life… An American victory will be a United Nations victory, and a victory for the oppressed and enslaved people everywhere."
The Library of Congress
Still, it would take another week before unnaturalized Italians were allowed to travel freely again, own cameras, radios, and firearms, and stop carrying enemy alien ID cards. Despite all the speeches and celebration, the stigma lingered. Families bore the pain of disruption and loss. Many changed their names or stopped speaking their native tongue. For the hundreds of Italian Americans still interned in camps, freedom didn't come until after Italy's surrender to the Allies on September 8, 1943.
Behind barbed wire: Fort Missoula Internment Camp detainees
The Historical Museum at Fort Missoula
These are the stories that inspired Beneath the Sicilian Stars. And it's this too-recent history we should remember during Italian American Heritage Month.
Read more about how World War II affected 600,000 unnaturalized Italian Americans.