Last month’s action by the Randolph Board of Education to replace Columbus Day – a federal holiday celebrated on the second Monday in October since 1934 – with Indigenous Peoples Day angered Italians and others around the city and across the state.
This prompted the Italian-American ONE VOICE Coalition to get involved. Based in its founder’s hometown of Bloomfield in New Jersey, the group plays an active role in the ongoing controversy over the legacy of the 15th-century explorer.
The coalition held a press conference and used its social media presence to raise support for efforts to bring Columbus Day back on the school district’s calendar. His spokesperson conducted media interviews in New Jersey, New York, and even Iowa, as well as on syndicated radio.
The coalition is in the midst of a series of battles over the legacy and doctrine of Christopher Columbus, which schoolchildren are known to learn to sail the blue from in 1492.
The group is in federal court in Newark forcing West Orange to restore a Columbus memorial that was removed last year. Members were also involved in the unsuccessful fight to prevent New York City public schools from replacing Columbus Day with Italian Heritage / Indigenous Peoples Day. And they mobilized against the National Education Association’s 2019 action calling for Indigenous Peoples Day to replace Columbus Day, as well as Vermont’s decision to do the same.
Connections to the Italian-American service organization
Their website describes the coalition as “a nationwide army of anti-bias activists fighting discrimination and defending the Italian-American heritage”.
While most of the coalition members are based in New Jersey, such as the Amici Club of Wanaque and the Ocean County Columbus Parade Committee, members from Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and UNICO National are also listed.
The coalition is closely linked to the Italian-American service organization: the founder and president of the Italian-American ONE VOICE is the former chairman of the UNICO anti-bias committee and its spokesman is the former president of UNICO.
Retired chiropractor Manny Alfano founded and is president of the Italian-American ONE VOICE Coalition, which has been a 501 (c) 3 tax-exempt charity under US tax law since October 2011. Members pay dues and the group solicits and accepts donations, but appears to be operating on a modest budget, reporting to the IRS that its gross income was less than $ 50,000 each year between 2010 and 2019. Hence, it does not need to report details of its income or expenses.
According to a post on the website, the group received an unspecified amount from the UNICO Anti-Bias Committee to cover the costs of the federal lawsuit We the Italians.
Targeting television broadcasts
Alfano said his work on combating anti-Italian bias dates back nearly three decades when he was anti-bias chairman of UNICO National. The Italian American Police Society of New Jersey turned to UNICO with complaints about the television series “The Untouchables” which was broadcast on Secaucus-based WWOR-TV. Alfano said the group believes the series “began to discriminate against or look bad at police officers, including Italian Americans.” They put together a coalition of organizations and demonstrated the broadcaster that eventually stopped broadcasting the show.
“That’s how we started and then other things just happened,” Alfano said, adding that the group has taken action against TV shows like “The Sopranos,” “Jersey Shore” and “Saturday Night Live” depicting Italian Americans.
Then the controversy surrounding Columbus began when historians and organizations said the Italian explorer and his men enslaved indigenous peoples, either intentionally killing those who rebelled or inadvertently by introducing new diseases. They indicate that Columbus was not the first to discover America and never set foot in what is now the United States. Alfano said organizations like the American Indian Movement were trying to make Columbus “their flagship”.
Many people started to believe this narrative, but other writers have defended Columbus and now people are starting to wake up to the current “waking culture,” Alfano said.
“We judge a 15th century explorer by the standards of the 21st century,” said Alfano. Italians were also victims, he said, telling the story of 11 Italians who were lynched in New Orleans in 1891 for the death of the city’s police chief, despite acquittals or miscarriage of justice for nine of the 19 men accused. President Benjamin Harrison declared the first nationwide celebration of Columbus Day a year later to mark the 400th anniversary of the explorer’s landing and agreed to pay the families of the lynched $ 25,000.
“Now everyone just forgot,” said Alfano.
Most common ancestry among New Jersey residents
Alfano also has friends within the New Jersey political community. His Twitter page features a picture of him speaking to the state’s Senate, and the top tweet features an image of the joint resolution that made October 2020 Italian American Heritage Month. The group’s Facebook page has nearly 10,000 followers. Among Alfano’s 2,200 Facebook friends are former US MP Robert Torricelli and senior lawyer Donald Scarinci.
Mr President, please set October as the month of Italian-American heritage. We have in NJ. made pic.twitter.com/4NssStfwki
– Manny Alfano (@MannyAlfano) October 10, 2020
This is not surprising given the size of New Jersey’s Italian population. In the 2019 US Census American Community Survey, around 1.33 million New Jersey residents, around 15% of all, called themselves Italians. Italians are the largest ancestral group in New Jersey. Only three other states, all larger than New Jersey, have larger Italian populations.
The coalition is proud of its victories, including the decision by the Randolph School Committee to keep Columbus Day on the calendar.
Alfano said he hoped that in his case against West Orange it would succeed. This lawsuit alleges that the municipality’s decision to remove the Columbus Monument is in violation of Amendment 14. It states that the community’s actions were “based on race, ethnicity and / or national background” and that the removal of the memorial “denies Italian-American Americans their constitutional right to equal protection of the law by treating Italian Americans differently others similarly situated ”. Individuals or groups, and there is no justification for treating them differently. “
