As Columbus Day dies a slow, woke death, it might be a good idea to consider how this

national holiday came about in the first place.

The answer might surprise you.

Ready for it?

The purpose of Columbus Day was to encourage Americans to be more accepting of immigrants,

specifically Italian immigrants.

The Italian explorer, once universally regarded as a great hero, was the symbol of the holiday,

not the focus of it.

Here's the historical context.

Following a mass migration from southern Italy beginning in the 1880s, the status of Italian

Americans was at an all-time low.

How low was clearly illustrated by one of the single worst episodes of racial violence

in American history.

The mass murder and lynching of 11 Italian Americans in New Orleans in 1891.

Hatred against the Italian newcomers had been brewing for years, and was openly encouraged

by leading newspapers of the day.

For example, in 1882, the New York Times ran an editorial under the headline,

Our Future Citizens, in which the Times stated,

There has never been since New York was founded, so low and ignorant, a class among the

immigrants, as the Southern Italians.

In 1887, the same New York Times wrote approvingly of the lynching and Mississippi of a man they

referred to as Daigo Joe, Daigo being an ethnic slur for Italians.

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