American Discrimination, Riots, and Attacks upon Early Greek Immigrants/Migrants, 1882–1922: A Shared Experience

As has been well documented in the literature on American immigrant history, many ethnic groups such as the Chinese, Jews, Italians, Irish and others suffered from bias and fears dominated by nativist ideologies during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Researchers have also shown that various ethnic groups once they had established themselves in their adopted homeland, often treated newcomers with similar disdain for a variety of reasons. Additionally, it has also been demonstrated that racism regarding the treatment of “others” was impacted by the perception of each group’s progression towards “whiteness” by the dominant society. In fact, their perceived “whiteness” based on both ethnic and cultural criteria played a key role in their acceptance.

Despite all this substantial body of ethnic and immigration scholarship, the prejudice and attacks on early Greek immigrants have been largely ignored. This paper will discuss and analyze the harsh realities faced by Greek males who had to endure both racial, economic, and cultural discrimination to establish themselves in several American cities during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. As Yiorgos Anagnostou and others have argued, their progression towards “whiteness” and assimilation into the American mainstream took decades to achieve, and only became a reality after WWII. In fact, even as late as 1922, Congressional hearings accepted testimonies that argued that Greek immigrants were undesirable and would increase crime and diseases. Although the 1909 Omaha Anti-Greek riot has been studied, similar riots and attacks on Greek communities elsewhere remain almost unknown. Our analysis will utilize contemporary newspaper accounts, diplomatic sources, studies, and local statistical data, to show that many accusations of Greek immigrant criminality were based on deliberate bias, corruption, and cultural discrimination, and that attacks reveal similar patterns with those of earlier ethnic groups.