Most anti-Italian hostility in the United States…
October 1890 CE
This is especially true in the American South, where Southern Italians ae not considered full-fledged members of the "white race".
The U.S. Bureau of Immigration reinforces this distinction, classifying Northern and Southern Italians as two different races.
Between 1890 and 1910, Sicilians will make up less than four percent of the white male population, yet will be roughly forty percent of the white victims of southern lynch mobs.
Before that, many white victims had n=been ethnic Irish.
They often have peripheral positions, working on construction of levees and railroads, and as farm workers.
Shortly after Hennessy's death, the Daily States had informed readers that the suspects were "a villainous looking set" and described their appearance in racist terms, concluding, "They are not Italians, but Sicilians."