Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 3 hours ago
How did the U.S. government decide Italians were a different race? For years, scientists measured skulls, politicians wrote reports, and authors put Italians in their own category. All of it led to one thing: a 1924 law that slammed the door on Italian immigration for the next 40 years. This video shows you exactly how they built the case, using the real books and records they left behind.
inside this video:
00:00 – Intro: Questioning the assumption that Italians were always considered "white" and assimilated.
01:41 – The story of the Rollins v. State (1922) case in Alabama and the legal ambiguity of a Sicilian woman's whiteness.
03:15 – Benjamin Franklin’s 1751 tract Observations Concerning the Increase of Mankind and his exclusion of Italians from the "white" category.
04:36 – The Naturalization Act of 1790 and the code of "Anglo-Saxon Protestant heritage."
06:22 – William Z. Ripley’s The Races of Europe (1899) and the classification of "Mediterraneans" as a separate race.
07:16 – Madison Grant’s The Passing of the Great Race (1916) and the moral hierarchy placing Nordics on top and Mediterraneans on the bottom.
09:31 – The Dillingham Commission (1907–1911) and the "Dictionary of Races or Peoples" splitting Italy into North and South.
10:17 – Contrasting descriptions of Northern Italians ("practical/capable") vs. Southern Italians ("impulsive/impractical").
11:51 – The "One Drop Rule" context and the Commission's claim of "African blood" in Sicily and Sardinia.
13:02 – The Commission’s report on "criminal classes" inherent in the "Italian race."
14:00 – Anthropologist Franz Boas’ findings on shifting cranial measurements contradicting biological inferiority.
15:20 – The Immigration Restriction League and the push for race-based policy.
17:24 – Representative Albert Johnson and the eugenicist Harry Laughlin’s testimonies before Congress.
20:19 – The Immigration Act of 1924 (Johnson-Reed Act) and the use of the 1890 census to target specific groups.
22:26 – The 90% drop in the Italian immigration quota.
25:03 – Legal comparisons with Ozawa (1922) and Thind (1923) Supreme Court cases.
26:02 – The 1891 mass lynching of Sicilians in New Orleans and the 1907 school segregation fight in Mississippi.
28:50 – World War II, the GI Bill, and the post-war consolidation of Italian-Americans into full whiteness.
30:33 – The end of the National Origins system in 1965
Sources:
Dillingham Commission, Dictionary of Races or Peoples, Senate Document 662, Vol. 5 (1911).
archive.org/details/dictionaryofrace00unitrich/page/n173/mode/2up
Johnson-Reed Immigration Act, 43 Stat. 153 (1924).
Rollins v. State, 92 So. 35 (Ala. Ct. App. 1922).
Harry H. Laughlin, testimony before the House Committee on Immigration and Naturalization, April 16-17, 1920. Published as Analysis of America's Modern Melting Pot (1922) and Europe as an Emigrant-Exporting Continent (1924).
Benjamin Franklin, Observations Concerning the Increase of Mankind (1751).
William Z. Ripley, The Races of Europe: A Sociological Study (1899). Available on Archive.org.
Madison Grant, The Passing of the Great Race (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1916). Available on Archive.org.
Giuseppe Sergi, The Mediterranean Race: A Study of the Origin of European Peoples (1901). archive.org/details/mediterraneanrac00serguoft/page/70/mode/2up
Prescott F. Hall, "Immigration and the Educational Test," North American Review (1897).
Ray Stannard Baker reporting on Sumrall, Mississippi, American Magazine (1907).
Joel Perlmann, "'Race or People': Federal Race Classifications for Europeans in America, 1898-1913," Levy Economics Institute Working Paper No. 648 (2011). levyinstitute.org/pubs/wp_648.pdf
Jon Røyne Kyllingstad, "Measuring the Master Race: Physical Anthropology in Norway, 1890-1945" (2014). researchgate.net/publication/273572410_Measuring_the_Master_Race_Physical_Anthropology_in_Norway_1890-1945
Horrabin, J. F. (1920). Caucasian types: Nordic (Englishman) and Mediterranean (Berber) [Illustration]. In H. G. Wells, The Outline of History: Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind (p. 67). George Newnes Ltd.
Jessica Barbata Jackson, Dixie's Italians: Sicilians, Race, and Citizenship in the Jim Crow Gulf South (LSU Press).
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How did the U.S. government decide Italians were a different race? For years, scientists measured skulls, politicians wrote reports, and authors put Italians in their own category. All of it led to one thing: a 1924 law that slammed the door on Italian immigration for the next 40 years. This video shows you exactly how they built the case, using the real books and records they left behind.
inside this video:
00:00 – Intro: Questioning the assumption that Italians were always considered "white" and assimilated.
01:41 – The story of the Rollins v. State (1922) case in Alabama and the legal ambiguity of a Sicilian woman's whiteness.
03:15 – Benjamin Franklin’s 1751 tract Observations Concerning the Increase of Mankind and his exclusion of Italians from the "white" category.
04:36 – The Naturalization Act of 1790 and the code of "Anglo-Saxon Protestant heritage."
06:22 – William Z. Ripley’s The Races of Europe (1899) and the classification of "Mediterraneans" as a separate race.
07:16 – Madison Grant’s The Passing of the Great Race (1916) and the moral hierarchy placing Nordics on top and Mediterraneans on the bottom.
09:31 – The Dillingham Commission (1907–1911) and the "Dictionary of Races or Peoples" splitting Italy into North and South.
10:17 – Contrasting descriptions of Northern Italians ("practical/capable") vs. Southern Italians ("impulsive/impractical").
11:51 – The "One Drop Rule" context and the Commission's claim of "African blood" in Sicily and Sardinia.
13:02 – The Commission’s report on "criminal classes" inherent in the "Italian race."
14:00 – Anthropologist Franz Boas’ findings on shifting cranial measurements contradicting biological inferiority.
15:20 – The Immigration Restriction League and the push for race-based policy.
17:24 – Representative Albert Johnson and the eugenicist Harry Laughlin’s testimonies before Congress.
20:19 – The Immigration Act of 1924 (Johnson-Reed Act) and the use of the 1890 census to target specific groups.
22:26 – The 90% drop in the Italian immigration quota.
25:03 – Legal comparisons with Ozawa (1922) and Thind (1923) Supreme Court cases.
26:02 – The 1891 mass lynching of Sicilians in New Orleans and the 1907 school segregation fight in Mississippi.
28:50 – World War II, the GI Bill, and the post-war consolidation of Italian-Americans into full whiteness.
30:33 – The end of the National Origins system in 1965
Sources:
Dillingham Commission, Dictionary of Races or Peoples, Senate Document 662, Vol. 5 (1911).
archive.org/details/dictionaryofrace00unitrich/page/n173/mode/2up
Johnson-Reed Immigration Act, 43 Stat. 153 (1924).
Rollins v. State, 92 So. 35 (Ala. Ct. App. 1922).
Harry H. Laughlin, testimony before the House Committee on Immigration and Naturalization, April 16-17, 1920. Published as Analysis of America's Modern Melting Pot (1922) and Europe as an Emigrant-Exporting Continent (1924).
Benjamin Franklin, Observations Concerning the Increase of Mankind (1751).
William Z. Ripley, The Races of Europe: A Sociological Study (1899). Available on Archive.org.
Madison Grant, The Passing of the Great Race (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1916). Available on Archive.org.
Giuseppe Sergi, The Mediterranean Race: A Study of the Origin of European Peoples (1901). archive.org/details/mediterraneanrac00serguoft/page/70/mode/2up
Prescott F. Hall, "Immigration and the Educational Test," North American Review (1897).
Ray Stannard Baker reporting on Sumrall, Mississippi, American Magazine (1907).
Joel Perlmann, "'Race or People': Federal Race Classifications for Europeans in America, 1898-1913," Levy Economics Institute Working Paper No. 648 (2011). levyinstitute.org/pubs/wp_648.pdf
Jon Røyne Kyllingstad, "Measuring the Master Race: Physical Anthropology in Norway, 1890-1945" (2014). researchgate.net/publication/273572410_Measuring_the_Master_Race_Physical_Anthropology_in_Norway_1890-1945
Horrabin, J. F. (1920). Caucasian types: Nordic (Englishman) and Mediterranean (Berber) [Illustration]. In H. G. Wells, The Outline of History: Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind (p. 67). George Newnes Ltd.
Jessica Barbata Jackson, Dixie's Italians: Sicilians, Race, and Citizenship in the Jim Crow Gulf South (LSU Press).
✅Join me OFF of Youtube
patreon.com/NYTN
💚💚Get you $50 cash back @ Rakuten rakuten.com/r/DANIEL9771
☕Send me a coffee!: ko-fi.com/nytn13#linkModal
nytonashville.com
FOLLOW ME 📸
► YouTube: / @NYTN
► Facebook: / facebook.com/findinglolafilm
► Website: nytonashville.com
► X: / twitter.com/ImFindingLola
► "Who Counts as..." Series in the US: youtube.com/watch?v=yUbLF-tgbB0&list=PLvzaW1c7S5hRisWeiK9K5E8X7asZdz4X1
*Amazon links are affiliate links. If buy something through these links, we may earn affiliate commission. Thank you for supporting this project!
