Sinatra, Frank. (1915–1998) [RACISM & ANTISEMITISM] Let’s Not Forget We’re ALL Foreigners

Sinatra, Frank. (1915–1998) [RACISM & ANTISEMITISM]

Let’s Not Forget We’re ALL Foreigners

N.p.: Leaflet. 1945. Single letter-size sheet folded to make four pages, 21cm x 14cm. Portrait cover,

2pp text. Reprinted from Magazine Digest, July, 1945.

A passionate and deeply personal plea for racial and ethnic tolerance in the face of post-WWII immigration, by perhaps the most visible Italian-American personality of the time. Sinatra recounts a childhood rife with persecution of ethnic minorities: “...when I was going to school over in Jersey, a bunch of guys threw rocks at me and called me a little Dago. I know now why they used to call the Jewish kids in ther neighborhood ‘kikes’ and ‘sheenies’ and the colored kids ‘niggers’...” Sinatra goes on to compare such behavior to that of the Nazis during the war, and implores readers to “...stamp out the prejudices that are separating one group of American citizens from another.”

A scarce item, of uncertain origin and distribution. The lone OCLC institution to have catalogued a copy attributes publication to the “Community Relations Service;” however, as there is no indication of an imprint on the pamphlet itself, and the CRS of the Department of Justice was not established until 1964, we consider this attribution dubious. (7053)

Ephemera Song