Description
On a cold day in September, the patriotic, pro-Protestant preaching of an Italian immigrant pastor, August Giuliani, ignited a rebellion in Milwaukee’s small Italian enclave of Bay View that injured two policemen and killed two rioters. Two months later, any person placed a bomb in Giuliani’s Third Ward church in an apparent act of retaliation, and a parishioner carried the explosive to Central Police Station, where it detonated, killing nine policemen and a civilian. Inside of every week, the trial of the Bay View Italians started in a town inflamed with fear, distrust and vengeance. The national buzz attracted big names to the case, including attorney Clarence Darrow and radical heroine Emma Goldman. Sign up for Robert Tanzilo as he in moderation navigates the minefield of racial, political and spiritual tension that tore apart Milwaukee’s Italian community in 1917.