Broad Street Riots

In the winter of 1908, the country was months into an economic depression and at a spike in anti-Italian xenophobia. The anarchists of Philadelphia called a meeting on South 3rd Street to raise consciousness among unemployed workers. Speeches were made in English, Yiddish, Russian, and Italian.

The Italian speaker was supposed to be the later-famous Carlo Tresca (after whom my soon-to-be famous cat is named), but Tresca was laying low because he'd just been indicted on a statutory rape charge (Never touch the daughter of a comrade was the rule). He was replaced by a socialist who called for a march to city hall. This was not what any of the anarchists had in mind (they wanted to plan for a parade & rally), but the immigrant Italians bought it and swarmed out of the hall. They were met at Broad & Locust Streets by a squad of police riding on horses and motorized bicycles.

I took this picture today from the microfilm reader at our main library while my movie-maker friends were filming over my shoulder. I retrieved the article many years ago and I know the story quite well. These are mugshots from the jail showing five of the alleged rioters, of whom only Dominic Donelli (far left) was an anarchist, and an armed one at that. Carello (far right) was not sentenced at trial, but the other four got between 1 & 5 years, and the original prints of those four survive in an archive.

Police made preposterous statements at the trial. One showed his dented badge which, he said, had stopped an anarchist bullet. What evidently happened was that the police overreacted with their clubs when they saw hundreds of Italians getting close to City Hall, and the court made short work of four of them.

Two anarchist leaders, who had addressed the crowd in English & Yiddish, were arrested for inciting the monolingual Italians to riot but were acquitted at trial.

Dominic Donelli, the anarchist, was sent to the state penitentiary and served two and 1/2 of his 5-year sentence and then returned to his native country. The other three all served less than two years in the city jail and then disappeared from History's radar.

Donelli had been prevented, 2 years earlier, by a non-violent comrade, from stabbing a police lieutenant in the back as he was ordering a meeting to disperse.

Ten years after the riot, the home of Judge Robert Von Moschzisker on Delancey Street was bombed by persons unknown --but those who did it were certainly Italian anarchists. There was nothing especially harsh or political about this judge's career. In fact, he was the son of a German "forty-eighter" who came to the US after fighting in the failed revolution of 1848. On the other hand, he happened to be the judge who sent Donelli to Eastern State Pen. I can't find any reason why his front step received the package, other than an act or suggestion from Donelli.

During the Gulf War (1991), President George H. W. Bush made an appearance at Broad & Locust Streets, and antiwar protesters (including many anarchists) were attacked and bludgeoned by police without provocation. The city later made financial settlements with the wounded, some of whom were my friends. One of their bandaged heads told me that a single stroke of a billyclub will galvanize one's anarchism like nothing else in life.