Wells High School?

There was once a man named Reprobus, who was at least 6'8". It is unclear, if he was a Christian before or after, but Reprobus was most famous for helping a child cross a river. While he crossed the river, the river grew in size and the child weighed more and more, until it felt like the child weighed like he was made of lead.

When he had helped the child cross the river, Reprobus said, "I do not think the whole world could have been as heavy on my shoulders as you were."

The child replied, "You had on your shoulders not only the whole world but Him who made it. I am Christ your king, whom you are serving by this work."

The child then vanished. If he was not a Christian previously, Reprobus became one on that day and, as the story became more well-known, Reprobus began to be called Χριστόφορος (Christóforos), the "Christ-bearer."

Χριστόφορος then visited Lycia in Southwestern Turkey. During the reign of Gaius Messius Quintus Traianus Decius or Galerius Valerius Maximinus Daza, Χριστόφορος was cited for failing to sacrifice to the gods. The leader of the region tried to convert Χριστόφορος, but Χριστόφορος instead converted hundreds to Christianity. Because he was lead, the leader of the region ordered that Χριστόφορος be killed. Several attempts were made but none worked until Χριστόφορος was beheaded.

In English, Χριστόφορος is usually rendered Christopher.  Within 500 years, Χριστόφορος' tale was widely-known.  Χριστόφορος is now the patron saint of travelers and traveling. I have a St. Christopher medal in my car for that reason.

In 1451, Columbus' parents named him Cristoffa after Χριστόφορος, the Christ-bearer. Columbus did not name himself that, his parents did. All he did was Latinize it to Christophorus, the Latin version of Cristoffa.

An egoist?  Oh man.  What a weird conclusion to draw!

As for the Holiday, on March 14, 1891, the largest mass lynching in American history occurred. The New Orleans police chief David Hennessy was shot. He indicated that "Dagoes" (Italian slur) were responsible. The three largest newspapers in New Orleans freely used the slur in their writeups. The newspapers lied about where the guns that were found at the scene were manufactured. The newspapers also fabricated the fact that Hennessy had been killed by a "mafia" of "1,100 Dago criminals." Mayor Joseph A. Shakespeare asked the people of New Orleans to "teach these people [Sicilians] a lesson they will not forget.

Within 24 hours, between 200 and 250 Italians had been arrested. An Italian cobbler, Pietro Monasterio, was arrested, because he lived near where the murder occurred. An Italian fruit salesman, Antonio Marchesi and Antonio's 14-year-old son, Gaspare, were arrested, because it was known that Antonio shopped at the first man's shoe shop.

By March 13, 1891, 19 Italians were in prison, nine on charges related to the murder of Chief David Hennessy.  Nine of the 19 were tried.  Six were acquitted.  A mistrial was declared for the other three.  The six acquitted faced other charges, which necessarily required a finding of guilt on the first charge and should have been released but were not.   “Rise, people of New Orleans!” wrote the Daily States newspaper. “Alien hands of oath-bound assassins have set the blot of a martyr’s blood upon your vaunted civilization.”  The next day, a group of 150 people, calling themselves The Committee of Safety called on everyone in New Orleans to come and meet "prepared for action" at the Henry Clay statue near the prison.   Thousands showed up, including at least one future Louisiana Governor and one New Orleans mayor, and stormed the prison. The warden released all 19 Italians in the prison and encouraged them to hide. In a coordinated attack, the crowd rushed the prison and broke down a door with a battering ram.

11 of the 19 Italians were found and killed. Three of the 11 were the three for which the mistrial had been declared: Monasterio, the cobbler; Emmanuele Polizzi, a mentally ill street vendor; and Antonio Scaffidi, a fruit salesman, who was recovering from a gunshot wound in an earlier attempt at vigilante justice.  Three others were men, who had been acquitted and should have already been released from prison. They were Joseph Macheca, a fruit importer and political boss, and two other fruit salesman: Antonio Bagnetto and Antonio Marchesi, whose only crime appears to have been visiting Monasterio's shoe shop.  Five others who were not involved in the murder investigation were also killed: a ward politician, a tinsmith, two dockworkers and a man who worked on a rice plantation.  Bagnetto and Polizzi were both drug into the street and hung before being "riddled with bullets."   Their bodies remained where they were hung for several hours thereafter. The other nine were either beaten to death or shot before being torn apart by the crowd.

Three of the men were still Italian subjects, who had not yet filed to become American citizens. Macheca was the only one that was not an immigrant, merely being a man of Sicilian descent, who was actually raised by a Maltese man. Another man was an Italian subject but one of Rome, rather than Sicily.

The Daily States newspaper referred to the 11 as "a villainous looking set." In the racially-conscience South, Italians, with their dark complexions, were viewed as not full-fledged members of the white race. The lynching was international news. The New York Times took the lynching as an excuse to say that Sicilians were "desperate ruffians," "murderers," sneaky, "cowardly," "descendants of bandits and assassins," "lawless" and "a pest" before saying that rattlesnakes would make equally good citizens as Sicilians. The London Times expressed approval. Henry Cabot Lodge gave a speech indicating that he deplored the lynching before using the lynching as an excuse to try and curtail Italian immigration into the United States of America.

Judge Robert H. Marr was placed in charge of looking into the lynching. He was a longtime personal friend of multiple members of the mob. Without any evidence, he indicated that the nine men who were bribed had tried to bribe the jury. He ultimately wrote that the mob was a "gathering" of "several thousands of the first, best, and even the most law-abiding, of the citizens of" New Orleans.  Judge Marr refused to indict anyone for bribing the jury and also refused to indict anyone for the public lynching of 11 men.

At least eight more Italians were lynched before 1900. Similarly, no charges were ever brought against anyone. By 1926, 300,000 Italians had moved to New Orleans, more than any other state in the South.

Italy first removed its ambassador from New Orleans. After no action from any governmental entity, Italy removed all ambassadors from all embassies, and the United States removed its ambassador from Rome. President Harrison tried to ease tensions between the two countries by doing two things. First, despite protests form Congress, he agreed to pay the families of the 11 victims a combined $25,000.00.  Second, President Harrison called for the celebration of the very first Columbus Day to celebrate Italian contributions to the United States of America. The first Columbus Day was the 400th anniversary of Columbus landing in the New World.  It took more than a year for Italy and the United States of America to normalize relations.

After the Panic of 1893 started, the Red Shirts and the White League increased attacks on African-Americans, Catholics, Jews and Native Americans from Louisiana in the Deep South.  Organizations, like the Knights of Columbus, fought back against the Red Shirts and White League.  One way in which the Knights of Columbus sought to better the perception of Catholics in the country was to try and talk up the accomplishments of Columbus.  The Red Shirts and White League countered by making up nonsense about Columbus and trying to tie Columbus to atrocities that occurred throughout colonies of New Spain in the decades that followed Coumbus serving as governor of Hispaniola.

After being mostly snuffed out in the 1870s, the KKK started back up after the movie Birth of a Nation came out.  This nationalized the Red Shirt and White League phenomenon in the Southeast.  The Knights of Columbus continued to fight back on behalf of marginalized populations, including African-American, Catholics and Jews. 

With few African-Americans, Oregon started to actively persecute Catholics and Jews beginning in the early 1910s.  This intensified after 1914.  In 1922, with support from the Democrats and their paramilitary arm, the KKK, the State of Oregon passed the Oregon Compulsory Education Act.  The Act would have outlawed Catholic schools from teaching and schools from teaching in any language but English.  It would have forced all children to attend schools to read History books written by the KKK "historians," which the Democrats still are quoting as fact to this very day.  

The Knights of Columbus fought the Oregon Compulsory Education Act and won at the United States Supreme Court in the 1925 decision of Pierce v. Society of Sisters.

The KKK and the Knights of Columbus fought not only domestically but also backed different factions within the 1910 Mexican Civil War (called the Mexican Revolution by the successful Mexican liberals, who won the War, and also a favorite of the KKK domestically) and also different factions in the subsequent Cristero War.

After successes over the KKK and their allies at the state level, the Knights of Columbus and other Catholic organizations sought to make Columbus Day a Federal Holiday and were ultimately successful in 1934.  The day was a day to celebrate the successes, achievements and contributions made by Catholics to the United States of America.

The man, Columbus, is not the point. The point was to try and stop the outright bigotry, nonsense and propaganda spouted by the Democrats and KKK 75+ years ago. And to remember that that bigotry is dangerous. And to hear the same nonsense and propaganda being spouted again by the new "woke" Democrats is astounding! Are you woke or not? Because using antiquated KKK talking points to attack Columbus Day is a completely unenlightened opinion.

True historians do not disagree with events.  Historians agree that the events are as I state.  The KKK "historians" and crazy Rick on the internet try to conflate events that took place almost a half century after Columbus stopped being governor as having happened on Columbus' watch.  The "woke" left eats up some of that complete fabricated nonsense with a fork and a knife and spit it out, as if it were actually true.  The same people that talk about masking and vaccine safety and global warming then states outright bigoted lies originally fabricated by the KKK as true in the exact same breath.  That destroys the woke's credibility on everything else!  What are you doing?  Please have an informed opinion on Columbus or stay out of it.  Lord Almighty!

Who is your "respected historian," who is stating anything that differs from what I am stating?  Who?  Anyone with the past 55 years, who is saying anything like that is not a historian.  He or she is uninformed or spouting nonsense from earlier bigots to  shape his or her "facts."

I am part Native American.  I thoroughly disagree that Columbus Day should be sacrificed for a Native American holiday.  

I do not celebrate being ignored.  I do not celebrate that other people's opinions are more valuable than mine for reasons beyond my control.  I do not celebrate that, as a part of a historically oppressed minority, I am now cut out from providing input or insight into things of this nature, because I am the wrong historically oppressed minority or do not check enough boxes to be able to provide my opinion.  That is galling.  The new Democratic bigotry is different than the old Democratic bigotry, but it is 100% the same in several other respects.  I am tired of it.