About the Museum

'Give me your tired' ... or maybe not: Allentown exhibit reveals immigration
has long been a thorny issue

By Dave Howell
Special to The Morning Call

March 23, 2018, 4:10 PM

Immigration has always been a highly inflammatory issue.

You can see that in a new exhibit at Allentown’s Liberty Bell Museum called “Last One In: American Ideals in Conflict with American Attitudes.” It shows that resistance to outsiders has existed since visitors first arrived in America.

The anti-immigration materials shown in the six display cases and wall displays are a disturbing contrast to the photos of the Statue of Liberty, which has a plaque at its base that reads: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore.”

“Building a wall to keep out ‘undesirables’ is not a new idea,” says tour guide Stephanie Burke. One of the many political cartoons in the exhibit shows a wall to keep out the Chinese, who were targeted in the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.

Burke adds: “The children of immigrants are often those who are the least welcoming to the next wave.”

The exhibit includes reproductions of cartoons by German-born Thomas Nast. Nast is best known for his work that helped bring down Boss Tweed, the corrupt leader of New York’s Tammany Hall political machine. But he also was strongly anti-Catholic and anti-Irish, as indicated by his cartoon “The Irish Way of Doing Things,” which shows a drunken Irishman sitting on a powder keg.

Drawings by other artists portray the Irish as degenerate or subhuman.

The exhibit shows that one of the most racist of the anti-Chinese voices of the late 19th century was American labor leader Denis Kearney, who was born in Ireland.

Allentown is represented with a reproduction of a 1994 resolution stating, “English shall be the official language of the City of Allentown and the language in which City business shall be conducted.”

The resolution, passed by the City Council, was introduced by the late city councilwoman Emma Tropiano, who was the daughter of Italian immigrants. Tropiano said in 1989 that Hispanics were to blame for 99 percent of crime in the city, a statement that she tried to backtrack from in later interviews.

The museum is inside Zion’s Reformed United Church of Christ on Hamilton Street in downtown Allentown, where the Liberty Bell was hidden in 1777 to keep it away from the British, who occupied Philadelphia. It is in keeping with its mission to focus on American ideals of freedom, liberty, civic responsibility and citizenship.

Parts of the exhibit will be changed each month. The museum also will host monthly lectures about ethnic communities formed by immigrants.

Lehigh Valley historian and author Frank Whelan gave the first lecture, “A Nation of Immigrants,” on March 15. He talked about the history of Pennsylvania, which began with William Penn’s “A Holy Experiment.” This was designed to welcome everyone to a new settlement in America, whatever race they were and whatever faith they held. The first new immigrants arrived in 1683. Both Pennsylvania and Allentown had a large number of German settlers.

The history of the colonies and later, of the United States, has many examples of dominant groups attempting to disenfranchise those of different ethnicities and religions. Penn’s son Thomas tried to keep Catholics out of the Pennsylvania colony, but the legislative assembly defeated his attempts by one vote.

Among the most notorious actions were the first restrictive laws imposed by the U.S. government, the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798, passed in response to fears of war with revolutionary France.

Parts of the act were used to intern Japanese-Americans during World War II, despite assurances by J. Edgar Hoover that they were no threat.

Whelan added that 11,000 German-Americans and 11,000 Italian-Americans were put on notice that they might be deported.

Whelan also talked about the SS St. Louis, which held 902 Jews, who were turned away from the United States in 1939. They were forced to return to Europe, where many were killed by the Nazis.

The German, Jewish, Syrian and Hispanic cultures that have grown to represent significant populations in our region will be discussed in upcoming lectures — the Syrian community in April, the Jewish community in May and the Latino community in June or July. Dates have not been finalized.

Zion’s Reformed United Church of Christ, which sits unobtrusively in the midst of new businesses on Hamilton Street, is the site of Allentown’s first church and is on the National Register of Historic Places. It was used as a refuge during Indian raids, a revolutionary war hospital, a gathering place for the reading of the Declaration of Independence and more. Along with its other historical exhibits, it features a replica of the Liberty Bell, which can be rung.

The Rev. Bob Stevens of Zion’s points out that both the replica and original Liberty Bell have this inscription from Leviticus on their base: “Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.” The Book of Leviticus also states, “You shall treat the stranger who sojourns among you as a native, and you shall love him as yourself.”

On the afternoon of Whelan’s lecture, Judge Edward D. Reibman, president of the Lehigh County Court of Common Pleas, presided over the granting of citizenship to immigrants from 25 countries.

He asked in his remarks, “Does this happen in every country of the world? I don’t think so. I think that America historically, and even today, still is a beacon for people. For freedom, or for economic opportunity, or to be reunited with family.”

“For those of us who were born here, we tend to take that for granted. By your presence, you remind us of that. And so while you think that you ought to thank me for presiding over this ceremony, we thank you for reminding us of what a great country we have. And when I say we, you are in it now, for it is your country as well.”

Dave Howell is a freelance writer.

The article can be found on the Morning Call's website.