[Army Air Corps]

Exactly! “White” has been redefined many times over the past century and a half. In the late 19th Century, immigrants from Southern and Southeastern Europe were not regarded as “White.”

[B Knotts]

Very true, but I would argue it persisted well into the 20th century. The Immigration Act in 1924 was designed to curtail “non-white” immigration of Southern (and Eastern) Europeans.

[triumphant values]

In the late 19th Century, immigrants from Southern and Southeastern Europe were not regarded as “White.”

I've heard this a thousand times. Doesn't pass the smell test. First off the early Naturalization Laws were explicitly racially based on "White". The word is right there in the laws.

Southern and Eastern Europeans were naturalized in the US under these laws. That's a fact.

To think that there wasn't a continent wide racial construct among people who came from a continent ruled by interrelated monarchs from Madrid to Moscow just seems far fetched.

Yes, the belief was held by some in America, but not widely, and not in our early naturalization laws.

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

Here's a whole book on how the race of Italians was regarded in America