[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.

[Army Air Corps]

Yes, many immigrants from those areas came to the US and were naturalized. You are aware of efforts to restrict immigration from those areas of Europe, yes? As for popular opinion, have you ever read some of the editorials or seen some of the derogatory cartoons from mainstream newspapers of the time as related to immigrants from Southern, Southeastern Europe, and Ireland?

[B Knotts]

Well, I’d just direct you to the Immigration Act, and let you draw your own conclusions. Italians and Greeks may not have been considered “colored,” but they were certainly seen as less desirable and therefore less “white” than those from England, France, Germany, etc. The Immigration Act put these preferences into law.