Today is the 135th anniversary of the largest single mass lynching in American history, when 11 Italian Americans are killed in New Orleans by a mob of thousands seeking justice for the murder of a police chief several months prior.

The murder trial, ending the day before, had been inconclusive. Anti-Italian sentiment had been rising for a decade as companies and plantations lured Italian immigrants and hired them at low wages.

The mayor of New Orleans had been fond of blaming Italians for the spread of disease, describing them as “idle, vicious, and worthless people.” The government and national press are largely complicit in the lynching. For decades after, non-Italians in New Orleans will taunt Italian Americans with the phrase, "Who killa da chief?"