Irish and Black Americans: Have the Parallel Lines Finally Met?
On this St. Patrick’s Day, with a black president in the White House, it is interesting – and maybe even somewhat inspiring – to look back on the way the Irish-American and African-American stories have coursed through our history on parallel lines, each struggling against terrific prejudices and slanders. In America, the blacks endured 250 years of slavery which persuaded many people, even those like Thomas Jefferson who wished them well, that they were a subhuman species. In Ireland, the Irish endured an even longer ordeal of English oppression, exploitation and ridicule that left them a defeated demoralized people. The ultimate blow to their self respect was the Great Famine of 1847-1851, which saw a million and a half wretched men, women, and children starve to death in fields and ditches while the English feasted on tons of wheat and meat exported from English-owned Irish farms. Another million and half Irish fled to America. In a country that was largely Protestant, their Roman C
