What was Ellis Island anyway? Among the proudest parts of the newly restored island is a long copper wall on which some 200,000 names of former immigrants – from Agnes Aabrahamson to Ferra Zyziak – are inscribed. Passage through Ellis Island was not required for inclusion on the wall; all that was needed was a donation in the immigrant’s name. Still, the wall is in one sense a physical symbol of the melting pot, with its vast mixture of national origins, its English, Swedish, Polish, Jewish, Italian, Greek and other names. But black Americans or Asian-Americans visiting the wall would probably find few names directly relevant to them.
The wall is evidence that Ellis Island belonged to a specific time in American history. It was the time of the huge influx of European, white immigration that took place in the first half of this century. And it was a time when the new arrivals accepted as a matter of course the need to adapt to a culture and a language that was not their own, to take on a new identity as part of achieving the American dream.
Source: Richard Bernstein, The New York Times (September 11, 1990)
Great discussion in class today about the article and issues of assimilation, New York, and the relevance of the question posed by Bernstein in 1990 to our class in 2018. You can click the link above for the article or check the shared class folder.
