A Sicilian in East Harlem By Salvatore Mondello

observing humans and planning wicked things for them. I asked grandma where the Witch had gone? She told me not to worry. We would never see her again. She had been taken by the Devil.

The Protestant Americans came into Italian East Harlem to challenge the folklore and superstitions of the Italians because these beliefs were considered obstacles to Christian teachings. By 1934 there were four Protestant churches in East Harlem. They were located on One Hundred and Sixth, Eleventh, Twelfth and Fourteenth streets. Before these mission churches were established, a Canadian woman, Anna C. Ruddy, founded the Home Garden where boys in the neighborhood were exposed to Bible study. Norman Thomas, a Presbyterian minister who later made an international reputation for himself as a socialist, was the chairman of a federation of Presbyterian churches and social agencies in East Harlem. Writing in 1918, Thomas was pleased with the work of Francesco Pirazzini, pastor of the Church of the Ascension on One Hundred and Sixth Street. There were more than seven hundred members in that congregation. “As Christians,” Thomas noted, “our deepest concern is to bring the spirit of Christ to bear upon those conditions of fundamental injustice in our industrial life which keep men from earning a living wage; which deny them any sort of democracy in industry, and then expect them to use political and religious democracy wisely.”¹⁸

Dr. Leonard Covello, my principal at James Otis Junior High School and Benjamin Franklin High School, was influenced by Protestant missionaries in East Harlem. In his letter to me dated February 24, 1975, he wrote: “Miss Anna C. Ruddy, founder of