2008 Woodie Awards
Professor presents discrimination at conference
Maria Gomez
Issue date: 4/27/06 Section: News
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Last April 4, 2006, the professor Vincent Morrissette presented the conference, A Little-known History of Discrimination: Franco-Americans in New England sponsored by the Department of English and Modern Foreign Languages.
Morrissette whose parents were form Quebec was born in New England. He explained the difficult situations that Franco-Americans went through when they immigrated to New England.
"Two waves of immigration to new England took place. The first one during the years 1840 to 1865; period previous to the Civil War in which immigrants from Canada came to New England. The second between 1865 and 1930 in which one hundred twenty-five thousand immigrants arrived to New England; men first and then wives, sisters and kids," said Morrissette.
"These people didn't come here to pursue the American Dream; they just came here to get money and go back to Canada," he said.
"They also had their own values, their own language and their own systems; they had their own banks, hospitals, newspapers, social clubs, their own church which was under the Roman Catholic Church et cetera. That was called the Petite Canada," said Morrissette.
"They spoke French exclusively. They isolated themselves; they were outsiders. French was a funny language that Yankees wouldn't understand," he said.
"The discrimination against Franco-American was at all levels; in society, in the market place, at the Church and in State language affairs," said Morrissette.
"A lot of animosity against Franco-Americans," he said
"So many incidents took place during these periods of time such as the KKK (Ku Klux Klan) against them during the eighteen hundreds and nineteen twenties," he also said.
"French-Canadians isolated themselves from the English World and because of that they were hated by the rest of the people," said Morrissette.
"The KKK acted against them as they did with African-Americans. They used to burn crosses in front of their properties," he said.
Morrissette whose parents were form Quebec was born in New England. He explained the difficult situations that Franco-Americans went through when they immigrated to New England.
"Two waves of immigration to new England took place. The first one during the years 1840 to 1865; period previous to the Civil War in which immigrants from Canada came to New England. The second between 1865 and 1930 in which one hundred twenty-five thousand immigrants arrived to New England; men first and then wives, sisters and kids," said Morrissette.
"These people didn't come here to pursue the American Dream; they just came here to get money and go back to Canada," he said.
"They also had their own values, their own language and their own systems; they had their own banks, hospitals, newspapers, social clubs, their own church which was under the Roman Catholic Church et cetera. That was called the Petite Canada," said Morrissette.
"They spoke French exclusively. They isolated themselves; they were outsiders. French was a funny language that Yankees wouldn't understand," he said.
"The discrimination against Franco-American was at all levels; in society, in the market place, at the Church and in State language affairs," said Morrissette.
"A lot of animosity against Franco-Americans," he said
"So many incidents took place during these periods of time such as the KKK (Ku Klux Klan) against them during the eighteen hundreds and nineteen twenties," he also said.
"French-Canadians isolated themselves from the English World and because of that they were hated by the rest of the people," said Morrissette.
"The KKK acted against them as they did with African-Americans. They used to burn crosses in front of their properties," he said.