page_title: Italian Americans
section_title: Post-World War II period
hierarchical_section_title: Italian Americans / History / Post-World War II period
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Walter M. Schirra (Apollo 7)
context_page_description: Italian Americans are citizens of the United States of America who are of Italian descent. The majority of Italian Americans reside mainly in the Northeast and in urban industrial Midwest metropolitan areas, though smaller communities exist in certain metropolitan areas in other parts of the United States.
  About 5.5 million Italians immigrated to the United States from 1820 to 2004, with the majority of Italian immigrants to the United States arriving in the 20th century from Southern Italy. In 1870, prior to the large wave of Italian immigrants to the United States, there were fewer than 25,000 Italian immigrants in America, many of them Northern Italian refugees from the wars that accompanied the Risorgimento—the struggle for Italian unification and independence from foreign rule which ended in 1871. Immigration began to increase during the 1870s, when more than twice as many Italians immigrated than during the five previous decades combined.
context_section_description: Italians continued to immigrate to the United States, and an estimated 600,000 arrived in the decades following the war. Many of the new arrivals had professional training, or were skilled in various trades. The post-war period was a time of great social change for Italian Americans. Many aspired to a college education, which became possible for returning veterans through the GI Bill. With better job opportunities and better educated, Italian Americans entered mainstream American life in great numbers. The Italian enclaves were sometimes abandoned by members of the younger generation who chose to live in other urban areas and in the suburbs. Many married outside of their ethnic group, most frequently with other ethnic Catholics, but increasingly also with those of diverse religious and ethnic backgrounds.
  Italian Americans took advantage of the new opportunities that generally became available to all in the post-war decades. They made many significant contributions to American life and culture.
  Numerous Italian Americans became involved in politics at the local, state and national levels in the post-war decades. Those that became U.S. senators included: John Pastore of Rhode Island, who was the first Italian American elected to the Senate in 1950; Pete Domenici, who was elected to the U.S. Senate from New Mexico in 1973, and served six terms; Patrick Leahy who was elected to the U.S. Senate from Vermont in 1973, and has served continuously since then; and Alfonse D'Amato, who served as U.S. Senator from New York from 1981 to 1999. Anthony Celebrezze served for five two-year terms as mayor of Cleveland, from 1953 to 1962 and, in 1962, President John Kennedy appointed him as United States Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare (now the Department of Health and Human Services). Benjamin Civiletti served as the United States Attorney General during the last year and a half of the Carter administration, from 1979 to 1981. Frank Carlucci served as the United States Secretary of Defense, from 1987 to 1989 in the administration of President Ronald Reagan.
  Scores of Italian Americans became well known singers in the post-war period, including: Frank Sinatra, Mario Lanza, Perry Como, Dean Martin, Tony Bennett, Frankie Laine, Bobby Darin, Julius La Rosa, Connie Francis and Madonna. Italian Americans who hosted popular musical/variety TV shows in the post-war decades included: Perry Como (1949 to 1967), piano virtuoso Liberace (1952–1956), Jimmy Durante (1954–1956), Frank Sinatra (1957–1958) and Dean Martin (1965–1974). Broadway, musical stars included: Rose Marie, Carol Lawrence, Anna Maria Alberghetti, Sergio Franchi, Patti LuPone, Ezio Pinza and Liza Minnelli.
  In music composition, Henry Mancini and Bill Conti received numerous Academy Awards for their songs and film scores. Classical and operatic composers John Corigliano, Norman Dello Joio, David Del Tredici, Paul Creston, Dominick Argento, Gian Carlo Menotti and Donald Martino were honored with Pulitzer Prizes and Grammy Awards.
  Numerous Italian Americans became well known in movies, both as actors and directors, and many were Academy Award recipients.  Movie directors included: Frank Capra, Francis Ford Coppola, Michael Cimino, Vincente Minnelli, Martin Scorsese and Brian De Palma.
  Italian Americans were active in professional sports as players, coaches and commissioners.  Well-known professional baseball coaches in the post-war decades included: Yogi Berra, Billy Martin, Tony La Russa, Tommy Lasorda and Joe Torre. In professional football, Vince Lombardi set the standard of excellence for all coaches to follow. A. Bartlett Giamatti became president of the National Baseball League in 1986, and Commissioner of Baseball in 1989. Paul Tagliabue was Commissioner of the National Football League from 1989 to 2006.
  In college football, Joe Paterno became one of the most successful coaches ever. Seven Italian American players won the Heisman Trophy: Angelo Bertelli of Notre Dame, Alan Ameche of Wisconsin, Gary Beban of UCLA, Joe Bellino of Navy, John Cappelletti of Penn State, G
caption: Wally Schirra one of the earliest NASA astronauts to enter into space (1962), taking part in the Mercury Seven program and later Gemini and Apollo programs
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