ANTHONY CILIBRIZZI – WASHINGTON

He was born in Anzi in 1910, to Rocco Cilibrizzi and Donata Marcogiuseppe.

In 1912, Rocco emigrated to the United States, and upon arrival at Ellis Island, like many others, his surname was Americanized to become Celebrezze.

Anthony grew up in a shantytown in Cleveland, Ohio, in difficult economic conditions; his father found modest employment as a railroad worker, and at the age of six, Anthony joined his older brothers and sisters shining shoes and selling newspapers.

Despite the poverty, he attended public schools, high school, and university, graduating in Law and obtaining a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.), qualifying as a lawyer. He moved to Columbus to work in the Ohio Unemployment Commission, and in 1938, he returned to Cleveland where he began practicing law. He married Anne M. Marco, a teacher, with whom he had three children.

In 1941, when the USA entered the war, he enlisted in the Navy. At the end of the conflict, upon being discharged, he began his political career by winning a seat in the Ohio Senate as a member of the Democratic Party.

He ran for mayor of Cleveland, winning the election as an independent candidate, serving as mayor from 1953 to 1962. He promoted a massive urban redevelopment program, and one of his measures included dismantling the shantytown where he had grown up.

In 1961, President John Fitzgerald Kennedy appointed him as a member of the National Commission on Equal Employment Opportunity and the National Commission on the Status of Women. He also received the appointment as President of the United States Conference of Mayors and was later called to Washington to assume the prestigious position of Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare. After Kennedy’s death, he continued his term even under President Lyndon Johnson and achieved significant results such as the approval of Medicare, the federal healthcare program, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a result of the protest by the minority community.

In July 1965, he was appointed by President Johnson as a judge on the Court of Appeals, a position he held until 1996. He never returned to his homeland, and the public figure, mayor, minister, and judge passed away at the age of 88 in a nursing home in Ohio.

Source: “e-migrazione ieri, oggi e domani” REPORT 2015 – 2016 from Anci Basilicata Supporto Tecnico Scientifico