First lady traces her Italian American heritage and emphasizes to ISDA members the need to value their mutual ancestors

Italian Sons and Daughters of America national president Basil Russo heard first lady Jill Biden speak movingly of her Italian heritage at a White House reception in October. That address spurred him to invite her to speak to his organization, and she came to Pittsburgh Saturday to do just that.

And add to that one more important point: Biden is the first Italian American first lady in U.S. history, a fact that Russo stressed in his introduction before her short speech.

Biden addressed members of the organization at an annual leadership banquet that normally follows a board of directors meeting, according to an ISDA leader, and about 400 had registered to attend. Russo said she accepted his invitation to come to Pittsburgh, something that came together in just 30 days. ISDA leadership decided to invite any member who could attend as well as the board to hear the same message he did in D.C.

Biden’s great-grandparents Gaetano and Concetta Giacoppo left their village of Gesso, Sicily, with her 2-year-old future grandfather, Domenico, in 1900 to start a new life in the United States. Ellis Island immigration officials anglicized the family name to Jacobs. They settled in New Jersey, where her grandfather worked as a small furniture store delivery man, according to a July article in La Nostra Voce, the organization’s official publication.

She said she visited Ellis Island and saw the registry there that her ancestors and other immigrants signed on blank pages, some with elaborate signatures and others who marked their names just as X’s because that was all they could do.

Their lives started over again, just as blank as those pages, she said. “They had the courage to chase the promise of this country,” Biden said, and they worked hard and with grit to find their way and improve their lives.

The first lady noted that it wasn’t always easy for Italian immigrants, pointing out the want ads that stated Italians need not apply and the 1891 mass hanging of Italian immigrants by a bigoted mob in New Orleans who blamed them for the death of a police chief.

Her father served in World War II and took advantage of the GI Bill, attending college and starting a career in banking that permitted him to provide a middle-class life in Willow Grove, a Philadelphia suburb, for his four daughters.

Biden said she wanted “a good marriage and a career,” much like her parents had modeled. She said she found her calling teaching English first at high schools and later at colleges, including when her husband, Joe, was vice president and now as president, all of which is detailed in her White House bio. And Biden and her husband, married since 1977, have a similar strong marriage, she said.

“I found in Joe a husband who has always been supportive of my career,” she said.

In turn, Biden said she is proud of her husband and what he has accomplished in his political career. She ran quickly through the successful efforts he led to recover from the pandemic and help secure the lifestyle immigrants sought when they came to the United States.

Now she said she thinks often of her Italian ancestors “who kept rituals that reflect the motto of ISDA: Liberty, Unity and Duty.”

Ensuring those rituals continue in organizations like ISDA is important, Biden concluded. “Let’s make sure their sacrifices are never forgotten and their values are never forgotten.”

Before she spoke, Russo reminded those in attendance that the ISDA began in 1930 by splitting off from the Order of Sons of Italy, mainly because that organization would not admit women as members. That began here in Pittsburgh, and Russo said including women in the organization has largely contributed to its growth into one of two of the largest Italian organizations in the United States.

He cited notable Italian American women — Frances Cabrini, Ella Grasso, Geraldine Ferraro and Nancy Pelosi — and their contributions to U.S. society.  Russo lauded Biden, too, for her work on aid for veterans and their families, the cancer Moon Shot project, women’s health research, and education opportunities for all.

It was important, he said, to invite young Italian American women to hear her speak Saturday as an inspiration for them and to acknowledge the importance of the struggles Italian Americans overcame to be successful and build new lives in this country.

Attendees settled in for their dinner after Biden’s short speech, which ended at 5:15 p.m. It was later that word spread that presumptive Republican nominee and former President Donald Trump was shot by an assailant at a Butler County rally.

The Associated Press reported he was shot in the ear at 6:15 p.m., and Secret Service agents rushed him off the stage and to a hospital.

The shooting is being investigated as an assassination attempt. Secret Service agents killed the shooter, identified by the FBI Sunday morning as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, and one person who had been sitting in the bleachers was shot and killed. National Public Radio reported that two others were critically injured and taken to a Pittsburgh hospital, which an Allegheny General Hospital spokesman confirmed Sunday without releasing information on the extent of their conditions. The Secret Service said the shooter shot at Trump “from an elevated position” outside the outdoor rally venue with an AR-15-type semiautomatic rifle recovered from near the body of a man law enforcement officials believed was the gunman.

Trump posted later on Truth Social that he was shot in the upper part of his right ear. He thanked the agents and other law enforcement officers for their response to the shooting and offered condolences to the family of the person who was killed and the injured person.