[caption id="attachment_69563" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Thomas Nast."]
Looks like Thomas Nast will have to wait for another year
The 19th century political cartoonist was in line for elevation to the New Jersey Hall of Fame but Irish American leaders, politicians and even Italian Americans in the Garden State objected furiously on the grounds of Nast's virulent anti-Catholicism and expressed disdain for the Irish.
The controversy swirling around 19th-century political cartoonist Thomas Nast, who died more than 100 years ago, and his entry into the New Jersey Hall of Fame can be put on hold for at least a year, the Star Ledger in Newark reported.
the daily reported that Nast had "failed to make the cut for induction this year."
Stated the report: "The commission's executive director, Don Jay Smith, won't confirm Nast didn't make it and said although the votes have been cast, no announcement on new inductees has been scheduled. This would be the third year Nast has failed to make the cut."
Smith, the report continued, has been a defender of Nast, saying the anti-Irish cartoons he drew were a tiny portion of his influential body of work that remains iconic to this day, including his depiction of Uncle Sam, the Republican elephant and Democratic donkey.
"The main reason Nast went after the Irish, Smith said, was that they were the main supporters of New York City's Tammany Hall political machine. And he noted that it would be hard to argue that Nast hated the Irish for having spent 20 years in Morristown, sometimes known then as 'Little Dublin.'"
Nast's possible elevation prompted particular strong objections from the state's Ancient Order of Hibernians. AOH antipathy was echoed by the New Jersey Italian American community. The New Jersey branch of the Italian American organization, the One Voice Coalition, the nation's largest Italian American anti-bias organization, called on Don Smith, to eliminate Nast from inclusion in the latest batch of nominees due to the cartoonist's history of prejudice and bigotry towards Italians, Irish Catholics and other ethnicities.
Thomas Nast produced editorial cartoons in the late 1800s that included depictions of Italians as criminals and malcontents along with other negative imagery of Italy and Italian Americans. This was in addition to his repeated depictions of Catholics, and especially Irish Catholics, in hostile and bigoted themes, the group said in a statement.
"We should not be glorifying such a clearly bigoted and prejudiced person in a list of prominent New Jerseyans," said Andre DiMino, president of One Voice.
DiMino was expressing sentiments almost identical to those of New Jersey AOH State President, Sean Pender.
Meanwhile, one state legislator, Assemblyman Wayne DeAngelo (D-Mercer), believes that it should be three strikes and out for Nast.
"I would think after three times ... you should be excluded from it," DeAngelo was quoted as saying in the Star Ledger.
