The Truth Behind “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses …”

By

 Dianne Hermann

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses …” is on a plaque of the Statue of Liberty pedestal. It’s used to promote unfettered and unrestricted immigration. You should know the truth.

This oft-quoted phrase is actually a small part of a poem. American poet Emma Lazarus (1849-1887) wrote the poem “The New Colossus” in 1883. She donated the poem to raise money for the construction of the pedestal for the Statue of Liberty. The poem title was a reference to the Greek Colossus of Rhodes, one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

France gave the statue to America in 1885. After the parts were reassembled and the pedestal was constructed, the statue was dedicated on October 28, 1886. President Grover Cleveland presided over the event.

But as with every aspect of American history, there’s a lot more to the story. People don’t know what prompted France to design, build, and donate the statue to America. Even less well known is that these familiar words are from a largely unknown poem. Most obscure is what prompted the writing of the poem.

History

After years of designing, fundraising, building, and with several trips to America, Bartholdi and his extensive team finally completed the statue in 1884. Laboulaye died the year before, having never seen the finished work.

Here’s the poem “The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips.

“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

FACT OVER FICTION

The poem is now synonymous with the Statue of Liberty. But I doubt if anyone could tell you who wrote it. And when. And why. Or how it came to be associated with the quintessential monument.

Most people erroneously believe the famous phrase came from the U.S. government. Many people mistakenly believe it’s an immigration mandate.

That’s pure fiction. The fact is that the poem was reluctantly written as one of many artistic and literary works to raise money for the construction of the pedestal on which the Statue of Liberty stands. In addition, the poem wasn’t placed on the statue’s pedestal until 20 years after it was dedicated.

Nevertheless, the phrase “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” is now part of the collective American consciousness.

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Source: independentsentinel.com

1848 – James W. Marshall discovered a gold nugget at Sutter’s Mill in northern California. The discovery led to the gold rush of ’49.

1899 – Humphrey O’Sullivan patented the rubber heel.

1908 – In England, the first Boy Scout troop was organized by Robert Baden-Powell.

1916 – Conscription was introduced in Britain.

1922 – Christian K. Nelson patented the Eskimo Pie.

1924 – The Russian city of St. Petersburg was renamed Leningrad. The name has since been changed back to St. Petersburg.

1930 – Primo Carnera made his American boxing debut by knocking out Big Boy Patterson in one minute, ten seconds of the opening round.

1935 – Krueger Brewing Company placed the first canned beer on sale in Richmond, VA.

1942 – “Abie’s Irish Rose” was first heard on NBC radio.

1943 – U.S. President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Churchill concluded a wartime conference in Casablanca, Morocco.

1952 – Vincent Massey was the first Canadian to be appointed governor-general of Canada.

1955 – The rules committee of major league baseball announced a plan to strictly enforce the rule that required a pitcher to release the ball within 20 seconds after taking his position on the mound.

1964 – CBS-TV acquired the rights to televise the National Football League’s 1964-1965 regular season. The move cost CBS $14.1 million a year. The NFL stayed on CBS for 30 years.

1965 – Winston Churchill died at the age of 90.

1972 – The U.S. Supreme Court struck down laws that denied welfare benefits to people who had resided in a state for less than a year.

1978 – A nuclear-powered Soviet satellite plunged through Earth’s atmosphere and disintegrated. The radioactive debris was scattered over parts of Canada’s Northwest Territory.

1980 – The United States announced intentions to sell arms to China.

1985 – Penny Harrington became the first woman police chief of a major city. She assumed the duties as head of the Portland, Oregon, force of 940 officers and staff.

1986 – The Voyager 2 space probe flew past Uranus. The probe came within 50,679 miles of the seventh planet of the solar system.

1987 – In Lebanon, gunmen kidnapped educators Alann Steen, Jesse Turner, Robert Polhill and Mitheleshwar Singh. They were all later released.

1989 – Ted Bundy, the confessed serial killer, was put to death in Florida‘s electric chair for the 1978 kidnap-murder of 12-year-old Kimberly Leach.

1990 – Japan launched the first probe to be sent to the Moon since 1976. A small satellite was placed in lunar orbit.

1995 – The prosecution gave its opening statement at the O.J. Simpson murder trial.

1996 – Polish Premier Jozef Oleksy resigned due to allegations that he had spied for Moscow.

2000 – The U.S. Supreme Court upheld a Missouri law that limited the contributions that individuals could donate to a candidate during a single election.

2001 – In Colorado Springs, CO, Patrick Murphy Jr. and Donald Newbury were taken into custody after a 5-minute phone interview was granted with a TV station. They were the remaining fugitives of the “Texas 7.”

2002 – The U.S. Congress began a hearing on the collapse of Enron Corp.

2002 – John Walker Lindh appeared in court for the first time concerning the charges that he conspired to kill Americans abroad and aided terrorist groups. Lindh had been taken into custody by U.S. Marines in Afghanistan.

2003 – The U.S. Department of Homeland Security began operations under Tom Ridge.