The current processing project of the Saint Peter’s University Archive & Special Collections is the Grace Billotti Spinelli Papers. This collection has tremendous historical value and can offer researchers a deeper insight into the history of Jersey City and the experience of Italian immigrants in the early 20th century. For any researchers interested in Jersey City Mayor, Frank Hague, this collection will be of particular interest.
Grace Billotti Spinelli was born in Sicily in 1907 and emigrated to Baltimore with her family in 1916. Billotti Spinelli was a social worker in Baltimore and advocated for women's reproductive rights. She then moved to Jersey City in the 1930s to work at the Jersey City International Institute and then later, at the YWCA (Young Women's Christian Association).
In 1940, Billotti Spinelli joined the fusion, anti-Hague "Citizen's Ticket," which sought to challenge Jersey City's long-standing mayor, Frank Hague, and his political machine. She was the first woman to run for City Commissioner in Jersey City. During her campaign for City Commissioner, she endured sexist attacks by Hague and his officials. Her husband, Marcos Spinelli, was also harangued during the campaign and accused of being a communist by Jersey City's then Director of Safety, Daniel Casey. She ultimately lost the election, having only secured 13,288 votes -- according to the May 14, 1941 issue of the New York Times.
Her husband, Marcos Spinelli, wrote the following quote about her: "Unslept, unrelieved, without experienced by undaunted, meretriciously unsupported and harassed by her own political allies, uncertain but determined, exhausted exposed to the merciless, brutal, degenerate and degrading attacks of her political foes… this was the incredible reality she lived through for thirty days as she breasted alone the surrounding fury of Hague’s wrath. And she came out of such a political inferno unsullied, unbroken, and unbowed."
Her papers include material concerning her campaign for office in 1941 (ex. newspaper clippings, flyers, political speeches, and campaign photos), personal correspondence, subject files, writings and manuscripts, professional papers from her decades of work as a social worker, and records from her time working at the YWCA and Jersey City’s International Institute.
The Grace Billotti Spinelli Papers are currently being processed by the Saint Peter’s University Library and will soon be open to researchers. To schedule a research appointment or class visit, please contact archivist, Kate Mitchell at kmitchell3@saintpeters.edu.
To explore the archive's open collections, click here.
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