"George Scigliano was born in the North End in 1874. He graduated from Boston University Law School in 1900 and was elected to the Boston Common (City) Council that same year, the first person of Italian decent to attain that position. Three years later he ran against the North End political machine of John F. (Honey Fitz) Fitzgerald and became a member of the State House of Representatives. He was a tireless crusader for the rights of Italian immigrants and fought to end the “padroni” system of employment which exploited the immigrants. He also introduced legislation to regulate the local Italian banks, often run out of grocery stores, which cheated poor immigrants out of their money. He founded the Italian Protective League, the first Italian labor union and was instrumental in obtaining a cemetery for Italians in Boston. George Scigliano died tragically at the age of thirty two and the North End lost one of its great early leaders."
