The Politically Talented D’Alesandro Family

Thomas D’Alesandro III, 43rd Mayor of Baltimore

Thomas (Tommy) John D’Alesandro III was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on July 24, 1929. Tommy’s paternal grandparents, Tommaso Giovanni D’Alesandro and Maria Foppiani Petronilla, had emigrated from the community of Montenerodomo (population 673 in the 2017 Census) in the province of Chieti, in the region of Abruzzo, Italy, to Baltimore. Tommy’s father was Thomas John D’Alesandro Jr. and his mother was Annunciata Lombardi, who had emigrated from the city of Campobasso (population 49,230 in the 2017 Census) in the province of Campobasso in the region of Molise, Italy. Tommy was the oldest of six children, five boys and one girl, who was the youngest. (His sister, Nancy Pelosi, is now Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.) Tommy graduated from a local Catholic high school in June, 1947, one month after his father was sworn into office as the 39th Mayor of Baltimore.

In 1968, Mayor D’Alesandro vowed to ‘root out every cause or vestige of discrimination.’

dent of the City Council in January, 1963. In 1966, Tommy decided to run for mayor. He was elected in November 1966, and was sworn in as the 43rd Mayor of Baltimore on January 1, 1967. On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, and riots erupted in Baltimore. To calm the city, the mayor asked Maryland Governor Spiro T. Agnew to send in the National Guard. After calm was restored, the mayor vowed to “root out every cause or vestige of discrimination.” To prove his commitment to civil rights, he began to appoint African Americans to multiple positions in his administration. In 1970, as his term as mayor was coming to an end, Tommy decided not to run for re-election. He stated that he had five children and his salary was not enough to support his family. So, on January 1, 1971, he stepped aside as his successor, William Donald Schaefer, was sworn in as the next mayor. Tommy then entered the private practice of law at the age of 41 and was very successful. He practiced well into his 80s. In early 2019, he suffered a stroke and became bedridden at his home in Baltimore. He died there, due to complications, on October 20, 2019, at the age of 90. He was survived by his wife, his five children, and many grandchildren.

❚ Sources, all accessed

August 1, 2020: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

Thomas_D%27Alesandro_III

www.geni.com/people/TommasoG-D-Alesandro/6000000 (link expired) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montenerodomo en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campobasso