Emma Lazarus
Born July 22, 1849
New York, New York
Died November 19, 1887
New York, New York
Author of the famous poem that appears on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty, and Jewish rights advocate
"Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…"
If Emma Lazarus had done nothing else in life, writing the poem "The New Colossus" would have preserved her name in American history. Engraved on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty (see entry in volume 2) in New York Harbor, the poem seems to capture the spirit of the woman holding a torch aloft, as if to light the way for the flood of European immigrants streaming into the United States when the lines were written in 1883: "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." The facts that lie behind the poem, and its author, reveal the much greater complexities of immigration to the United States.
Growing Up in New York
Emma Lazarus grew up in a privileged household in New York City.
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