Twenty year old Bartolomeo Vanzetti arrived in New York City on a sultry summer day in 1908. As he passed through Ellis Island, he joined the vast army of immigrants - 20 million people - who came to the US in the early days of the twentieth century.

Many of the immigrants quickly settled into their new nation. Many others struggled to find their footing: moving from place to place in search of steady work they never seemed to find; battling hunger, loneliness, and fear; and staggering under the terrible weight of poverty. Vanzetti was one of the unfortunate. He spent 19 years in America, always un povero uomo - a poor man - lost in a land of plenty. When he died in 1927, he had no job, no family, and not a penny to his name.

A quarter million people attended his funeral.