Carmelo 'Charles' Fama

Carmelo 'Charles' Fama was born on 3 April 1888, in Mistretta, province of Messina, Sicily, the son of Francesco Fama and his wife Maria Gulla (born 1868).

In 1899, at the age of 10, his father migrated to the USA aboard the SS Spartan Prince, initially settling in Boston where his cousin, Carmelo Parisi, was already established, and subsequently moving to New York. His mother, Maria (born circa 1859, died 1940), followed him to the United States afterwards. His parents were reportedly dependent on Charles for much of his life, a factor that may have contributed to his aspirational work ethic, self-reliance, and a strong desire for social recognition and mobility, despite being born Catholic.

Fama received his early education at Boston High School and then Boston Preparatory before matriculating to Boston College, from which he graduated in 1907. He was long a member of the Fides Society at Boston College. During his time at Boston College, he participated in the annual dramatic performances (playing a bit part as a Lieutenant of the Tower in Shakespeare's Richard III and Blunt in Henry IV, the Christmas Play). This suggests his conversion to Protestantism occurred sometime around 1909, leading to his shift in educational pursuits.

After graduating from Boston College, he attended the Catholic Provincial Seminary in Troy, New York, from 1907 to 1909. By 1910, he had  switched to the Bible Teachers School in New York. His obituary also indicates that he attended St John's University. One source suggests that he originally intended to become a medical missionary. In 1914, he graduated from the New York Homeopathic Medical College, an institution which had evolved from the bases established by William Cullen Bryant in 1860. He completed his practicum work at Boston Hospital and St Joseph's Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island. In 1915, he resided at 247 E. 100th St., New York, with his parents. His student profile from this period noted that he was 'killing two birds with one stone: he practices medicine and preaches the Word of the Lord in the Bronx, thereby healing both the body and the soul'.

Fama married Henrietta 'Etta' Bedard (born 5 May 1890 [other sources suggest 29 December 1890], Providence, RI - died 18 October 1959, Bronx, New York). Etta was the daughter of French Canadian immigrants, Joseph F. Bedard (1866–1940), an engineer, and Minnie (M. Francoise) Morris (Maurice)/Bedard (1869–1948), who were part of the significant French Canadian migration to the industrialising areas of the USA between 1830 and 1930.

Fama was naturalized as a US citizen in 1916 at the Bronx Court and in April 1918, he enlisted in the New York National Guard and the US Army Medical Corps (8th Coast Defence Corps, based at Fort Schuyler). He held the rank of Captain until demobilized, and then held a continuing commission as Lieutenant until he resigned in 1921 to travel to Italy. During World War I, his primary contribution as a medical officer not serving overseas was combating the Spanish Influenza epidemic. In his 1919 report, the Adjutant General of New York State forces commended Fama and his fellow medical officers for their skill and devotion in managing the influenza epidemic, resulting in a low mortality rate and maintaining low sick rates through sanitation and hygiene.

In 1921, Fama was appointed by the Department of the Interior as a member of the US Board of Pension Surgeons. This appointment, relatively early in his medical career, likely reflected appreciation for his military service and potentially his connections with the Masonic lodges, to which he belonged and would eventually rise to the 32nd degree. He was also a longtime member of the Macabees (a self-reliance organization providing low-cost insurance) and of the Sons of Italy. The rise of the medical profession to political power, as exemplified by his former Dean at the New York Homeopathic Medical College, Royal S. Copeland (a staunch Methodist who became President of the New York City Board of Health in 1918 and a US Senator in 1922), also likely benefited Fama. Both Copeland and Franklin D. Roosevelt (who played a role in Copeland's election) were also advanced freemasons.

In the same year, 1921, Fama sailed to Italy, declaring his profession as 'medical missionary', with the stated purpose of conducting a survey of medical needs in Italy. His sponsors, NYC Police Commissioner Richard Enright and Royal Copeland, provided him with a role as 'Inspector of United States Immigration', tasked (amidst fears of typhus) with establishing sanitation for immigrants before their departure from Europe. This experience in Italian migrant ports formed the basis of his later testimony at the House of Representatives Immigration Restriction Hearings in 1924. It is evident from his first public press appearance, a 1920 letter to the editor of the New York Times refuting Papal criticism of the YMCA's war work in Italy, that he had already established close ties with Waldensian interests in Italy. His support for Waldensian chaplains and criticism of Roman 'national church' exclusivism marked the beginning of his involvement in Protestant Italo-American anti-Fascism. This stance was notable during a period when many American leaders and intellectuals were praising Fascist corporatism. Fama and Italian-American Protestant church networks recognized early on the essentially religious nature of Mussolini's regime, which culminated in the Concordat of 1929. The YMCA's refusal to accept Italo-American Protestant chaplains, to avoid offending Catholic sensibilities, led to the co-option of YMCA work in Italy by Catholic clergy, a lesson that shaped Fama's future uncompromising attitude towards collaboration with the Catholic Church. Despite his emerging anti-Fascist views, he was still in contact at this stage with Ugo Mario Galli (born 1893), a medical doctor and freemason who would later become a promoter of local fascist support organizations in the USA.

Despite not being ordained, Fama's political connections and profession projected him into leadership with the Italian Protestant Ministers Association of Greater New York (IPMA). In November 1921, the Association protested a solemn mass and commemoration of an 'unknown Italian soldier' at New York's Catholic St Patrick's Cathedral, which included prayers for 'the repose of his soul'. Representing forty Italian Protestant churches of various denominations, the IPMA wrote an open letter to General Armando Diaz (Marshal of Italy and Chief of Staff of the Regio Esercito during the latter months of World War I), objecting to the official representation at and Diaz's participation in the event, due to the presumption that all those who suffered for Italy were Catholic. They argued that such celebrations should be civil and military, held in a public place, underscoring the importance of the separation of church and state in their vision of a modern Italian state and their growing concern over perceived Catholic undermining of the US Constitution.

In July 1923, Fama returned to Italy with his wife on the SS Giulio Cesare. Upon his return in August 1923 on the SS Giuseppe Verdi, Fama claimed to have graduated in medicine from the University of Palermo, stating that this degree was later annulled by the Fascist government only to be restored after 1945. In August 1923, his mother applied for a passport at the American Consulate in Messina, and seemingly travelled with him to return to the USA. Shortly after his return, he hosted a dinner at his home in the Bronx for Senator Royal S. Copeland, at which awards were given for their work on typhus and migration. The guest list revealed Fama's expanding political connections in New York City, including his medical colleague Dr Alfred Nicholson from the New York City Board of Health; Democrat State Senator (and future Justice of the New York State Supreme Court) Salvatore Cotillo; Republican Congressman (and future NYC Mayor) Fiorello La Guardia; NYC Port Surveyor Thomas W. Whittle; his neighbour NYC Supreme Court Judge and Tammany Society member, John M. Tierney; fellow NYC Supreme Court Justice and Democrat John J. Freschi; and Yonkers-based architect Frank Edwin Walls Wallis. Many in this group were central figures in the NYC Democrat political machine, although Fama and La Guardia would increasingly align with the Republican cause. Cotillo, a Grand Master of the Sons of Italy, aimed to constrain Fascism within Italy and combat it within Italian communities in the USA through education and assimilation. Whittle's role in curbing organized crime on the docks and managing migration flows created overlapping interests with Fama and others in this circle. This network, encompassing Catholics, agnostics, and Protestants with shared interests in public health and migration, became harder to maintain with the rise of the FDR machine, more radical political movements, the growing alliance between Fascism and the Vatican, and increasing international tensions.

Copeland reciprocated in November 1923, hosting a dinner at the Waldorf Astoria in honour of Fama's contributions to 'New York and the country'. Richard Enright acted as toastmaster, and speakers included Nicholson and Whittle, as well as Federal Communications Commissioner George Henry Payne, Professor Angelo Patri, and Judges Aaron Jefferson Levy and Francis Xavier Mancuso. Payne, a former campaign manager for Theodore Roosevelt, was a proponent of Americanism and anti-internationalism. Angelo Patri, an Italian immigrant and leading educational psychologist, was the principal of a junior high school in the Bronx, near Fama. Fama also assisted local Brooklyn and Bronx institutions, such as ‘The Woman’s Aid Society and Home for Training Young Girls’. Aaron Levy, active in the Jewish community and a freemason, was recently appointed to the NY Supreme Court. Francis Xavier Mancuso was a powerful figure in the Tammany Hall machinery. Many of these men had risen from immigrant inner-city areas, noted by the Kefauver Committee for being 'the strongholds of both gangsters and Democrats'. Fama's strategic navigation of influence and respectability within the New York political landscape is evident in these connections.

Like other aspirational migrants, Fama learned to ascend the social ladder, leveraging voluntary societies for influence. His career as a social mobilizer and political activist was thus marked by frequent disputes, often channelled these associations. These included religious organizations like the IPMA, where he chaired the 'vigilance committee', and political organizations such as the Defenders of the Constitution, of which he was elected President. His strategic use of these societies served to both protect the diverse American Protestant community and position Fama at the centre of public discourse. When the Methodist Episcopal Church faced opposition in the Italian Parliament over their planned complex on Monte Mario in Rome, Fama, representing the IPMA, wrote to the Italian Ambassador, Gelasio Caetani, protesting the Vatican's pressure on Rome's planning decisions. They advocated for relief in this specific case and broader support for secularizing forces in the Italian Parliament, pushing for constitutional principles protecting 'a free church in a sovereign state'. Despite the fact that he embodied many of the values Fama and his circle espoused, Caetani was an American-educated war hero appointed by Mussolini to gain the sympathy of the US political class. He had extensive connections in New England, and was particularly concerned about Italy's war debt to the United States. The interconnectedness of Fascist international and economic policy with American interests would later be highlighted by the Teapot Dome scandal. While Fama likely wasn't aware of the latter's details, his opposition to rising Fascist electoral brutality is reflected in protests by organizations he represented against the Fascist 'ultras' and their 'Ceka' strongarm gangs (which were behind the Matteotti murder). Fama viewed these groups as linked to industrialists who favoured Fascism as a means of imposing their will without public accountability. He argued against enabling Fascist influence abroad to prevent its infection of the American experiment and the entanglement of political power with entrenched economic interests.

When Giovanni Papini was invited to the USA to deliver a lecture series at Columbia University in 1924, Fama perceived him as promoting hardline Fascist cultural influence, labelling him 'anti-American and a believer in fascismo to the very limit'. While Fama's description was not entirely accurate at the time, Papini had rejected the old liberalism and Wilsonian internationalism and was becoming increasingly supportive of Fascism. Fama correctly recognized the rise of fascist violence in Italy and the potential for its repercussions in US communities, particularly given the involvement of American-born individuals such as Amerigo Dumini. This context intensified Fama's Protestant reservations about migrant Catholicism into outright anti-Papalism, equating Catholicism and Communism as violently oppressive totalitarian ideologies. Papini's critical portrayal of America further fueled Fama's perception of him as a dangerous propagandist. Fama, leading the IPMA, demanded the cancellation of Papini's lecture series.

Fama's perspective aligned with concerns that Papini's influence could embolden Fascist actions against Jews and Freemasons, and that the Roman hierarchy was exploiting its friendship with Mussolini to instigate a widespread attack on these groups, as well as against Protestants and Socialists. Fama, in this view, was willing to work with any 'ism' (except Communism) that opposed Romanism. The IPMA sent another letter of protest to the President of Columbia University, N. Murray Butler, on 1 January 1924. Despite the protest, Butler indicated the university would proceed with the Papini lectures. Ultimately, however, Papini declined the offer for 'health' reasons.

By this time, Fama's anti-Vatican apologetics and criticisms of the Fascist regime were gaining traction in the 'respectable' press, leading to increased formal Catholic opposition. His article in The Forum, 'Catholicism Self-Condemned' (June 1925), placed him alongside prominent Protestant intellectuals and in contrast with elements of the Tammany machine. In response to Frederick Joseph Kinsman, a former Episcopal Bishop who converted to Catholicism, Fama argued that a Catholic could only embrace the American spirit to the extent that they disregarded the doctrines of their faith. His willingness to support the Committee for Completing the Cathedral of St John the Divine could perhaps seen as contradictory in this context, though he had a personal connection here. Fama's attack on Kinsman drew a dismissive response from the leading Catholic intellectual paper of the day, The Tablet, which downplayed his intellectual merit but recognized his access to American elite opinion as a genuine threat to Fascist/Catholic reconciliation.

Fama then shifted his focus to representing the concerns of Italian Freemasons, who (at the behest of the Catholic Church) were facing severe oppression from the Fascist regime. Fascism opposed any corporate body, especially one with powerful international connections, that could rival its own corporatism. Freemasonry in Italy had been a crucial pillar of the old liberal regime and had supported Italy's entry into World War I, serving as a unifying force among various Protestant and middle-class intellectual movements. Consequently, from 1738 forwards (with the bull Eminenti Apostolatus) it was viewed as an enemy by the Catholic Church, and membership a cause for automatic excommunication. The decline of the old Liberal coalition could be seen in the drift of rural populations, the intellectual avant-garde, and Mussolini's regime towards an alliance with the Vatican. While some masonic leaders initially supported Mussolini's rise, by February 1921, the Grande Oriente recognized the perils of escalating Fascist violence. Despite attempts by Grand Master Domizio Torrigiani (1876–1932) to steer a course, a sense of crisis prevailed. Ultimately, Italian freemasonry paid a heavy price, with the Rome headquarters of the Grand Oriente, the Palazzo Giustiniani, being repeatedly attacked and eventually occupied by force in November 1925. Those who betrayed the old masonic brotherhood for the new Fascist order included ambitious individuals like Guido Buffarini Guidi. Despite this persecution, Italian freemasonry continued clandestinely and in exile, with Fama becoming a central point of contact for those in exile seeking assistance from their American 'brothers', who tended to be Protestant liberals, radicals, and socialists opposed to Mussolini. Fama, receiving news from figures like Torrigiani about the Matteotti murder, understood the conflict as a religious war. He believed Mussolini's war against Masonry was solely aimed at securing the wavering support of the Church. Privately and publicly, Fama appealed to the American government to provide protection for dissidents fleeing Mussolini's secret police. Speaking at the Labor Temple in New York, he highlighted the OVRA presence in Italian consulates, which he likened to secret police agencies tracking and facilitating the deportation of dissidents, noting that deportation meant certain death. Nunzio Pernicone's later research confirmed that the Fascist government collaborated closely with the US government in the 1920s to suppress anti-Fascist activity within the Italian American community, even placing figures like Carlo Tresca at the top of deportation lists.

By 1927 Fama was lamenting that the Fascist government had undermined the Americanization program for Italians in the US, largely through the acquisition and manipulation of the Italian-American press. He criticized their attacks on Italian-American citizens who maintained undivided loyalty to the US government and refused to support Mussolini. Following the Riforma Gentile (1923) and the Parini instructions (1928) promoting Italianization in diaspora communities, cultural and scholarly organizations, such as the Casa Italiana at Columbia, and numerous ballilla-influenced schools were, according to Fama, transformed into propaganda outlets for the Fascist government. The prospect of New York Mayor Jimmy Walker sending off young Italian-Americans in uniform on pilgrimages to Fascist centres in Italy further solidified his view that Mussolini's regime had essentially monopolized Italian culture in the USA.

Fama's spoke frequently on 'Mussolini and Masonry', which generated significant correspondence to US Senators and public figures. A lecture at the Wyoming Club in Westchester, for instance, resulted in over 20 letters to Senators James Wolcott Wadsworth, Royal Copeland, and William Edgar Borah. Wadsworth was a limited internationalist, while Borah was a staunch isolationist who opposed US entanglement in European affairs. In contrast, Fama believed Mussolini's expansionism would inevitably lead to war, incorrectly predicting in 1926 that (as had been the case in 1911) this would be with Turkey. His vision at this stage did not yet foresee the rise of Hitler and the Axis. Fama's statements at the Wyoming Club drew criticism from the retiring Grand Master of the New York Grand Lodge, William A. Rowan, who viewed them as 'political meddling'. The prevailing American exceptionalism, post-World War I isolationism, and the need to prioritize American interests shaped Fama's public pronouncements, where he argued that Fascism was not merely an objectionable Italian ideology but the antithesis of Americanism.

Concerns about taking too strong a public stance were also influenced by the frequent, sometimes violent, clashes between fascist and socialist/communist supporters in New York City, and heated debates within various institutions. Fama was deeply involved with Italian anti-Fascist veterans associations, advocating for their cause before the House Committee on Immigration and Naturalization in 1924 and 1926, particularly concerning the deportation of foreign radicals and the discriminatory Johnson-Reed Immigration Restriction Act of 1924. During the Johnson-Reed hearings, the IPMA protested the proposed reduction of the Italian quota, arguing that Italians were hardworking and essential to industry, and contrasting their record with the perceived self-serving administration of Irish Catholic political machines in many cities. Instead of quantity-based quotas, Fama proposed quotas based on quality and loyalty to the United States, effectively favouring Italian Protestant migration.

Fama also spearheaded the protest against allowing Fascist participation in public parades in New York, and was present at the Memorial Day Parade on 31 May 1926 when a group of black-uniformed Italian war veterans joined the procession. The crowd's reaction, including Italian war veterans and native Americans, escalated from jeers to physical confrontation, with the New York Police intervening. To the New York Times, Fama reported that many had suffered 'slight injuries'. He later cited this event as evidence of Mussolini's establishment of a fifth column in major US cities to advance his ambition of resurrecting a Roman world empire. Street fights and legal battles continued. In June 1927, anti-fascist activist Michele Oliviso was convicted for possessing a bomb near a fascist parade. Around the same time, two fascist sympathizers were murdered in the Bronx, sparking an international cause celebre. Mussolini condemned the killings and vowed revenge, with their bodies being returned to Italy for a martyr's burial. Labour leaders alleged collusion between Tammany Hall and local fascist leaders, leading to raids across New York, sparking the response of police raids and arrests against the offices of Carlo Tresca's Il Martello and at Il Nuovo Mondo, a socialist anti-fascist paper with which Fama had collaborated. Two communist sympathizers were eventually charged with the murders, but amid attempts by the Fascist hierarchy to implicate Fama and Tresca the trial revealed a lack of credible eyewitnesses. The Greco-Carillo Defense Committee, led by University of Chicago academic Robert Morss Lovett, raised funds to hire Clarence Darrow, aiming to prevent a perceived judicial injustice similar to the Sacco and Vanzetti case.

Amid growing American concerns about Communist influence at home and abroad, Fama worked to counter the Fascist narrative that all opposition to Mussolini was Communist-driven. This was complicated by the fact that some elements within the Anti-Fascist Alliance of North America did fit this description, while others, like Tresca, did not. When appearing alongside Benjamin Gitlow, Fama clarified that he was neither Socialist nor Communist, but 'a good Republican and a Presbyterian'. Maintaining unity within anti-fascist alliances, as Communist front organizations increasingly dominated, proved a significant challenge. Fama likely found inspiration in figures like Arturo Giovannitti, who combined socialist ideals with a strong Protestant faith. Throughout 1926-28, Fama's public speaking engagements for various organizations, including the Garibaldi Federation, the Labor Temple, the Bronx Rotary Club, and the ACLU, intensified as he and the Anti-Fascist Alliance sought to challenge the Italian government's control over communication with the Italian American diaspora. On 18 March 1928, he participated in an anti-fascist event at 'The People's House', a socialist and reformist hub, where the Greco-Carillo trial was a key topic. Fellow speakers included Arturo Giovannitti, Carlo Tresca, Powers Hapsgood, Giuseppe Scribano, Giovanni Pippan, and Oscar Mazzitelli, all involved in anti-fascist and labour movements. Others in their circle included Vincenzo Nitti, Raffaele Rosetti, Francesco Coco, and Felice Guadagni. When Mussolini sent the mayor of Rome to foster closer ties with London and New York hierarchies, Fama's group protested the substantial expense proposed by Mayor Jimmy Walker for welcome events.

Fama's desire to create a broad-based anti-Fascist alliance however conflicted with the more radical elements within the Anti-Fascist League. The legacy of World War I continued to play a role. Following the death of Armando Diaz in February 1928, anti-clerical statements and protests against his commemoration in Catholic circles led to strong reactions from Catholic clergy. In Wilmington, a Catholic priest denounced anti-Fascists as Bolsheviks, radicals, and haters of religion. This fusing of the 'enemies of the Church' into a single category would later have negative impacts on pentecostal communities in Italy, police actions against which were often sparked by suspicions that they were effectively 'the Communist Party at prayer'. (While there was inevitably some cross-over in membership in rural towns such as Raffadali, this was not institutionally or ideologically the case). The secretary of the local Anti-Fascist League section resigned in protest, stating his belief that as an anti-Fascist, he was defending the Constitution. Later that year, Fama incorporated a new organization called 'Defenders of the Constitution', composed of American citizens of Italian extraction. This term resonated with naturalized citizens, Prohibition supporters and those who supported Hoover's presidential campaign. Amid Democrat divisions and a Republican emphasis on American Protestant heritage, Fama's Presbyterian Americanism caused him to tend towards Republican politics. In July 1928, during the presidential campaign, he founded the 'Defenders' and publicly 'disclaim[ed] that he himself is an anti-Fascist'. This was more a repositioning than a complete abandonment of his previous associations, as he continued to share platforms with radicals in support of the new owners of Il Nuovo Mondo, and the Italian Language Federation of the Socialist Party of America. Subsequently, his public criticisms of communism increased, though he consistently viewed Fascism as the greater evil. After World War II, the re-incorporated Defenders would align more closely with conservative isolationist groups and support McCarthyist anti-Communist activities. It was not so before the War. In the late 1920s, its platform primarily focused on anti-Wilsonianism and anti-internationalism. It was a weakness of Fama's belief in Americanism, however, and his indiscriminate politicking on any platform which would have him, which could lead to longer term decline in influence and some embarrassment about what some of these platforms involved. The Defenders constituency existed within a blend of fraternalist, religious, and nationalist American sentiments, where associations with groups like the Ku Klux Klan were not seen as problematic. Fama (possibly to his own discomfort) was regularly quoted in Klan publications and spoke at a church service linked to a Klan event in 1930. In the 1930s, he had a regular spot on Radio WHAP (later WFAB), a station established by W. H. Taylor for Augusta E. Stetson, a promoter of fringe Christian Science, and her activist arm, Defenders of Truth Society Inc. (not to be confused with Fama's Defenders of the Constitution). The station was known for its overtly anti-Catholic and anti-Semitic statements. For his own part, Fama maintained that he had always championed tolerance, and that he distinguished between the person and their politics. This was an older style of political rhetoric which would struggle for credibility in a more divisive post-War world in which the positions which led to the defeat of Fascism faded from memory. 

Fama's Republican connections and his mobilization of the Italian vote and the IPMA in support of Hoover's presidential campaign in 1928 were evident when Hoover met with the Defenders' Executive on 23 May 1929. Fama explained to the President that the Defenders were dedicated to the assimilation and Americanization of immigrants, promoting the idea of 'one country, one flag, one allegiance' and actively combating 'un-American agents directed from abroad'. The primary target remained Fascism, viewed as an international challenger with ideas 'alien to our constitutional form of government' and 'spreading dissension among our people'. Hoover, while acknowledging the role of European right-wing populism in containing Communism, favoured economic engagement over political intervention in Europe. By the mid-1930s, he criticized Roosevelt's New Deal as a form of creeping fascism (charges which would continue to fuel Republican small government positions through to the present). The Defenders, as a community-based, voluntarist organization, aligned with Hoover's worldview. Attendees at the meeting included Rev. Antonio Mangano, Rev. Dominick Porfirio, and Hyman Rothbart, all figures from Fama's fraternal and religious circles. The meeting with Hoover also highlighted the unavoidable global entanglements brought about by World War I, including Italian migration and American foreign investment. Fama soon approached the Hoover Administration regarding the Fascist regime's policy of enforcing cultural alignment among the Italian diaspora, specifically the conscription of American citizens into the Italian armed forces when they returned to visit family. Fama claimed that since 1923, approximately 5000 American citizens had been drafted, with some imprisoned for refusing. He sought government protection for these citizens abroad. When the Italian Ambassador, Giacomo De Martino, denied these claims, Fama brought the case of Antonio Pizzucco to the press. Within a week, Royal Copeland intervened with Undersecretary of State Joseph Potter Cotton, and Pizzucco was released from military service. While the Italian Embassy denied any US intervention, Fama's protest to Senators Copeland and Borah ensured a sympathetic reception, in contrast to the more reserved approach of Secretary of State Henry Stimson, who viewed Fama's activism as ethnic troublemaking.

When Marine Major General Smedley D. Butler recounted gossip about Mussolini's driving at a private luncheon became public, the Italian government demanded his dismissal. Stimson's move towards a court-martial for Butler sparked widespread protest in the US, with many, including Fama, asserting that the US government was not accountable to Italy and that Butler had the right to free speech. The situation became more complex when Cornelius Vanderbilt Jr., an eyewitness, corroborated the substance of the story. Fama again suggested the Italian Ambassador be recalled. He requested a meeting with the Secretary of State to discuss the matter, but Stimson declined, criticizing 'Americans of foreign birth who quarreled among themselves over old world politics'. Stimson underestimated the level of offense felt by many, including those at the Union League Club of Brooklyn, where the Assistant Attorney General John Lord O'Brian negatively compared freedom of speech in the USA with Mussolini's Italy. De Martino again protested, demanding to see O'Brian's speech. A mass meeting of Italian war veterans was organized, passing a resolution demanding an open hearing on accusations against De Martino. Fama led a delegation to the State Department, despite not being invited. Unable to meet with Stimson or Hoover, Fama had Royal Copeland deliver the mass meeting's letter to the President, signed by Fama, Joseph Liberto, Luigi Antonini, Girolamo Valenti, and two Italian Protestant clergymen. Fama's statement questioning Stimson's perceived pro-Mussolini stance risked alienating support within the Republican Hoover administration. While Hoover ordered the letter delivered to Stimson, the State Department, under Assistant Secretary of State James Grafton Rogers, exonerated De Martino and 'encouraged' Fama and his allies to avoid 'old country entanglements' and instead work to influence American citizens of Italian origin. Fama, asserting his rights as a Republican, vowed to oppose the Secretary of State's ruling in the next Congress. However, the following year saw the Democrats under Roosevelt take office. Shortly thereafter, a mentally ill Italian war veteran and bricklayer, with possible anarchist beliefs, Giuseppe Zangara, attempted to kill president-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt in Miami. The incidental death of Anton Cermak, Mayor of Chicago, in the incident sent Zangara to the electric chair, and raised all sorts of accusations about mafia connections (later largely dismissed). 

While feeling abandoned by the government, the anti-Fascist Italian community in New York hoped economic pressures would weaken Mussolini's regime, which was heavily reliant on American bank financing. Fama maintained contact with remnants of the old radical and liberal opposition and received information about the regime's fragility from exiles like Francesco Nitti, with whose son (Vincenzo, living in New York) Fama was close. Nitti, while critical of Fascism, kept his distance from anti-Fascist organizations due to their exclusion of royalists and Catholics and the dominance of Communists. His press statements regarding the reception of Italian Foreign Minister Dino Grandi positioned him as urging peaceful protest while subtly suggesting that the Defenders were the most reliable Italian-American organization for avoiding public embarrassment. 

Fama received various awards for his work in Italy, including the Italian Star of Solidarity, and was nominated for the award of Cavaliere di Gran Croce.  He maintained a close relationship with Fiorello LaGuardia, who appointed him to various positions within the New York City establishment. In 1924, he was named an honorary surgeon of the Police Department by Richard E. Enright and held appointments to the US Board of Pension Surgeons and the NYC Employees Retirement System. His political activism involved regularly volunteering his services to US Congressional committees. He was central, alongside Rev. Frank Gigliotti, in organizing Protestant support for religious liberty in Italy, particularly concerning the oppression of Churches of Christ and Pentecostal Churches under the Circolare Buffarini Guidi. Fama wrote a medical column for II Progresso, an Italian-American newspaper, served on the Board of the leftist journal Il Nuovo Mondo, and frequently spoke on the radio. 

In 1934, Fama was appointed to the medical board of the New York City Employees Retirement System by the NY Board of Estimates, later becoming chairman. His appointment, given his anti-Papal and anti-Fascist activism, was seen as contentious by Tammany Hall, and unsuccessful attempts were made to remove him. Professionally, Fama remained an active medical doctor, as an associate physician at Union Hospital and a director of the Westchester Square Hospital. He was a member of American, state, and county medical organizations. In 1942 he was living at 236 E 200th St., New York.

When the Allies entered Italy in 1943, Fama's connections to chaplaincy networks and the Waldensian Church made him and other members of the Italian Evangelical Protestant Ministers Association aware of Catholic resistance to Protestant involvement in the Allied Military Government (AMG)'s aid distribution. Fama responded by co-founding, with Joseph Brunn, the National Evangelical Committee for Relief to Italy in September 1944. Fama served as the initial lay chairman, later succeeded by Antonio Mangano as clerical chairman. Appeals for support were made to Italo-American Protestant churches and through the networks of the American Waldensian Aid Society. The New York Presbytery of the PCUSA endorsed the Committee's aid objectives and its commitment to securing religious liberty and freedom of religious propaganda for Protestants in Italy. Fama subsequently promoted the formation of the American Committee for Italian Democracy and the Committee for a Just Peace for Italy, focusing on these political goals. Through La Guardia appointees, assurances were obtained that broader aid efforts would not be distributed on a partisan basis. Following a tour of Italy in 1945, Protestant leaders returned convinced of the need for 'outside help' to achieve true religious liberty, a challenge Fama pursued during Italy's constitutional formation.

His connections within the Italian Protestant Ministers Association and shared Presbyterian anti-Fascism and anti-Communism made Fama a natural ally of Californian Presbyterian minister Frank Gigliotti. They collaborated on issues of religious liberty, veterans' affairs, and Italian Protestant concerns. In 1947, they visited Italy to argue against the inclusion of the 1929 Concordat in the new Italian Republic's constitution, claiming it violated the US Peace Treaty with Italy and other commitments. During this trip, they also arranged mutual recognition between the American Scottish Rite and the Grande Oriente d’Italia Lodges. Much of their subsequent political activity aimed at pressuring the Italian government through the US State Department to uphold wartime undertakings regarding religious freedom. When the new Italian Constitution passed with the Concordat included, despite Protestant and Jewish minority protests, Fama and Gigliotti saw this as a confirmation of their view of totalitarianism, uniting Democristiani and Italian Communists.

Fama died of a heart attack on 31 August 1959, in New York. Henrietta died a few months later, on 18 October 1959. Both were buried at Ferncliff Cemetery and Mausoleum in Westchester County.

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