Danilo Dolci Papers

Danilo Dolci was born in Sesana on June 28,1924, son of a Slovene mother and an Italian father who was a train station master. Dolci trained as an engineer and architect in Switzerland. He was a devout Catholic, and decided that instead of launching a professional career, he would work for a time with a priest, Don Zeno Saltini, who had opened an orphanage for 3000 abandoned children after World War II; it was housed in a former concentration camp near Modena.

Dolci first visited Sicily because of an interest in Greek building structures, but the wretchedness of the living conditions in that country moved him far more deeply. Most of the population there lived in extreme poverty, in slums without electricity, water or sanitation. Unemployment, hunger and illiteracy abounded, with the Mafia controlling most of civic life. At age 28 Dolci moved to Sicily permanently, settling in Trapetto. He married a women from the neighborhood, a widow with five children. He put his energies into working to overcome the poverty and violence in Sicily. One technique he used was the "strike in reverse," which initiated unauthorized public works projects for the poor. In 1958, after one such strike brought 150 unemployed men to repair a dirt road in Partinico, Dolci was arrested on false charges and spent eight months in jail. In 1967, he bravely accused prominent members of the government with collusion with the Mafia, and as a result he spent another two years in jail for libel. His trial was publicized all over the world and increased public awareness of his work to break the yoke of organized crime in Sicily and to improve the lot of the common people. He became known throughout the world as the "Sicilian Gandhi" because of his efforts to create change nonviolently, and was nominated twice for the Nobel Peace Prize.

The headquarters for Dolci's work was the Centro Studi e Iniziative in Partinicio, Sicily. There were four other centers in other parts of Sicily as well, each providing technical, educational and cultural programs for residents of the region. Besides being an activist and organizer, Dolci wrote books and articles about the problems of Sicily, and his works include interviews with otherwise invisible members of humble trades whose lives he brought into evocative focus. He also became well known as a poet. Support groups were created in the United States and in Europe to provide financial assistance to Dolci so that he could continue his labors for the poor and his various writing projects.

Jerre Mangione received a research fellowship to spend six months in Sicily, where he spent time with Dolci and Dolci's family, neighbors and associates. The book A Passion for Sicilians: The World Around Danilo Dolci, was the result, published in 1968.

Dolci died on December 30, 1997 from heart failure. He was survived by the five children he had with his first wife, Vincenzina, and by two children from his second marriage.