History of the Italians in Mississippi

Italians settled in the Mississippi state since colonial times.

Since the 18th and mainly the 19th century, Italian people have been located in cities and towns in Mississippi. The first Italians who visited Mississippi came in explorations conducted by the French and Spanish governments. In the 19th century, many Italians entered the United States in New Orleans, Louisiana and traveled onwards to Mississippi. Over 100 immigrants lived in Mississippi as the American Civil War started. In the late 19th century, Italian immigration increased in the United States.

Someone of them went to work in the so-called "Mississippi Delta" in the cotton plantations, and even helped the development of the blues music with their mandolins.

The late 19th century saw the arrival of larger numbers of Italian immigrants who left Italy seeking economic opportunities. Some Italians from Sicily settled as families along the Mississippi Gulf Coast in Biloxi, Ocean Springs, and Gulfport, preserving close ties with those in their homeland. They worked in the fishing and canning industries. Others were merchants, operating grocery stores, liquor stores, and tobacco shops. Biloxi’s prosperous tourist industry in the early 20th century created opportunities for ambitious young (Italian) men.......Italians also settled in the Mississippi Delta. The first immigrants came there in the 1880s, working to repair levees and staying as hired farm laborers on plantations. Some of these families became peddlers selling goods to farmers. In 1895, the first Italians came to the Sunnyside Plantation, across the Mississippi River in the Arkansas Delta. That plantation would become the stopping off place for many Italian settlers along both sides of the river. They were mostly from central Italy and experienced in farm work. Charles Reagan Wilson (University of Mississippi)

During the period of mass immigration to the United States, Italians suffered widespread discrimination in housing, social acceptance and employment.

The Italian Americans were often victims of prejudice, economic exploitation, and sometimes even violence, particularly in the South. And Mississippi (with nearby Louisiana) was no exception.

Indeed, Mississippi and Louisiana were to become a worldwide symbol of Anti Italianism when, in 1891, eleven Italian immigrants in New Orleans were lynched due to their alleged role in the murder of the police chief David Hennessy.

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