Mississippians

The Lebanese in Mississippi: An Oral History documents and interprets the lives of first- and subsequent-generation Lebanese Mississippians whose families immigrated to the state looking for a better life. It is an oral record—sometimes a second-hand “remembering”—of their forbears’ experiences of settling in a foreign land where they knew few people, did not speak the language, and had to create their own occupations. It is the collective story of struggles and successes, of maintaining an ethnic identity and assimilating into a new culture, and of creating a new culture that mirrors that experience. Heard together, these stories provide a picture of a people remembering, envisioning, and interpreting where they came from and the struggles of those who came before them. Their stories begin on a ship leaving harbor in the Mount Lebanon region of Syria, and they continue today in towns and cities across Mississippi.

Each participant in this project contributes a piece of an inherited puzzle, and the themes that emerge from this collection demonstrate a collective understanding of why such a large number of Lebanese-Syrians left “the Mountain” and traveled west as far as the Americas. They illustrate an understanding of how and why their ancestors came to Mississippi, what their lives were like living in the segregated South, and how they chose to make a living and find a place within that place, all while maintaining cultural ties to their homeland. This project is dedicated to the narrators herein and to their ancestors whose stories have contributed to this project as a way of retaining a part of Mississippi’s past.

Image: The Ellis family in 1921.

Where Should I Start?

This project is designed to provide a history of a people, to give voice to the Lebanese Mississippian collective past, and to provide a deeper understanding of what that collective experience was and has been for the first and subsequent generations of Syrian-Lebanese immigrants to the state. The project consists of audio portions of oral history interviews, narrator biographies, photographs shared by those narrators, a history of Syrian-Lebanese migration to the state, and a four-part audio documentary. If you are interested in hearing individuals’ stories first, click through those stories on the Oral Histories page. For context on Lebanese immigration to Mississippi, visit the Short History. The four segments of the audio documentary can be found on the Audio Docs page.

Image: The national flag of Lebanon was adopted in 1943.

A Brief Note on Terminology

When the Lebanese first came to the United States in the late nineteenth/early twentieth century, Mount Lebanon was a region in Syria. It did not gain independence until the French Mandate ended after World War II, creating the independent country of Lebanon. Until then, those first-wave immigrants referred to themselves as Syrians, but after Lebanon gained independence, they began to identify as Lebanese. Therefore, while those early immigrants came from the country of Syria, they later identified as Lebanese and have done so ever since.

Photo of cabbage roll, stuffed grape leaves, kibbee, and pita by Amy C. Evans

ABOUT:

The Lebanese in Mississippi: An Oral History is a project by James G. Thomas, Jr. at the University of Mississippi’s Center for the Study of Southern Culture. Permission to publish audio and personal materials has been granted by interview participants. The project exists because of the generous contributions by Mississippi’s Lebanese communities and support from the Museum of the Mississippi Delta, the Mississippi Humanities Council, and the Center for the Study of Southern Culture.