Italians in the Delta: The Evolution of an Unusual Immigration

This thesis explores the extraordinary immigration of Italians to the Delta from when they first came in 1895 to modern day. This project updates the Delta Italians’ status within the modern era and explores their rise from lowly tenant farmers to some of the largest farm owners in the Delta. In particular, it looks at the Italians through the prism of discrimination, farming and fascinating personalities who have attempted to preserve its history. By using live interviews and journalistic story telling techniques, I hope to give people a flavor of what the early settlers were like and how their culture has evolved. This thesis is not meant to be an extensive academic study, but rather a journalistic approach told through feature stories using existing sources and multiple interviews with modern day Italians in the Mississippi Delta. I would not seek to examine every aspect of modern Delta Italian lives, but instead would examine their hunger for information about family, their quest to preserve family history and ties to Italy, and how it has helped nurture the traditional Italian love of family and extended families. As for sources and methodologies, I will be producing journalistic stories in keeping with my training in the Meek School of Journalism and New Media and will be interviewing Americans of Italian descent and those with firsthand knowledge of Italian culture in the Delta. The vast majority of my research comes from personal interviews with citizens of the Mississippi Delta, but is supplemented by magazine articles and books that have addressed the subject over the years. My research shows the importance of the Italians’ history in the Mississippi Delta and the major impact Italians had on farming and food culture