Leaving the Mountain

In this first segment, “Leaving the Mountain,” we’ll hear from Lebanese Mississippians Marie Antoon, Dave Sherman, Keith Fulcher, Al Katool, Mary Anne Lefoldt, Teresa Nicholas, Mary Louise Nosser, and Samir Husni. We begin with the question, “Why did your family emigrate from Syria?” and we’ll hear the stories that have informed their understanding of why their ancestors left the Middle East and traveled by sea to places across the globe that they knew little about and to places they had never before been.

Coming to America, Making a Life in Mississippi

In this second segment, “Coming to America, Making a Life in Mississippi,” we’ll hear from Lebanese Mississippians Mary Tonos Brantley, Dolores Thomas Ulmer, Ellis Antoon, Mary Louise Nosser, Louise Abraham Wilson, Charles Shamoun, Marie Antoon, and Jim Angelo. I begin with the questions, “How did your family find their way to Mississippi?” and “What did they do once they’d arrived?” I’m learning that once they had arrived in Mississippi, they peddled wares from house to house until they had saved enough to open their own stores in town, becoming merchants like James Ellis (right) in Port Gibson.

Living in the Jim Crow South

In the early decades of the twentieth century, whites and the Lebanese people in Mississippi rarely mixed socially, and although the Lebanese were eventually welcome at public schools, churches, and in public spaces, many exclusive organizations that had always been strictly “for whites only” remained so. For example, in colleges and universities across the state in the early 1960s, young Lebanese students found themselves barred from joining fraternities and sororities because of their Lebanese heritage. Fraternal organizations like the Rotary, Kiwanis, and Lions’ clubs were no different, and until around 1960, most country clubs in Mississippi still explicitly stipulated that Syrians and Lebanese be excluded from joining. Narrators in this segment describe life for the Lebanese in Mississippi during the state’s most segregated post-slavery era.

Maintaining an Ethnic Identity

Although the first generations of Lebanese Mississippians wanted their children to be able to assimilate into American society in ways that they hadn’t been allowed, Lebanese parents and grandparents also wanted their children to retain a sense of their Lebanese identity. In this final segment, we’ll hear how some customs and traditions fell by the wayside while the Lebanese in Mississippi have been successful in maintaining others.