Celebrating Culture

Episode 31

PBC-31 New Orleans' "Little Palermo" a Migration of 60,000 (1830-1890)

Sat, Oct 9, 2021

New Orleans has a historical Italian-American population. As of 2004 those identifying as of Italian descent were the largest ethnic group of Europeans in the New Orleans Metropolitan Area, numbering around 250,000. Economics in Louisiana and Sicily combined to bring about what became known as the Great Migration of thousands of Sicilians. The end of the Civil War allowed the freed men the choice to stay or to go, many chose to leave, which in turn led to a perceived scarcity of labor resources for the planters. Northern Italy enjoyed the fruits of modern industrialization, while southern Italy and Sicily suffered destitute conditions under the system of absentee landowners. The peasant was still essentially the serf in the system. Emigration not only offered peasants a chance to move beyond subsistence living, it also offered them a chance to pursue their own dreams of proprietorship as farmers or other business owners. "Little Palermo" was established by recent immigrants in the lower French Quarter. So many Italians settled here that some suggested the area should be renamed as "The Sicilian Quarter" in the early 20th century. The American Italian Cultural Center honors and celebrates the area's Italian-American heritage and culture. The AICC houses the American Italian Museum, with exhibits about the history and contributions of Italian-Americans to the region. The Piazza d'Italia is a local monument dedicated to the Italian-American community of New Orleans.