Sicilians in the Crescent City

At the turn of the 20th century, New Orleans’ lower French Quarter became known by a different name. What was once a trendy residential district gradually saw immigrants piling into rundown apartments while mom-and-pop grocery stores and fruit stands popped up on street corners. Beginning in 1884 and for 40 years to follow, it’s estimated that 290,000 people immigrated primarily from Sicily, an island off the Southern coast of Italy’s mainland, to the Crescent City and settled together in the lower part of the French Quarter. This part of town, named Little Palermo for Sicily’s capital, became the center of Italian culture in New Orleans.

During the late 1800s, Sicily was experiencing political and economic hardship, and more than 5,000 miles away, farmers near the Crescent City were facing a different obstacle. The end of the Civil War resulted in many freedmen leaving their jobs on Louisiana farms for work with higher wages. Consequently, farmers were left with a labor shortage, and impoverished Sicilians were eager to fill this need in hopes of experiencing a better life in America. Wealthy Sicilians had arrived in Louisiana years earlier bringing with them the citrus trade of which Sicily dominated. Some eventually became labor agents and helped thousands of Sicilians make their way to the Bayou State to begin