Mississippi Delta Chinese

This scholarly book studies the Chinese of the Mississippi Delta. During Reconstruction, white plantation owners imported Chinese sharecroppers in the hope of replacing their black laborers. In the beginning they were classed with blacks. But the Chinese soon moved into the towns and became, almost without exception, owners of small groceries.

A Chinese scholar who lived among the Delta Chinese wrote this ethnography showing how the Chinese, initially classified as "colored," came to be viewed as a people with a separate identity. It shows how they expanded their social and economic standing running small grocery stores throughtout the Delta.

A social history of the Delta Chinese and their lives in operating their small grocery stores that were often located in black neighborhoods close to the cotton pickers who were their primary customers when they first opened in the early part of the last century/

History of the Delta Chinese in Mississippi by John Thornell, 2004

A newspaper article published in the Delta in 2000 commenting on the historic role of the Delta Chinese groceries and their gradual disappearance over time.

Historical analysis by Vivian Wu Wong (1996) of the 'place' that Chinese occupied in a black and white society in the Delta

Prof. Jane Adams and D. Horton discuss race issues in the Delta from the perspective of different groups including Chinese Hoover and Freda Lee from Louise, Ms. ( To see the video interview, go to the link below this one)

Newsletter from 2019 for museum created in 2012 at Delta State University to preserve the history of Delta Chinese.

John Quon oral history excerpt about growing up in a grocery store in Moorhead, MS.

John Quon describes some of the customs and traditions associated with a traditional Chinese wedding using the ceremony for his marriage to Frieda Seu as an illustration.

Growing up in a Chinese grocery in the Jim Crow Mississippi Delta as seen in the life experiences of Bobby Joe Moon

In 2002, the Govenor of Mississippi issued a proclamation to honor a Chinese grocer, Willie Yung, of Rena Lara, for his outstanding contributions as a businessman to his community for 37 years.

A warm reflection about the earlier Chinese grocers on the Arkansas side of the river by an Arkansas News journalist, Rex Nelson. (Scroll down after reading it to view comments from readers)

Background of events that led me to the writing of this account of the lives of Mississippi Delta Chinese grocers and their families.

A 2010 video with Luck Wing describing his father's grocery store in Jonestown, Ms., and what life was like growing up in the Delta for Chinese families back around the 1940s.

Video interview in 2010 of Frieda Quon describing her father's grocery store in Greenville and discussing family life, schooling, and church participation for Chinese in the 1940s.

Video in 2010 with Raymond Wong discussing his father's grocery store in Greenville, Ms. as well as how they left that business for safety reasons during the turbulent civil rights activism days to open a Chinese restaurant, How Joy, that operated until recently.