This is an extensive group of Italians whose roots trace back to the 1895 Italian Colony established to create a farming workforce for the Sunnyside Plantation at Lake Village, Arkansas. This initial gateway event was the catalyst that brought thousands of Italian families to the South and to many communities throughout the United States. After this initial group of Italian settlers arrived, scores of Italians followed from 1895 to 1921 and became the principal labor force for the majority of plantations and farmlands in the Arkansas and Mississippi Delta.

From the original Italian colony in Lake Village, groups of Italian families migrated to other communities across the South, the Midwest, and even into the North. These offshoot Italian communities sprang up in Tontitown, Arkansas; Cincinnati, Ohio; Colorado Springs, Colorado; Irondale, Alabama; Knobview, Missouri; and many small towns along the Mississippi River from Greenville, Mississippi to Memphis, Tennessee.

While many of our Italian ancestors worked at one of the southern plantations, a great number of Italian families bypassed the initial cotton farming experience and settled in these offshoot communities. Even though some Italians may not have been at the original Sunnyside Plantation, this Italian colony at Sunnyside was the catalyst event that brought a large wave of our ancestors to America. 

Today more than 1 million Italian-Americans can trace their history back to this original Italian colonization event.