It's fitting that my friend Joe Dan Yee is the mayor of Lake Village. One of the things that makes the Delta unique is the mix of cultures that took hold as people immigrated to the region when cotton was king. There were also Italians, Irish, Lebanese, Syrians and others. Their traditions were mixed with the rich culture of African Americans whose ancestors had been brought to this land in bondage.
When I penned a piece a few years ago about the ethnic stew that is the Delta, a Helena native wrote me this note: "I was raised in Helena from 1938 until our family moved to Little Rock in 1955. There was no place in Arkansas that I could have been more exposed to various cultures. I remember going to temple services. I had friends who were either Greek, Jewish, Chinese, Italian, Lebanese or Sicilian. There's nowhere else on this planet that I would have rather grown up than in the Delta. I still miss the sweet smell of kudzu, the scent of the soil and balmy summer mornings."
The Southern Foodways Alliance at Ole Miss, which documents the food cultures of the South, transcribed interviews with Chinese Americans in the Delta. Yee, who at the time of the interview was still operating his family's Yee's Food Land (it has since closed), was among those interviewed.
According to the SFA: "Chinese came to America in the late 19th century in search of the fabled Gam Sahn or Golden Mountain. When they arrived at the alluvial plains of the Mississippi Delta, all they found was backbreaking agricultural work. First introduced to the region as indentured servants by planters during Reconstruction, these early Chinese sojourners (most from the Guandong or Canton province) soon became disenchanted with working the fields. They moved off the plantations. Some left to go back home to China, but others stayed and opened small neighborhood grocery stores. Serving as an alternative to plantation commissaries and catering to the predominantly African American clientele, the Chinese American grocer was a mainstay in many Delta neighborhoods well into the 20th century.
"Life in the grocery business was by no means an easy living. Early mornings and late nights were normal, as were the stresses of competition from large supermarket chains. Added to that were the stresses that they endured as immigrants navigating the complex sociopolitical structure of a region that historian James C. Cobb has called the most Southern place on earth. ... Though the numbers of Chinese grocers diminish year by year, family stories tell an important history of immigration. They also speak to the formation of a unique food culture in the Mississippi and Arkansas Delta."
Yee was described as someone who "bucked the trend of many second- and third-generation Delta Chinese by staying home, after his parents retired, to take over the family market."
"Joe Dan and his siblings can speak Cantonese, something his parents insisted they learn growing up," the SFA wrote.
Yee said: "I can't tell you how many times I've been in New York and San Francisco, and everywhere I go they would tell my sister: 'Bring your brother back in here. We love the Arkansas accent that he has on a Chinese accent.' So I get a big kick out of that. ... Back in the early 1960s, there were at least eight to 10 Chinese families in Lake Village, and there were probably six Chinese stores on Main Street back then."
There also was a strong Jewish influence in the Delta. My friend Raymond Abramson of Holly Grove, who serves as a judge on the Arkansas Court of Appeals, refers to himself as the last practicing Jewish lawyer in the Arkansas Delta. That list once included men such as David Solomon of Helena, Oscar Fendler of Blytheville and Kent Rubens of West Memphis. A number of Jewish immigrants came to the Delta as traveling peddlers. Some of their descendants went on to become merchants, cotton ginners and planters. Due to a wave of immigration from eastern Europe, Arkansas' Jewish population grew from 1,466 in 1878 to 8,850 by the time of the Great Flood of 1927.
There were 22 Jewish-owned businesses in Helena by 1909. Helena even had a Jewish mayor, Aaron Meyers, from 1878-80. In 1867, Temple Beth El was founded at Helena and Congregation Anshe Emeth was founded at Pine Bluff. Later Delta congregations were formed at Jonesboro in 1897, Newport and Dermott in 1905, Eudora in 1912, Osceola in 1913, Forrest City in 1914, Wynne in 1915, Marianna in 1920, Blytheville in 1924 and McGehee in 1947.
According to the Encyclopedia of Southern Jewish Communities: "Congregations in Helena, Blytheville and El Dorado closed, while others struggled to survive. The Jewish population has become concentrated in a few communities like Little Rock, Hot Springs, Fayetteville and Bentonville. In 1937, 13 cities in Arkansas had more than 50 Jews. By 2006, only four did. ... The only exception to this downward trend is Bentonville. In the 21st century, as Walmart has encouraged major suppliers to open offices in its corporate hometown, Bentonville has seen its Jewish population skyrocket. In 2004, a group of 30 families founded Bentonville's first Jewish congregation."
The Delta Jewish merchants of the late 1800s and early 1900s received their goods from wholesalers in the river cities of Louisville, Cincinnati, St. Louis and Memphis. Generations of the same families operated retail establishments in Delta towns. Like the Chinese grocers of the Arkansas Delta, they're almost all gone now. But what an incredible legacy they left.
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Senior Editor Rex Nelson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. He's also the author of the Southern Fried blog at rexnelsonsouthernfried.com.
Editorial on 03/28/2020