Detroit

During World War I and for at least two decades afterward, hundreds of Indian Muslim maritime workers made their way to Detroit and Dearborn, Michigan after jumping ship or being left in port in New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. They found work on the assembly lines of Ford auto factories, or in steel production – …

Baltimore

Some of the earliest news reports of Indian “lascar” seamen in the U.S. date back to the turn of the twentieth century in the port of Baltimore. Baltimore became one of the primary U.S. ports where Indian maritime workers were either left in port or jumped ship. In the 1910s-30s, it appears to have been …

Upcoming Events

Performances of “Dishwasher Dreams” in Chicago in February. Book, performance, and film events in New Orleans and New York in March, and a special event at the Schomburg Center in Harlem in April featuring a community forum with children and descendants of the Bengali Muslim men and African American and Puerto Rican women who built …

1903 Philadelphia Lascar Crew

Coming Soon

Watch here for stories, interviews, images, video, and archival materials related to the histories of South Asian Muslim migration to New Orleans, Charleston, Detroit, West Baltimore, and New York City between the 1890s and 1940s.