Lost Histories

Between the 1880s and 1950s, as the United States closed its doors to Asian immigrants, two groups of Muslim men from British colonial India – silk traders from present-day Indian West Bengal and ship-workers from present-day Bangladesh – defied the racist exclusion laws, entered the country, and found shelter in African American and Puerto Rican communities. Here, they intermarried and began new lives. This site collects the remarkable stories of the inter-racial and interfaith families and communities that formed on the racialized margins of full citizenship – in New York and New Jersey; New Orleans and Charleston; in Detroit, Baltimore, and beyond. It is an ongoing extension of the film In Search of Bengali Harlem, by Vivek Bald & Alaudin Ullah, and the book, Bengali Harlem and the Lost Histories of South Asian America, by Vivek Bald.

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Do you have questions or comments? Are you connected to the histories explored on this site, in the book, or in the documentary and want to share your story? Please contact us: