Galveston, TX:
An Ellis Island of the South
Galveston, the largest city in Texas
between 1850 and 1890, is on an island
best known for its gentrified Strand
shopping district and long stretches of
sandy beaches. It was also the port of
entry for tens of thousands of immigrants
into Texas and the interior part of the
United States from the early 1840s to the
1920s.
Almost half of the population of this
Coastal South “Ellis Island” in the mid-19th
century, in fact, was made up of German
immigrants. It was also the site of the
worst natural disaster in the history of
North America in terms of loss of life. The
Great Storm of 1900 is a Galveston story filled with both optimism and despair in a place where
Germans, Italians, Jews, Russians, and other immigrants joined African-American residents to
start new lives in a strange and often hostile environment.
An amazing migration story known as the “Galveston Movement” is perhaps the least known
aspect of Galveston’s immigration history. This global effort to rescue Russian and Ukrainian
Jews from the deadly pogroms of Eastern Europe in the early years of the 20th century resulted
in more than 10,000 new émigrés finding their way safely to the shores of America’s “Third
Coast.” Their arrival soon after the Great Storm wiped out much of the island in 1900 was badly
timed—but filled with hope for better lives in cities located in interior Great Plains and Midwest
such as Omaha, Denver, and Chicago. Here, after long train trips north from Galveston, Jewish
communities welcomed the new arrivals and helped them find work and spiritual support.
These Galveston Movement refugees were assisted throughout their journey to the United
States by an extensive resettlement network that stretched from Galveston to New York City to
London to Russia. Russians, Germans, and immigrants from other parts of Europe joined new
Galvestonians who were born in Latin America and other parts of the United States over the
years. They came seeking employment opportunities at the city’s port and in its service and
construction sectors.
The heritage of these diverse residents of one of Texas’s most cosmopolitan cities remains
today in the old but still beautiful German dance hall and the annual Italian and Greek festivals
that are still held on the island to commemorate the role of the city of Galveston as the Ellis
Island of the Coastal South.
From: Hardwick, Susan W., Fred Shelley, and Donald G. Holtgrieve. 2006. Regional Geography of North
America: Environment, Political Economy, and Culture. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.