List of Polish Communities in the Southeast of the US?

Are there any happening places with a signifigant Polish population in the Southeast? I don't want some place that is like a weird small town, I want like at least a suburban area.

Chattanooga has quite a few Poles. The chick that owns an import market we go to has led an interesting life.

They have to make up at least 10% of the population to make it worth it. I'm trying to avoid anywhere in Tennessee because I hate those people. Any good places in NC, Kentucky, or Virginia? I don't want to go farther south, and I don't want to be too far away from my family so places like llinouis, Maryland, East Texas, and Ohio are probably out of the picture.

It looks like Arkansas might be a possibility.

Nevermind they have really nasty rednecks there.

Arkansas is God's punishment to the United States for what we did to the blacks and Indians. How can you dismiss Chattanooga, yet be hopeful that flat armpit Arkansas would be better? None of the places you mentioned are in the Southeast, btw.

Arkansas, Tennessee ... all flyover country ... ;)

There are no Polish neighborhoods in the SE.. They never were.. Any below Baltimore never existed

Yeah, I know. It's just so hard to move far away from my family by myself.

I think I remember reading in a different thread that you are currently living in the Triangle Area of NC. Obviously, the Polish population is not 10%, but there are definitely Polish people living here. There is a Polish store in Raleigh (Myeurofoodmart dot com) and another one in Durham (halgo-durham dot com) There is also a Polish American Club in Raleigh. Try going to one of their events to meet some new people.

No, I live in a small town in WNC lol. I went to Durham a lot when I was a kid but I've never lived there.

Baltimore, there was a polish festival here I went too. They had the best iced tea in the world

I's not exactly in the Southeast, but okay.

Yeah, that's close to where my parents are from originally.

Maryland is below the mason dixon line (I live like 5 mins away from it) and it's on the east so yes it is southeast

It wasn't a Southern State during the Civil War. It was a Border Union State with Kentucky and others.

As the proud granddaughter of Polish immigrants, I take huge offense to your disgusting trivialization of Arkansas. I am proud to call Arkansas home. I live in the Ozark Mountains nestled between the nation's first designated National River and a gorgeous National Forest. Yes there are "rednecks" here but I grew up in Chicago and there lived next door to the trashiest "rednecks" I've ever encountered. Redneck is just the new way if saying white trash (and I promise you will find trash anywhere you go).

Well, I'm sorry for my lack of sensitivity, I'm perfectly aware that everywhere you go people are the same, but I just get a little exicted over the subject because I live beside a culture that makes me crazy. In NC, we have the blue ridge parkway, but that means nothing if you live next to rednecks who hoard their junk.

You're not likely to find many obviously Polish ethnic around here for sure...
most originated as German, Irish or Scot and good portion don't even know that much about their own bloodline (though ironically the first "real" Poles I ever saw were 3rd generation kids in my local high school. They were husky, a bit dark skinned, white haired with ice eyes and bushy black brows- the whole stepstool family looked that way.)

I'm presently in the TriCounty foothills 60 miles from either Asheville or Charlotte (aka Podunk ) downsizing the amount of junk my mom has so I can move her to me in Arizona. Luckily this State has only stolen 5 years of my life in total. I can't wait to get back home. I like some things here...but nothing keeps me. Least it's cheap so I can keep my house up while renting here. Heh ...so you don't like the wheeless trans-camero collections and porch appliances..awww.

link for humor only:

For Southeast- Raliegh, as mentioned, I have heard mentioned.
There are fair size Polish communities in Florida... mostly southern FL.
Memphis, and Nashville have sizeable portion -enough to have a deli (I wasn't searching Poles at time- I was searching for Euro delis; I am huge consumer of fine sausages and pickled items. I was at Ft Lewis).

I saw a Polish store when I was stationed in Alabama..but that was quite some time ago (80s)
The farrier school I wanted to attend in WV is near several polish communities like Wheeling (I was researching nearest catholic churches)

I can't really recall very many festivals therefore a representative ethnic communities of any size in the Carolinas except fake kitschey stuff along the seaboard tourist traps. A few Celtic based ones in Ashevile and Charlotte and Raleigh/Durham, there quite a few German ones that are long running including a few Oktoberfests throughout Carolinas. And of course Native American festivals.

Maybe immigrant Poles didn't like the humid southern states much? Or good farmland was already taken and no mining? If they had similar reason as Czechs.

I believe the previous suggestion of joining a Polish club would be the best way to connect you to other AmPoles but those are places to look : )

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Really other than up north in obvious places like NY, Boston or Chicago:...where I stay clear of....brrr! you'll find some pretty big Polish (and czech) communities central like in Texas/Oklahoma then some spatter across places like Wisconsin/Nebraska. My fathers birthtown, Ennis even has a well known International Polka festival (czech origin). Festivals near Houston (polish) and Austin (Polish) as well. Texas is proud to have had the first Polish farming community (not first Polish ever -but specific community in 1854..a year before Polonia..lol)

Hello, I just came across this discussion on Polish communities in the Southeast and became very depressed at the obvious stereotypes that many people still (in 2014!) harbor of the American South. I was born and raised in Nashville but have lived in Chicago, Washington DC and London before returning home to Tennessee. My grandparents were born in Pultusk, Poland and came to the U.S. through the port at Galveston, Texas. Many southern Jews like us trace our heritage one or two generations back to Poland. I visited Pultusk and Makow, as well as Warsaw, Krakow, and other places in Poland in 1993, and made many Polish Catholic friends there. People are the same everywhere - there are good people, bad people, and certainly "rednecks" everywhere (it's definitely not unique to the South).

Nashville has only had a small Polish Catholic community in the past, mainly because Polish immigration to America peaked at a time when "steel belt" cities like Baltimore, Pittsburgh and Chicago were booming and there were lots of jobs there. It had nothing to do with Polish immigrants avoiding the South - it had to do with where the economic opportunities were at that time and where people had family. But now, Nashville is booming and people are moving here from throughout the US and abroad. The second- and third-generation Polish community here is growing, and will with time offer some of the same food and amenities that you'll find in the older Polish communities in Chicago, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, and elsewhere. There are already Eastern European markets here that stock Polish delicacies on their shelves.

Not far away, Memphis, Tennessee benefited from some of the earlier wave of Polish immigration and today retains a vibrant Polish community. Here is a web link to the Polish American Society of Memphis:

pasofmemphis.com/index.php/en/

So, before you write off Tennessee or the South because of some out-dated and unrealistic stereotypes, come down and visit us.
All the best!

Census bureau counts almost 20,000 people of Polish ancestry (19,570) in the Nashville Metropolitan Area (based on 2008-2012 data, now sorely outdated). That's 1.23% of the population - less than one-half the share in the US as a whole - but still sizeable and growing.