Stateside Virgin Islands Americans are West Indian Americans who hold

US citizenship Citizenship of the United States is a legal status that entails Americans with specific rights, duties, protections, and benefits in the United States. It serves as a foundation of fundamental rights derived from and protected by the Constituti ...

and who have migrated from the

U.S. Virgin Islands The United States Virgin Islands,. Also called the ''American Virgin Islands'' and the ''U.S. Virgin Islands''. officially the Virgin Islands of the United States, are a group of Caribbean islands and an unincorporated and organized territory ...

to the continental United States and Hawaii, and their descendants. Persons born in the U.S. Virgin Islands are United States citizens, and as a result do not go through the legal immigration procedures a typical West Indies immigrant would. Virgin Islanders in the U.S. are considered part of the Caribbean American community. It is difficult to determine how many Virgin Islanders reside in the United States proper. According to the 2000 U.S. Census, there are 15,014 people of U.S. Virgin Islands ancestry residing in the continental United States and Hawaii. However, a count of American residents with "U.S. Virgin Islands ancestry" excludes most U.S. Virgin Islands-born migrants in the United States proper. Because of a high incidence of inter-Caribbean migration throughout the 1960s and 1970s, most native-born Virgin Islanders today are one or two generations removed from other Caribbean islands and would not necessarily define themselves as having "U.S. Virgin Islands ancestry." For example, Tim Duncan is a St. Croix native with Anguillian ancestry.

Demographics

Virgin Island Americans includes Americans with ancestry from both the US Virgin Islands and British Virgin Islands, together numbering about 25,000. A majority of Virgin Islands Americans are of black Afro-Caribbean descent, many of whom descend from enslaved Africans brought to the islands by Europeans in the colonial era. A large portion descends from black or mixed race migrants who came from other parts of the Caribbean including Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Trinidad and Tobago, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and many smaller countries in the Lesser Antilles. Many Virgin Islands Americans concentrate in areas with a large overall Caribbean population, including areas like New York, Florida, Georgia, New Jersey, and Connecticut.

Notable people

Actors

* Wayne Brady (born 1972), actor; born in Georgia * Lisa Canning (born 1966), television actress; born on St. Thomas * Kelsey Grammer (born 1955), actor; born on St. Thomas * Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs (born 1953), actor; born in New York City * Jasmin St. Claire (born 1972), adult film actress; born in Christiansted, St. Croix *

Karrine Steffans Karrine Steffans (born August 24, 1978) is an American author, most notably of the ''Vixen'' series of books. She has worked as an actress and as a video vixen, having appeared in more than 20 music videos. In 2007 and 2008, Steffans visited a n ...

(born 1978), New York Times bestselling author, former hip hop music video performer, actress; born on St. Thomas

Artists

* Fraser Kershaw, philanthropist, film artist

Athletes

* Christian Lloyd Joseph born 1972, Professional Boxer and former I.B.C Intercontinental Middleweight Champion * Raja Bell (born 1976), basketball player; born on St. Croix * Tombi Bell (born 1979), basketball player, who last played for the Minnesota Lynx of the WNBA; born on St. Croix * Joe Christopher (born 1935), the first Virgin Islander to play in Major League Baseball; born in Frederiksted, St. Croix * Midre Cummings (born 1971), baseball player; born on St. Croix * Tim Duncan (born 1976), professional basketball player ( San Antonio Spurs); born in Christiansted, St. Croix * Emile Griffith (1938–2013), boxer; born on St. Thomas * Elrod Hendricks (1940–2005), Major League Baseball player and coach; born in Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas * Julian Jackson (born 1960), boxer; born on St. Thomas *

Calvin Pickering Calvin Elroy Pickering (born September 29, 1976) is a former professional baseball first baseman. He played in Major League Baseball between 1998 and 2005 for the Baltimore Orioles (1998–1999), Cincinnati Reds (2001), Boston Red Sox (2001), and ...

(born 1976), baseball player; born on St. Thomas *

Sugar Ray Seales "Sugar" Ray Seales, (born September 4, 1952) is an American former boxer. He was the only American boxer to win a gold medal in the 1972 Summer Olympics. As a professional, he fought middleweight champion Marvin Hagler three times. He is also th ...

(born 1952), 1972 Olympic Gold Medalist (139 lbs.) boxer; born on St. Croix.

Musicians

Alton Adams Alton Augustus Adams, Sr. (November 4, 1889 – November 23, 1987) is remembered primarily as the first black (people), black military band, bandmaster in the United States Navy (beginning 1917). His music was performed by the bands of John Philip ...

(1889–1987), musician, first black bandmaster in the United States Navy; born in Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas * Bennie Benjamin (1907–1989), composer, songwriter, philanthropist; born in Christiansted, St. Croix * Jon Lucien, jazz musician; born on Tortola, raised on St. Thomas * Rock City, a musical duo of composed brothers Timothy and Theron Thomas, born on St. Thomas *

Sonny Rollins Walter Theodore "Sonny" Rollins (born September 7, 1930) is an American jazz tenor saxophonist who is widely recognized as one of the most important and influential jazz musicians. In a seven-decade career, he has recorded over sixty albums as a ...

, jazz musician; born in New York, of St. Thomas (mother) and St. Croix (father) descent

Political leaders

* Judah P. Benjamin (1811–1884), Secretary of the Treasury, Confederate States of America; born in Christiansted, St. Croix * Frank Rudolph Crosswaith (1892–1965), socialist and labor leader; born in Frederiksted, St. Croix *

Alexander Hamilton Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 or 1757July 12, 1804) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first United States secretary of the treasury from 1789 to 1795. Born out of wedlock in Charlest ...

(1755–1804), first United States Secretary of the Treasury, an American "Founding Father", economist, and political philosopher; born in Nevis, raised on St. Croix *

Hubert Henry Harrison Hubert Henry Harrison (April 27, 1883 – December 17, 1927) was a West Indian-American writer, orator, educator, critic, race and class conscious political activist, and radical internationalist based in Harlem, New York. He was described by a ...

(1883–1927), orator, political activist; born in St. Croix *

Elizabeth Anna Hendrickson Elizabeth Anna Hendrickson (1884–1946) was a notable Afro-American civil rights leader and political activist. Born in St Croix, while it was still a Danish colony before it was purchased by the US government and incorporated into the US Virgin I ...

(1884–1946), civil rights leader; born in St. Croix *

Casper Holstein Casper Holstein (December 7, 1876 – April 5, 1944) was a prominent New York mobster involved in the Harlem " numbers rackets" during the Harlem Renaissance. Early life His birth name was Egbert Joseph and changed his name in honor of his ma ...

(born 1888), humanitarian; born in St. Croix * Roy Innis (born 1934), African-American activist, civil rights leader; born in St. Croix *

J. Raymond Jones John Raymond Jones (November 19, 1899 – June 9, 1991) was the last Grand Sachem of Tammany Hall, a New York City Councilman for Harlem, a district leader, ran the Carver Democratic Club, and was Adam Clayton Powell's campaign manager in 1958, ...

(1899–1991), political leader, humanitarian; born in St. Thomas *

John de Jongh John Percy de Jongh Jr. (born November 13, 1957) is an American businessman and politician who served as the Governor of the United States Virgin Islands from 2007 to 2015. He has been active in Virgin Islands politics and the business community ...

(born 1957), past governor of the U.S. Virgin Islands, former financial executive; born in St. Thomas *

William Leidesdorff William Alexander Leidesdorff, Jr. (October 23, 1810 – May 18, 1848) was one of the earliest biracial-black U.S. citizens in California and one of the founders of the city that became San Francisco. A highly successful, enterprising businessman ...

(1810–1848), entrepreneur; born in St. Croix *

Ruby Margaret Rouss Ruby M. Rouss (3 December 1921 – 8 May 1988) was an American citizen born on Saint Croix in the US Virgin Islands. Her career was marked by a series of firsts. She was the first Virgin Islander in the Women's Army Corps (WAC), first African-A ...

(1921–1988) first black woman to be elected to preside over a state legislature; born in St. Croix * Terence Todman (born 1926), ambassador; born in the U.S. Virgin Islands * Denmark Vesey (1767–1822), slave revolt leader; born on St. Thomas * David Levy Yulee (1810–1886), U.S. Senator; born on St. Thomas

Writers and intellectuals

* Barbara Christian (1943–2000), educator, feminist critic; born on St. Thomas

News Media Personalities

* Candace Owens (born 1989), Conservative News Commentator, Turning Point USA co-founder, YouTube personality; grandmother from St. Thomas

References

{{West Indian American Caribbean American *Main *Main