Somali Americans are Americans of Somali ancestry. The first ethnic Somalis to arrive in the U.S. were sailors who came in the 1920s from British Somaliland. They were followed by students pursuing higher studies in the 1960s and 1970s. From the late 1970s to the late 1980s and early 1990s, more Somalis arrived.
In the mid and late 1990s, the largest number of Somalis arrived, after civil war in Somalia. The Somali community in the U.S. is now among the largest in the Somali diaspora. From Wikipedia