Anti-Chinese violence in California

Last updated January 11, 2023

Anti-Chinese violence in California includes a number of massacres, riots, expulsions and other violent actions that were directed at Chinese American communities in the 19th century. The attacks on Chinese were often sparked by labor disputes. In the 1880s alone, Chinese communities were attacked in 34 towns in California, often resulting in the local Chinatown being looted and burned.^[1]^[2]

Background

Growth of California

California was annexed by the United States from Mexico after the Mexican–American War in 1848. At the same time the California Gold Rush brought hundreds of thousands of settlers from the Eastern U.S. in search of gold, allowing California to become a state in 1850. The United States saw its first major wave of Chinese immigrants as a result of the gold rush. Most of these immigrants entered the country through the port of San Francisco and by 1860 Chinese immigrants had settled in all but 5 of California's counties.^[2]

Labor issues

The Chinese quickly took up work in many industries after arriving in California. The Chinese faced racial discrimination from white workers who perceived them as being more willing to work for lower wages. Chinese immigrants began to be known as "coolies". Additionally many anti-Chinese labor unions such as the Knights of Labor were created.^[2]

Violence against the Chinese

The violence against the Chinese started soon after they began arriving in California in significant numbers. One of the earliest known instances occurred in 1856 when white miners destroyed property in Yreka's Chinatown. The Chinese also faced restricted rights in California as few of them spoke English or were U.S. citizens and were forced to live in segregated communities.^[2]

1870s

Anti-Chinese violence became more prevalent and severe in California in the 1870s, partly as a result of the Long Depression, which many American workers blamed on industrialists using cheaper Chinese labor.

On October 24, 1871, the most deadly act of violence against the Chinese in California occurred. Around 500 white and Hispanic men attacked Los Angeles' Chinatown after a white civilian was shot to death by a Chinese man. The mob looted Chinatown and lynched nineteen Chinese civilians, all of them male immigrants. Eight suspects were convicted of manslaughter but later had their convictions overturned. San Francisco, which had the largest Chinese population in the country, was also hit by a major anti-Chinese riot in 1877. On July 23, 1877, unemployed white workers gathered for a socialist meeting and began attacking Chinese immigrants, killing four, as they blamed them for their economic woes.

At the same time, anti-Chinese violence was spreading to smaller cities such as Chico, Weaverville, and Yreka. In June 1876, two cabins housing Chinese woodcutters were set on fire during the night in Truckee; after emerging to fight the flames, one woodcutter was shot and killed. The widely-reported incident, known as the Trout Creek Outrage, resulted in seven men being arrested and charged with murder and arson, but the jury found one defendant not guilty of murder after nine minutes of deliberation and the remaining charges were dismissed.^[3]^{: 171–173} In September 1876, the entire Chinese population of Placer County was expelled after a Chinese cook named Ah Sam murdered three white people near Loomis.^[2]^[4] White gunmen shot and killed four Chinese men in Chico in February 1877 and later unsuccessfully attempted to burn the town's Chinatown to the ground.^[5]

1880s

Anti-Chinese violence and sentiment in America reached a peak in the 1880s. Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882 which served as a pretext for violent actions against Chinese communities across the American west. Among the most notable of these violent events was the September 1885 massacre of 28 Chinese miners in Rock Springs, Wyoming and the November 1885 expulsion of Chinese Americans from Tacoma, Washington.

On February 6, 1885, Eureka councilman David Kendall was accidentally shot and killed by a Chinese man. The shooting served as pretext for expelling all Chinese residents of Humboldt County to San Francisco. Del Norte County similarly expelled its Chinese population in January 1886.^[2]

1885 and 1886 saw an unprecedented wave of violence against Chinese Americans in California. Arroyo Grande, Marysville, Merced, Nicolaus, Pasadena, Redding, Red Bluff, Riverside, Truckee and Tulare all expelled their Chinese populations in those years.^[6]^[7] The Truckee expulsion was particularly brutal. White residents had previously attempted to expel the Chinese population of Truckee in 1875, 1876 and 1878 but failed each time. In early 1886, white residents began boycotting local merchants who sold any goods to Chinese people. Every single business in Truckee quickly stopped selling any supplies to the Chinese and most Chinese residents left. A few remained, but the remaining buildings in Chinatown were burnt to the ground, resulting in three deaths.^[8]

Anti-Chinese violence continued into 1887, with arsonists targeting a number of Chinatowns across California, including those of Chico, Fresno, and San Jose.^[2]

As a result of anti-Chinese laws and violence in the 1880s, California's Chinese population declined by 37%.^[2] The Chinese had been 8.7% of California's population as of the 1880 census.^[9]

1890s

Anti-Chinese violence continued into the 1890s. In 1892 the Geary Act, named after California representative Thomas J. Geary, extended the Chinese exclusion act and added new restrictions on Chinese, such as requiring them to carry a resident permit at all times. 1893 saw a wave of anti Chinese riots in California, partly because of an increase in unemployment due to the Panic of 1893.^[10] Fresno and Riverside both expelled their Chinese populations that year and a large riot against the Chinese occurred in Redlands.^[2]

Government response

In response to rising anti-Chinese sentiment in California and other Western states, the U.S. enacted the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882 to ban Chinese immigration to the U.S. for 10 years and later enacted the Scott Act in 1888 to prohibit Chinese laborers from re-entering America. The passage of both laws lead to mass celebratory demonstrations in California.^[1]^[2]

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The Chinese Exclusion Act was a United States federal law signed by President Chester A. Arthur on May 6, 1882, prohibiting all immigration of Chinese laborers for 10 years. The law excluded merchants, teachers, students, travelers, and diplomats. Building on the earlier Page Act of 1875, which banned Chinese women from migrating to the United States, the Chinese Exclusion Act was the only law ever implemented to prevent all members of a specific ethnic or national group from immigrating to the United States.

The Asiatic Exclusion League was an organization formed in the early 20th century in the United States and Canada that aimed to prevent immigration of people of Asian origin.

The Geary Act was a United States law that extended the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 by adding onerous new requirements. It was written by California Representative Thomas J. Geary and was passed by Congress on May 5, 1892.

The Los Angeles Chinese massacre of 1871 was a racial massacre targeting Chinese immigrants in Los Angeles, California, United States that occurred on October 24, 1871. Approximately 500 white and Hispanic Americans attacked, harassed, robbed, and murdered the ethnic Chinese residents in what is today referred to as the old Chinatown neighborhood. The massacre took place on Calle de los Negros, also referred to as "Negro Alley". The mob gathered after hearing that a policeman and a rancher had been killed as a result of a conflict between rival tongs, the Nin Yung, and Hong Chow. As news of their death spread across the city, fueling rumors that the Chinese community "were killing whites wholesale", more men gathered around the boundaries of Negro Alley. A few 21st-century sources have described this as the largest mass lynching in American history.

The Rock Springs massacre, also known as the Rock Springs riot, occurred on September 2, 1885, in the present-day United States city of Rock Springs in Sweetwater County, Wyoming. The riot, and resulting massacre of immigrant Chinese miners by white immigrant miners, was the result of racial prejudice toward the Chinese miners, who were perceived to be taking jobs from the white miners. The Union Pacific Coal Department found it economically beneficial to give preference in hiring to Chinese miners, who were willing to work for lower wages than their white counterparts, angering the white miners. When the rioting ended, at least 28 Chinese miners were dead and 15 were injured. Rioters burned 78 Chinese homes, resulting in approximately US$150,000 in property damage.

The Tacoma riot of 1885, also known as the 1885 Chinese expulsion from Tacoma, involved the forceful expulsion of the Chinese population from Tacoma, Washington Territory, on November 3, 1885. City leaders had earlier proposed a November 1 deadline for the Chinese population to leave the city. On November 3, 1885, a mob that consisted of prominent businessmen, police, and political leaders descended on the Chinese community. The mob marched Chinese residents to a railroad station and forced them to board a train to Portland. In the following days, the structures that remained in the Chinese community were razed. The event was the result of growing anti-Chinese sentiment and violence throughout the American West.

The Seattle riot of 1886 occurred on February 6–9, 1886, in Seattle, Washington, amidst rising anti-Chinese sentiment caused by intense labor competition and in the context of an ongoing struggle between labor and capital in the Western United States. The dispute arose when a mob affiliated with a local Knights of Labor chapter formed small committees to carry out a forcible expulsion of all Chinese from the city. Violence erupted between the Knights of Labor rioters and federal troops ordered in by President Grover Cleveland. The incident resulted in the removal of over 200 Chinese civilians from Seattle and left two militia men and three rioters seriously injured.

The Attack on Squak Valley Chinese laborers took place on September 7, 1885, in Squak Valley, Washington Territory, when a group of men fired their guns into several tents where a group of Chinese hop pickers were sleeping. The gunfire resulted in the death of three Chinese men and the wounding of three others. The attackers were later identified and brought to trial, but all were acquitted.

There were at least several incidents of anti-Chinese violence in Washington, a United States territory and later, a U.S. state, which occurred during the 19th, 20th and 21st century. In the 19th century, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 created hostile attitudes towards the Chinese people residing in the U.S. The act sparked a wave of anti-Chinese riots and murders occurring in Washington, such as the Tacoma Riot of 1885, the Rock Springs massacre and the Hells Canyon massacre in 1887. There were riots and mob actions in Issaquah and Seattle which resulted in at least four people being killed and extensive property damage. Anti-Chinese violence continued throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Anti-Chinese sentiment in the United States dates to the mid-19th century, shortly after Chinese immigrants, the ancestors of many Chinese Americans, first arrived in North America. It has taken many forms, including prejudice; racist immigration limits; and murder, bullying, massacres, and other violence.

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The San Francisco riot of 1877 was a three-day pogrom waged against Chinese immigrants in San Francisco, California by the city's majority white population from the evening of July 23 through the night of July 25, 1877. The ethnic violence which swept Chinatown resulted in four deaths and the destruction of more than $100,000 worth of property belonging to the city's Chinese immigrant population.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anti-Oriental riots (Vancouver)</span>

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As of 2012, 21.4% of the population in San Francisco was of Chinese descent, and there were at least 150,000 Chinese American residents. The Chinese are the largest Asian American subgroup in San Francisco. San Francisco has the highest percentage of residents of Chinese descent of any major U.S. city, and the second largest Chinese American population, after New York City. The San Francisco Area is 7.9% Chinese American, with many residents in Oakland and Santa Clara County. San Francisco's Chinese community has ancestry mainly from Guangdong province, China and Hong Kong, although there is a sizable population of ethnic Chinese with ancestry from other parts of mainland China and Taiwan as well.

Greater Seattle has had a Chinese American community almost since its founding in 1851. Chinese workers arriving in the 1860s were welcomed, because the Seattle area was sparsely settled and workers were needed; within a few decades, however, newly arrived white settlers resented the Chinese workers, and there were several anti-Chinese riots as the whites attempted to expel the Chinese from the area. Chinese settlement persisted, with the immigrants settling in a well-defined Chinatown where they maintained their culture through family groups, associations, and churches. In the mid-20th century Chinese Americans joined with other immigrant groups to oppose racial discrimination. In 1962 a Chinese American became the first person of Asian ancestry to hold elective office in the state of Washington.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chinatown, Denver</span> Neighborhood of Denver in Colorado, United States

Chinatown in Denver, Colorado, was a residential and business district of Chinese Americans in what is now the LoDo section of the city. It was also referred to as "Hop Alley", based upon a slang word for opium. The first Chinese resident of Denver, Hong Lee, arrived in 1869 and lived in a shanty at Wazee and F Streets and ran a washing and ironing laundry business. More Chinese immigrants arrived in the town the following year. Men who had worked on the construction of the first transcontinental railroad or had been miners in California crossed over the Rocky Mountains after their work was completed or mines were depleted in California.

Chinese Americans in the Pacific Northwest have been around since as early as the 1850s. Chinese Americans arrived in the Greater Seattle area in as early as 1851. Oregon had also seen an influx of Chinese Immigrants as early as 1851, because of mining opportunities. Idaho saw an influx of Chinese Immigrants in the late-19th century, and by 1870 saw a population of around 4,000 Chinese immigrants. The influx of Chinese immigrants in the Pacific Northwest and the rest of the Western United States led to retaliation by whites, leading to anti-Chinese sentiment in the United States. These sentiment then led to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which expelled many Chinese Americans in the Pacific Northwest. Chinese exclusion is also driven by the failure of restriction. The United States had passed the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 to slow immigration, and mend Sinophobia in the west. However, the enforcement of the exclusion act was lackluster. The United States Department of Treasury had found itself with no money to enforce this law. Thus, nullifying the purpose of the exclusion act. Additionally, under the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, Chinese people could migrate to the United States if they were return immigrants. Consequently, Chinese immigrants began claiming that they were return immigrants so that they could work in the United States. This also made the Chinese Exclusion Act 1882 useless. This led the United States government to pass the Scott Act of 1888. This excluded all Chinese immigration because it was cheaper, and it appeased the racial tensions in the west.

1885 Chinese expulsion from Eureka was an ethnic cleansing event that took place in Eureka, California on February 7, 1885.

The Trout Creek Outrage, also known as the Truckee Outrage or Trout Creek Murder, was an example of anti-Chinese violence in California which occurred on the night of June 17–18, 1876. White residents of Truckee, California set fire to two cabins along Trout Creek that housed six Chinese immigrants working as woodcutters approximately 2 mi (3.2 km) northwest of the town; as the woodcutters fled the fires, the Truckee men shot them, killing one and wounding another. Seven men were arrested two months later and tried for arson and murder in September 1876, but the lone defendant for the murder charge was found not guilty by an all-white jury after nine minutes of deliberation, and the arson charges against the men were dismissed. Ten years later in 1886, the citizens of Truckee succeeded in driving the last Chinese immigrants from the city, which previously had been the home of the second-largest Chinatown in the western United States.

References

1 2 Kennedy, Robert C. (2001). ""Justice For The Chinese"". archive.nytimes.com. Harper's Weekly . Retrieved January 31, 2019.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "A History of Chinese Americans in California". nps.gov. National Park Service . Retrieved January 31, 2019.
↑ Pfaelzer, Jean (2007). "5: The Truckee Method". Driven Out: The forgotten war against Chinese Americans . New York: Random House. pp. 167–197. ISBN 978-1-4000-6134-1.
↑ Day, Gary. "Murder charge spurs hatred for Chinese". goldcountrymedia.com. Placer Herald. Retrieved May 22, 2020.
↑ "Chico". noplaceproject.com. The No Place Project. Retrieved January 31, 2019.
↑ Pfealzer, Jean (2007). Driven Out: the Forgotten War Against Chinese Americans. New York: Random House. ISBN 9780520256941.
↑ Hormann, Matt. "Night of Terror". pasadenaweekly. Pasadena Weekly. Retrieved January 31, 2019.
↑ "Truckee". noplaceproject.com. The No Place Project. Retrieved January 31, 2019.
↑ "California". www.noplaceproject.com. The No Place Project. Retrieved January 31, 2019.
↑ "Fresno". www.noplaceproject.com. The No Place Project. Retrieved January 31, 2019.