An editorial in The Santa Cruz Sentinel in 1879, for example, described the Chinese as "half-human, half-devil, rat-eating, rag-wearing, law-ignoring, Christian-civilization-hating, opium-smoking, labor-degrading, entrail-sucking Celestials."

Another California newspaper, The Dutch Flat Forum, struck a similar chord at the time. "Women of California," it asked, "why do you persist in having your dirty linen fouled by unclean hands, under the pretense of having it cleansed? Do you not know that (in these exciting times when the Chinese are losing employment, and naturally mad at the white race) you are taking desperate chances of having disease introduced among us that will render desolate our firesides? And in fact we don't know but that the diseases among our children during the past year, which have baffled the skill of our most eminent physicians, and depopulated many households, have emanated from the Chinese."

While Chinese immigrants fared better in Arizona Territory than elsewhere in the West, anti-Chinese feeling occasionally manifested itself in violence and threats of removal. More often, it ook the form of laws restricting the activities of Chinese residents. Territorial criminal court records indicate that as Arizona's Chinese population grew in the late 1870s and 1880s, new laws regulating laundries and opium dens brought more and more Chinese before the judicial bench. Many of these cases resulted in judgments against the defendants.

At the same time, Arizona's Chinese were hardly passive wayfarers in the courts. They hired attorneys to apply the law in their favor. If the Chinese had not challenged their arrests, very few cases involving anti-Chinese discrimination would exist in county superior court records. Many of these briefs appealed lower court rulings involving violations of opium laws, while a few challenged verdicts in assault and petit larceny cases. In some of these appeals, Chinese defendants directly assailed opium ordinances, laundry licensing, and other discriminatory laws, or objected to the discriminatory enforcement of such seemingly unbiased laws as selling cigarettes to minors. In doing so, they also challenged prejudice in late-nineteenth-century America.

Arizona Territory escaped most of the hysteria of the 1850s and 1860s that produced the foreign miner's tax in California and Idaho's monthly head tax, enacted specifically to discourage Chinese immigration. Following complaints about overcrowding, stench, disease, fire hazards, prostitution, and gambling in Chinatowns, California communities passed ordinances regulating Chinese laundries and limiting the number of residents in a dwelling.

Chinese laundries were a common source of complaint in many cities and towns throughout the West. Where racial hostility often barred Chinese from mining and manufacturing, many immigrants were forced to take the only jobs that remained - in restaurants, vegetable farming, laundries, and other service occupations. Ironically, whites who often benefitted from these services, particularly if no one else was willing to take the positions, became alarmed that the Chinese were taking away jobs and money. Prescott and Phoenix newspapers condemned the Chinese monopoly on laundries. They suggested that enterprising whites should open their own establishments in order to promote competition and, also, to discourage immigration.

For some whites, Chinese laundries were more than just an economic threat, they also endangered public health. Territorial newspapers frequently denounced washhouses as "public nuisances," where the "filthy practices of the Chinese in allowing pools of dirty and stinking water to accumulate around their laundries produce breeding places of disease which it is most wise to guard against." An 1896 article in the Tempe News lashed out against "the cesspools of Chinese washhouses," and described "the stench that arises from these places" as "something awful." Local governments responded to these complaints by enacting ordinances that regulated laundries as potential health hazards. "The action of the Common Council of Phoenix in declaring all wash houses in the city limits public nuisances, is commendable," the Arizona Gazette noted in 1881.

In Arizona and elsewhere, the Chinese followed a longstanding tradition of defending their civil rights. Ho Ah Kow v. Nunan , an 1870s California test case, established two important grounds for challenging anti-Chinese legislation:

• that the Fourteenth Amendment applied equally to citizens and non-citizens; and
• that, in rendering a verdict, courts could consider the motivation behind passage of a law.

1879
AH LUM / QUONG GEE KEE / "CHINA MARY" / TOMBSTONE'S CAN CAN RESTAURANT / HOPTOWN
Ah Lum (along with "China Mary" - his wife) and Quong Gee Kee owned one of the most famous eateries in Tombstone, Arizona - the stomping grounds of Wyatt Earp and his OK Corral gang - the Can Can Restaurant.

Quong Gee Kee
As a long time resident of Tombstone, he knew all of the infamous characters from the 1880's era, some who ate at Can-Can. "Wyatt Earp was a nice fellow," Quong had said. "Lot of times he was hard on other people. Sometimes he would shoot them up." Quong also knew Billy Clanton. "Nice boy, always paid his bills. Too bad he got shot down at the O.K. Corral."

Presumably from Hong Kong, Quong's first job in America was as a cook's helper in Virginia City, Montana. When Virginia City became a ghost town, he opened a restaurant in Stockton, California, saving his money to return to Hong Kong. He made the trip back to Hong Kong where he got married and bought a home. Eight months later he left his pregnant wife to return to America. Quong planned to earn enough money to take back to Hong Kong to comfortably support his family. Once back in America, Quong ran a prosperous restaurant in Wilcox, Arizona called "Hindquarter." Then Quong was lured to the new boom town, Tombstone.

ARIZONA HISTORY Construction of a transcontinental railroad through Arizona brought in hundreds of Chinese construction workers. By the time the railroad was completed in 1880, the Chinese had settled into nearby towns. They were attracted to Tombstone's silver boom and worked there as cooks, servants, launderers, gardeners, woodcutters and charcoal manufacturers. Between 1879 and 1886, 500 to 800 Chinese lived in Tombstone. Whites, or "round eyes," opposed the Chinese. On July 24, 1880, the first anti-Chinese meeting was held. Adversaries proclaimed "John Chinaman Must Go!" and threatened to use violence. But the Chinese refused to leave and, fortunately, no action was taken - even though, at one time, the Tombstone's Bird Cage Theatre staged a burlesque play, "The Chinese Must Go." Although the white settlers frowned on the Chinese' strong cultural ties and apparent opium use and gambling, they abhorred them for not supporting the local economy. Chinese seldom patronized town businesses, imported their clothing and food from China and monopolized services by charging menial wages. When silver mining operations curtailed in 1886, most Chinese left Tombstone to seek jobs elsewhere. Aside from the graves, few remnants of the once-thriving Chinese community in Tombstone exist today. Big Nose Kate's Saloon has a preserved front page article from the Tombstone Epitaph of Quong's funeral. Every October Tombstone's "Helldorado" commemorates the shooting at the O.K. Corral with re-enactments of various gun battles. One scene portrays an outlaw named Rook who refused to pay for his meal at a Chinese restaurant, then severely beat up the proprietor. The unidentified Chinese grabbed a gun and shot and killed Rook, in the only known incident of a Chinese shootout in Tombstone.

Like the other Chinese, he wasn't interested in shootouts and gun battles. Quong was notoriously kind to his customers. When five rowdy cowboys rustled up the restaurant (wild after months of isolation on the range tore up the restuarant, Quong chose not to have them arrested - ignoring the advice of his friends. "They'll come back and pay up," he inferred. "If I arrest them, I'll lose five friends and good customers." A week later a shamefaced cowboy approached Quong. "We acted like a bunch of fools," the cowboy said. "Me and the boys would like to pay you for busting up the place."

When the mines went bust and Tombstone became a ghost town, Quong's restaurants in Pearce, Charleston and Tombstone closed. People owed Quong money from doing business at the Can Can Restaurant and his two other restaurants out of town. Because of his generous nature, he had more money on the books than in the registers, but he still refused to sue people who owed him money because, as he put it, it would only make the lawyers rich and lose him friends.

Only a few Chinese like Quong Gee Kee remained after 1886 when the mining operations ended. During his final years, Quong rambled the streets of Tombstone. Sadly, he gave up any hopes of returning to Hong Kong. He never saw his son.

In January, 1938, Quong was found unconscious on the floor of his home by Marshal Hal Smith. He was rushed to the hospital in Douglas where he passed away early the next morning. For some unknown reason his body was rushed to Bisbee where it was buried in a pauper's grave in the Evergreen Cemetery.

Despite all his friends, Quong died penniless. But since he was such a well-liked figure in Tombstone, his friends collected a sizeable fund to bury him in style at the historic Boothill Cemetery right next to China Mary (as he had requested) where some 500 people showed up for his burial. Since Quong always claimed to be 10 years younger than he was, when he died in 1938 at age 86 - he might have really been 96. Quong was Tombstone's last Chinese resident. His funeral at Boothill was the first since China Mary died in 1906.

Mrs. Ah Lum / China Mary
Tombstone's China Town was run by Mrs. Ah Lum, "China Mary", who, as her grave marker reads, was "Born in China, Died in Tombstone Dec. 6, 1906, Aged 67 Years." As many as 500 Chinese lived in Tombstone, operating businesses and working in the mines following their release from railroad construction in the 1870s.

China Mary arrived in Tombstone in late 1879 or early 1880. She was a woman of copious frame who wore heavy brocaded silks and rare jewelry. Ah Lum's wife, known as China Mary, was the official queen of Tombstone's Chinatown - which at one point had upwards of 500 people. She had connections to China, imported opium, kept a stable of servants who were guaranteed not to steal, and took in the injured, poor and down-and-out.

DID YOU KNOW?

(Eddie) Foy Sr. in later years told of an altercation over a girl with fellow actor Charles Chapin (who later hired Toraichi Kono as his driver, personal secretary, a handy man, closest confidante, his caretaker and - according to most accounts, the person that Chaplin trusted more than anyone else) who was drunkenly taking pot-shots at Foy. The gunfire awakened Wyatt Earp, who disarmed the actor and sent both the players home to sleep it off. Foy is also rumored to have been in Tombstone, Arizona in October 1881 appearing at the local theatre when the Gunfight at the OK Corral occurred on the 26th of that month. Click HERE for more info.

TOMBSTONE INFO Tombstone was founded by a immigrant prospector, Edward L. Schieffelin, who set out from Fort Huachuca in 1879. Having been warned he would find "nothing else but his tombstone," he discovered silver ore and named the site Tombstone. Mining accelerated in 1887, one year after Geronimo's surrender. Tombstone became a mining boomtown with a population of more than 5,000 fortune seekers. 110 liquor licenses were issued in 1892 and Tombstone quickly became the place of Western folklore and fact. Several historic buildings still stand, including the Crystal Palace Saloon and the Bird Cage Theater, it's walls riddled with 140 bullet holes. Tombstone is most known for it's notorious residents, legends such as John Heath and Wyatt Earp.

Nobody knew her real name or where she was from in China. She married Ah Lum - co-owner of the Can-Can Restaurant with Quong Kee ("Worshipful Master of the Chinese Masonic Lodge") and the two forged power in Tombstone's Chinese sector, which the round eyes called Hoptown. China Mary provided houseboys, servants, maids, launderers, gardeners, cooks and, allegedly, prostitutes or slaves. Only through "China Mary" could townspeople hire a Chinese. She often helped the sick, injured and hungry and even loaned money to strangers who seemed honest. Once she paid for an injured cowboy's medical bills.

Few women in the American West had as much dignity as China Mary had during that time. Her decisions went undisputed and nobody dared to disobey her. No Chinese could be hired except through China Mary; none could be paid: except through China Mary. She also controlled Chinese prostitution and all the opium trade in town. She owned an interest in most Chinese businesses in Tombstone, too. Many believe that the Six Companies sent her there to oversee things and that her marriage to Ah Lum might have been political.

China Mary kept a well-stocked store of Chinese delicacies and art. She apparently ran a gambling operation in hidden rooms and supplied opium to Tombstone dens. A wild and impulsive person, once she dashed off to Tucson with the local blacksmith and was brought back to Tombstone by a cowboy her husband hired. Another time she and two tramps were arrested and jailed for theft and possession of stolen property. China Mary, with her connections in China, imported opium, kept a stable of servants who were guaranteed not to steal, and took in the injured, poor and down-and-out.

Despite that she was Chinese, her shady operations and quirky character - town folk respected and liked China Mary. She would lend money to anyone who impressed her as honest and hard working. No sick, injured or hungry person was ever turned from her door. She once took a cowboy with a broken leg to the Grand Central Boarding House and paid the bill until he recovered.

AFTER TOMBSTONE, CHINESE NOT TOLERATED IN BISBEE When the mining operation in Tombstone ceased in 1886, the obvious choice for the Chinese was to go to nearby Bisbee, where copper mining flourished. But they were not welcomed there. Chinese could sell produce in Bisbee during the day, but by sundown they had to skip town. A county judge passed an unwritten law forbidding Chinese from staying overnight in Bisbee. The exclusion was to prevent competition with local laundresses, most of them miners' widows who started laundry businesses to support themselves. But it was a petty reason to exclude the Chinese. Bisbee was a white man's mining camp, giving preference to Anglos, many of them Europeans. Even Mexicans were underpaid and could not work in the mines. Chinese were at the bottom of the pecking order, enduring harsh discrimination.

She was the absolute ruler of "Hoptown" and all its denizens. China Mary not only ruled them but also virtually owned them body and soul. Her word and her decisions were undisputed law, and no one disobeyed. No Chinese person could be hired except through China Mary; none could be paid, except through China Mary. She also controlled Chinese prostitution and all the opium trade in Tombstone, and owned an interest in most of the Chinese businesses in town. It was extremely unusual for a woman, any woman, to occupy such a position in the American West.

When she died in 1906 at age 67, her funeral was well-attended. As she requested, she was interned at the Chinese section of Boothill instead of following the Chinese tradition of having her bones shipped to China and buried there. Her funeral had all the pomp and ceremony of a lavish Chinese extravaganza. Ah Lum was remarried to a Mexican woman and died in 1906.

Note: Other Chinese such as Sing Wan, Hop Lung and others were buried in the far corner of Boothill Graveyard. The cemetery overlooks Tombstone, Arizona, where during its heyday in the late 19th century, a Chinese community thrived. Yet, the Chinese who toiled in the dusty, desert town seldom made the annals of American history. Tombstone is best known for its famous shootout, Wyatt Earp and Billy Clanton at the O.K. Corral.

1879
BOK EYE TEMPLE & CA.'S OLDEST CONTINUING PARADE
California's oldest parade is the key feature of the annual two day Bok Kai Festival in historic downtown Marysville. Each spring, the Bok Kai Temple is visited by Chinese from throughout the United States, Hong Kong and Taiwan. The Temple, built in 1879 by Chinese immigrants, houses many gods, but the primary god is Bok Eye.

1879 
SIT MOON - FOUNDER OF CHINESE YMCA
Sit Moon was a Chinese immigrant who converted to Christianity and worked for 15 years in the Presbyterian Mission of San Francisco. He was hired by the YMCA in 1875 to evangelize the Chinese laborers in Hawaii. Two years later, he founded "the Chinese YMCA", You Hawk Jihu Taw Hui (the Beginning Evangelical Society of Learners).

1880s
L.A.'S LITTLE TOKYO ESTABLISHED
Japanese immigrants began moving into the area, which was once a citrus grove, in the 1880s. They established restaurants, grocery stores, businesses and churches that welcomed those who spoke Japanese. By the start of World War II, the population had swelled to 30,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans in and around Little Tokyo, which occupied three square miles.

1880s
AH QUINN - ONE OF THE PROMINENT FOUNDERS OF SAN DIEGO ("UNOFFICIAL MAYOR OF CHINATOWN")
He was probably one of the When Ah Quin arrived in San Diego on October 25, 1880, the city hummed with excitement as the building of the railroad approached. Frank Kimball, the founder of nearby National City, had been the driving force behind the acquisition of a railroad for San Diego. Inspired by a belief that a railroad terminal would transform National City into a boom town, Kimball had coaxed the directors of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad to route a branch line through San Diego to establish a terminal at National City.

Ah Quin certainly must be ranked among the prominent founders of early San Diego, not only for his accomplishments as a labor broker for San Diego's first railroad, but for his leadership and influence among his fellow Chinese and his ability to develop a network of friends throughout his life from both the Chinese and American communities. When considering the period in which he lived, Ah Quin's accomplishments during his life were remarkable-- his mastery of English, his Christian conversion, his ability to learn and adapt to his environment, and his keeping of a diary in English. The latter, in itself, is a most unique accomplishment and a boon for historians; and when one considers that he was able to raise a family of twelve children in the midst of the notorious Stingaree District, he must also to be ranked as one of San Diego's most noteworthy patriarchs.

Ah Quinn Family Portrait

Ah Quin was an influential and highly respected member of the early Chinese community holding the unofficial of "Mayor of Chinatown." Due to his bilingual capability he became a spokesman for the community and was helpful to others in need. He was often asked to serve the local courts in behalf of other Chinese immigrants. His diary also contained names and addresses of prominent men with whom Ah Quin had contact.

There is no other person in the early history of the Chinese in San Diego who is more deserving of being called the patriarch of the Chinese community than Ah Quin. He stands with the founding fathers of San Diego along with the likes of Alonzo Horton and George Marston.

Early Years in China
Ah Quin was born on December 5, 1848 in a small village in the Hoiping District of Guangdong Province of southern China. He was the eldest son of parents who were farmers. The family name was Tom or usually Romanized in San Diego as Hom, but as often the case with Chinese immigrants, names were misinterpreted by government officials, and he became known as Ah Quin.

When Ah Quin was young, his parents moved to Canton (Guangzhou), the provincial capital. This provided Ah Quin the opportunity to grow up in the city with the greatest exposure to the West. There he learned English and to read and write Chinese. He was exposed to Christian teachings, which led to his conversion, and wandering Chinese scholars. In 1868, Ah Quin's parents decided to send him to America. Like all the families of the time, he was expected to make his fortune and send money back to support the family.

Ah Quin, is the most well-known figure from San Diego's early Chinese community. He came to San Diego around 1880 at the request of George Marston, to be a labor broker for the railroad being built between National City and San Bernardino."

Ah Quinn's Railroad and Family

Despite widespread anti-Chinese sentiment, Ah Quin was well-respected by both the Chinese and white communities. He cut off his queu, wore western clothes, spoke English, and named his children after American presidents.

The early immigrant Chinese are usually a nameless group of men who have never been fully acknowledged for their contributions to the development of California and the West, but Ah Quin is an exception. He was a man respected by all, a successful entrepreneur, a community leader and patriarch, who bridged the gap between the Chinese and the white establishment of his day.

Ah Quin's children made significant steps in achieving acculturation and had American citizenship, which Ah Quin was never able to have because of the exclusion laws. Unfortunately, he never lived long enough to see his grandchildren grow up because in 1914 he was struck by a motorcycle near his home and died at the age of 66.

1880
CHIEN LUNG - CHINESE POTATO KING
Chien Lung came to America in 1880 as a teenager. He learned English at the First Chinese Baptist Church and later became one of the most successful farmers in the Sacramento- San Joaquin Delta area. In history books, he is referred to as the "Chinese Potato King" who made a fortune until the Alien Land Laws forced him to sell his land in the 1920s.

Charlie Soong

1880 
CHARLIE SOONG - DUKE'S 1ST INTERNATIONAL STUDENT
The first international student for Duke was Charlie Soong who later became the patriarch of the "Soong Dynasty" in the pre-communist era of China. Also known as Yao-Ju Soong in Chinese, he enrolled in Trinity College, then still in Randolph County, from 1880 to1881 under the sponsorship of Julian S. Carr, but later transferred to Vanderbilt University and graduated from there.

He was one of China’s first westernized millionaires. The patriarch of the parvenu Soong Dynasty was Charlie Soong (aka Yao-Ju Soong in Chinese / 1866 - 1918) who was one of the founders of the Chinese revolutionary organization “Xing Zhong Hui” that played a major role in the 1911 Chinese Revolution. This Methodist minister and businessman spent 15+ years during the latter part of the 19th century in the United States while earning a degree in theology at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. He is the father of the famous three Soong sisters. His eldest son, Mr. Song Zi Wen (aka T.V. Soong) was a successful businessman.

Through his various business efforts (publishing Bibles, commercial publishing), he became extremely wealthy by the turn of the century as a merchant, banker and owner of noodle factories. This was achieved through the financial assistance of his adoptive American father (tobacco magnate Julian S. Carr of Durham, North Carolina), monies from his wife’s dowry and gangsters. His financial status provided the opportunities to assisted Sun Yat-sen’s efforts while allowing him to have his children educated with the safety of the United States.

His new financial status also provided the opportunities for his daughters to play an influential role in the government of the Republic of China, the Chinese revolt against the Manchu dynasty and subsequent events. Charlie was a friend and financial supporter of his second daughter's (Soong Ching-ling / 1892 - 1981) husband - Dr. Sun Yat-sen, along with the assistance of Julian S. Carr who funded his early education while supporting his various business pursuits. With his wife Kwei Twang Nyi (daughter of one of China’s most powerful Tongs and a devoted Christian wife) – he had his children. The eldest daughter of the Dynasty, Soong Ai-ling (1890 - 1973) married Kung Hsiang-hsi, called H. H. Kung (1881-1967), a wealthy banker. Charlie's youngest daughter, Soong Mei-ling (1897- 2003) married Chiang Kai-shek. His three sons were T.V., T.L. and T.A. (Using Anglicized initials, for the boys, rather than one's Chinese name was considered fashionable in Shanghai) The above-listed factors and entities brought his three daughters to heady heights of success and notoriety.

Success was achieved by Charles Soong's three biological sons, who were among the richest people in the world. T.V. Soong, was not only prime minister of nationalist China, but later became a millionaire by taking advantage of an artificially controlled government currency exchange rate. Before, during, and after World War II, T.V. Soong converted U.S. foreign aid money and Christian missionary, charitable contributions, primarily from the United States, into millions of dollars on the Chinese foreign currency market--at a profit as high as 2000:1. Charlie Soong's other two sons, T.L. and T.A. Soong began family finance dynasties in New York and San Francisco, respectively.

Soong Family

Beginnings
Charlie (Han Chiao-shun) was a Hainan merchant’s son whose family operated a junk off Hainan Island, trading along the coast of China and throughout Asia-Pacific. His humble roots started when Captain Eric Gabrielson made Charlie the ship boy and a paid crew member of the Revenue Service of the US Treasury Department – an odd relationship considering the Treasury Department's beloved 1940s rhyme - "Sing a Song of Six Soongs." He left an apprenticeship in the East Indies and left with his uncle in China for America. While employed in his uncle’s tea shop, Charlie set his sights on obtaining an education in America. Dissatisfied with a shopkeeper’s life - in January 1879, he boarded a Coast Guard cutter headed to the Eastern seaboard. The ship’s captain (Captain Gabrielson), a staunch Methodist, took the boy under his tutelage, and Charlie first learn of Christianity.

In the Coast Guard’s service, Charlie followed Gabrielson to Wilmington, North Carolina. In November 1880, Charlie professed his Christian Faith while attending Fifth Street Methodist Church’s revival service. He adapted the Christian name of Charles Jones Soon (the “g” was added later) and his desire to acquired a Christian education from the Methodist Church. As a result, the Wilmington Methodists helped Charlie gain admission to Trinity College (later Duke University) and introSoongjjjjLduced him to tobacco and textile magnate Julian S. Carr. “General” Carr underwrote Charlie’s education at Duke and Vanderbilt. He remained a lifelong friend and supporter even after Charlie’s return to China. Gabrielson’s introduction to Reverend Thomas Page Ricaud helped him reach his education goals while providing the inspiration of adapting his daughter’s name for his own daughter.

In 1886, Charlie returned to China to begin missionary work in Shanghai and rural Kunshan under Methodist missionary Dr. Young J. Allen. During this time, he met Ni Kwei-tseng, the daughter of a Chinese Episcopalian family. Miss Ni was an excellent counterpart to Charlie, whose Americanized speech and mannerisms while providing him added status within the community and while opening new opportunities and fulfilling his dreams for the “new China.”

T.V. Soong

During the late 1880s, Charlie gain greater influence in his ministerial role while becoming prosperous in selling and printing of low-cost Bibles in Chinese. At this time, he and his wife (Kwei-tseng) had their first child was born in 1890 and their second (Ching-ling) in 1892. His son, Tse-ven (styled T.V. in the Western form), was born in 1894; his third daughter (Mei-ling) was born in 1897. Two more boys followed, Tse-liang (T.L.) and Tse-an (T.A.). The daughters began their education at Shanghai’s exclusive McTyeire School for Girls, founded in 1892 by Dr. Allen and an 1864 Wesleyan alumna, Laura Haygood. Ai-ling started school at age five and Ching-ling at seven.

The political climate in China became increasingly dangerous following the Boxer Rebellion of 1900. Charlie foresaw the need to send his children to safety as well as to provide for their higher education. Upon the advice of his missionary friend William Burke for an appropriate college for Ai-ling. Burke, whose family had connections to Macon’s Mulberry Street United Methodist Church, highly recommended Wesleyan College, where his friend Judge DuPont Guerry was then president. Charlie arranged for Ai-ling to enroll as a sub-freshman in 1904.

Charles Jones Soong died May 3, 1918. It was rumored that Charlie Soong was murdered by a slow poison.

1880
EARLIEST CHINESE AMERICAN MONUMENT
It is generally agreed among scholars that the 19th Century Los Angeles Chinese Memorial Shrine is the oldest Chinese American structure in the City of Los Angeles - it may also be the only city landmark recognizing the history and contributions of Chinese Americans. The Shrine, built in 1888, is recognized as the earliest structural evidence of Chinese culture in Los Angeles and was declared Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument No. 486 on August 31, 1990. The Chinese Historical Society purchased the Memorial Shrine and the land (204 N. Evergreen Avenue in Boyle Heights) on which it stands on September 17, 1992 to preserve the artifact. Phase One of the Chinese memorial's conservation-construction of a protective wall, wrought-iron fence, steps and a gate-was completed in June of 1995 Phase Two- reinforcing and refurbishing of the monument's structural elements and recreation of its center stone or stele-was completed in June, 1997. Dr. Munson Kwok of the Society remarked, "These pieces of stone bond us to our pasts."

The History of the Shrine
The Chinese memorial shrine in Evergreen Cemetery was built by the people of Los Angeles' Old Chinatown in September of 1888. It consists of two 12-foot-high "kilns" or furnaces that flank a central altar platform. A memorial stone or stele once stood atop the platform; it was removed from the ground where it had fallen and is in storage. The monument is approximately 1,000 square feet.

Los Angeles' Chinese American pioneers burned gold and silver paper-symbolizing money-and the deceased's personal effects and favorite clothing in the Shrine's furnaces. This was said to encourage a comfortable transit to the next life or afterlife and the well-being and abundance of the departed. Elaborate presentations of foods such as a whole roast pig, poultry and other meats, fruits, potable spirits, and joss sticks were placed on the altar at burial and during seasonal rites such as Ch'ing Ming (Chinese Memorial Day), and Ch'ung-Yang Chieh (Hungry Ghosts or All Souls' Day).

The Memorial Shrine stands on 9 acre of land that LA City operated as a "Potters Field" or indigent graveyard. Upon start of operations, the Los Angeles' Chinese community adapted a section for its own use that became the City's first dedicated Chinese cemetery. The City sold the 9-acre parcel to the County of Los Angeles in 1917 and there were no further burials in that cemetery after 1924.

In 1937, all recorded Chinese burials in the County Cemetery were returned to China in a joint effort between the Ning Yung, Yin Hoi and Kwong Chow Associations. However, Ch'ing Ming, where families visit ancestors' tombs, clean the grave, and lay out a feast or picnic; along with observance of Ch'ung-Yang Chieh, Hungry Ghosts' Day or All Souls' Day, continued at the Chinese Memorial Shrine in Evergreen Cemetery until approximately 1965.

In 1964, Evergreen purchased back from the County of Los Angeles most of the 9-acre strip it donated to the City in 1877. Evergreen prepared this section, including the Chinese portion, for new burials by covering it with 8 feet of soil.

In 1992, the Chinese Historical Society produced documents from the Los Angeles County Archives proving that in the County Cemetery a fee was charged for Chinese burials, but not for others.

1880 
LYNCHING OF LOOK YOUNG
The "ethnic cleansing" of Chinese (including Chinese-Americans) from the American West was one of the darkest chapters in our nation's history. Writes John Higham in Strangers in the Land, "No variety of anti-European sentiment has ever approached the violent extremes to which anti-Chinese agitation went in the 1870s and 1880s." Many of the estimated 200 American lynchings victimizing people of Asian descent occurred during this dark era.

In 1880, many Chinese lived in Hop Alley, Denver's Chinatown. In October of that year an anti-Chinese riot resulted in the lynching of a Chinese man and the injuring of many others. A mob of approximately 3000 people had gathered in Hop Alley, consisting of "illegal voters, Irishmen and some Negroes." Only 8 Policemen were on duty at the outbreak of the riot. Firemen brought in to disperse the crowd hosed them with water but this only made them angrier. The mob began to destroy Chinese businesses, to loot Chinese homes and to injure many Chinese.

According to the Rocky Mountain News, the Chinese quarter was "gutted as completely as though a cyclone had come in one door and passed out the rear. There was nothing left...whole." During this vicious mob attack, a man named Look Young, was dragged down Denver's 19th Street by rioters.

According to a physician, he died "from compression of the brain, caused by being beaten and kicked." Look was twenty-eight years old and employed at the Sing Lee Laundry. He left behind a wife, father, and mother in China, who were wholly dependent upon him for support.

1880
US TO "LIMIT" CHINESE IMMIGRATION
U.S. and China sign treaty giving the U.S. the right to limit but "not absolutely prohibit" Chinese immigration. Section 69 of California's Civil Code prohibits issuing of licenses for marriages between whites and "Mongolians, Negroes, mulattoes and persons of mixed blood." In 1933 the law is amended to include Filipinos and in 1948 the law is finally declared void.

1882 
CONGRESS PASSES THE CHINESE EXCLUSION ACT / ENEMY OF THE IRISH WORKERS
The Exclusion Act was the first federal attempt to limit immigration to the US by nationality. The Exclusion Act stated that no skilled or unskilled Chinese laborer could enter the US for ten years; however, certified merchants, students and itinerants could be exempted. This was officially put in action during the 47th Congress that "An act to execute certain treaty stipulations relating to Chinese" (approved May 6, 1882). The Statutes at Large of the United States of America, from December, 1881 to March, 1883. Vol. XXII, pp. 58-62 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1883.) In 1902, the provisions of the Act were extended in hopes of permanently excluding Chinese labor. In hopes of assuming one of the "privileged identities" that would allow entrance into the US, hundreds of Chinese were detained on Angel Island where they were subjected to harsh interrogation. In the end, only one in four immigrants were allowed to land. Some immigrants spent as long as two years on Angel Island waiting and hoping to gain entrance. The Chinese Exclusion Act halts Chinese immigration for 60 years. Chinese community leaders form Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association (CCBA or Chinese Six Companies) in San Francisco.

REMEMBERING 1882 PANEL (Part 1 of 8)

Click HERE to Go to Part 2

Panelists Are the Following

Justice Harry Low He is the former Insurance Commissioner for the State of California, Presiding Judge for the California Court of Appeal and judge for the San Francisco County Superior Court. He was a Past President of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission, the San Francisco Police Commission, Chinese American Citizens Alliance and the Center for Pacific Rim at the University of San Francisco. He has 25 years of judicial experience in civil, criminal, and government law while authoring opinions on virtually every area of California law.

Attorney Michael Lee He has been the Past President of the Bar Association of San Francisco, Legal Aid Society/Employment Law Center, and the Asian American Bar Association of the Greater Bay Area. He has argued cases before the United States Supreme Court, U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit, and U.S. District Courts. His principal practice areas include complex civil litigation, unfair competition, and employment and labor while serving as a Pro Tem Judge in the San Francisco Superior Court.

Bill Ong Hing He is a Professor of Law and Asian American Studies at the University of California, Davis. Throughout his career, he has pursued social justice by combining community work, litigation, and scholarship. He has authored books on immigration policy and race relations, including Deporting Our Souls—Morality, Values, and Immigration Policy (Cambridge Univ. Press 2006) and Defining America through Immigration Policy (Temple Univ. Press 2004). He is on the board of directors of the Asian Law Caucus and the Migration Policy Institute and serves on the National Advisory Council of the Asian American Justice Center in Washington, D.C.

Donald Ungar He has been practicing immigration law since 1962 and has litigated numerous cases before the Board of Immigration Appeals, the federal district courts, and the United States Supreme Court. He is Professor Emeritus at the University of California at Berkeley, Boalt School of Law and was the recipient of the first Jack Wasserman Award for excellence in litigation by the American Immigration Lawyers Association as well as the Phillip Burton Immigration and Civil Rights Award.

Connie Young Yu She has documented the affect of the exclusion laws on the lives of her grandparents, following a paper trail from Canton to Angel Island to various Chinatowns. She has written extensively on Asian America and issues of civil rights and is a board member of the Chinese Historical Society of America and the Chinese Historical and Cultural Project. Her books include Chinatown, San Jose, USA (History San Jose 2001).

Background:
By 1880, Reconstruction was defeated and the federal government joined the anti-Chinese movement. It legalized Jim Crow, reversed the Civil Rights Act, and negotiated a new treaty with China that paved the way for the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.

In the Chinese Exclusion Act and the Alien Land Laws of the 1910s (which deprived Asians of the right to own land), the U.S. racial system also settled on its basic racial categorization of Chinese and other Asians: that of being "aliens ineligible to U.S. citizenship."

This definition applied only to Asians and became the perfect legal grounds systematically to identify and discriminate against them, a racial category of a distinctive type. This category was new in that it incorporated a non-indigenous, non-white, non-black group into the U.S. racial system. It was also new in that the terms "aliens" and "naturalization rights" explicitly incorporated nationality as well as "race" into it.

The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was a culmination of the attempt to create a cross-class, nationwide white consensus to define legally the Chinese place in U.S. life, thereby forcing the country to come to grips with how to handle the intersection of race and nationality. For the first time in U.S. history, a group was excluded from immigrating by (white) immigrants and former immigrants themselves. On one hand, the act was clearly based on nationality, as it excluded a group from immigrating to this country. On the other hand, it was clearly racial: it excluded the Chinese specifically because they were not white. Once verging on 20 percent of California's population, the ensuing anti-Chinese riots and Exclusion Act drove most Chinese laborers out of the country and prevented their reentry.

In the fifty years to follow, the U.S. forced every Asian nationality to follow virtually the same pattern as the Chinese. At first, a significant wave would be allowed entry to serve as racially coerced, cheap labor, especially for California agriculture, then the group would be excluded. The 1917 Immigration Act denied Asian Indians entry. Despite the rising power of the Japanese in the Pacific, Japanese nationals were excluded from the United States by the Immigration Act of 1924 which barred the entry of "aliens ineligible to citizenship." By extension, this act also served to exclude Koreans, as the Japanese colonial administration in Korea applied it to them.

Paper Sons and Daughters exception was the loophole in the law! It stated that any Chinese would not be denied entry if they could prove their citizenship through family ties. People, whose fathers were not in the US could bring papers which identified themselves as children of American citizens - hence "Paper Sons" or "Paper Daughters." Often official records were often non-existent, therefore, an interrogation process was created to determine if the immigrants were related as they claimed.

The single most important force behind the Chinese Exclusion Act was national politicians of both parties who seized, transformed, and manipulated the issue of Chinese immigration in the quest for votes.

For it is an undisputed fact that America's first labor historians took great pride in the role played by organized labor's exclusion of the Chinese worker not only from the United States but also and equally significantly in his (and her) exclusion from trade union membership and eviction from jobs once dearly held.

The anti-Chinese agitation in California, culminating as it did in the Exclusion Law passed by Congress in 1882, was doubtless the most important single factor in the history of American labor, for without it the entire country might have been overrun by Mongolian labor and the labor movement might have become a conflict of races instead of one of classes.

Rose Hum Lee's statement that America's Chinese immigrants "were excluded from skilled occupations by the labour unions' concerted efforts to bar them from shoe, textile, and tobacco making, heavy machinery and other industries." Nor does he acknowledge the comparative point to be made with respect to the allegation that Chinese workingmen were a peculiar species of "cheap labor," although Betty Lee Sung had done so some 31 years before his book was published: "The greatest antagonism against Chinese immigration in former years was directed against the threat of cheap labor."

"Not that the Chinese were different from other immigrant nationalities in this respect . . . But it was felt that because of the greater endurance and efficiency of the Chinese laborer, he was a threat to the job tenure of the white laborer."

Organized labor had, in the words of the labor paper Carpenter, which Gyory quotes approvingly, regarded the Chinese as "dangerous to public health and human decency," but not opposed their immigration provided that it could be proven to be voluntary. Indeed, they only railed against "their importation in hordes, under slavish contracts made in their native country, and held sacred by their religious fears."

From 1897 to 1902, Terence Powderly, former head of the Knights of Labor and an outspoken Sinophobe, served as Commissioner General of Immigration and in 1900 was placed in charge of appeals arising out of the enforcement of the Chinese Exclusion Act and its subsequent modifications.

Two years later, he was replaced by Frank P. Sargent, grand master of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and a friend of Samuel Gompers, the notoriously anti-Chinese leader of the American Federation of Labor, who served until 1908, and he in turn was succeeded for the next five years by Daniel Joseph Keefe, president of the longshoreman's union and a former vice-president of the AFL.

By and large, the men who founded, administered, lobbied, and conducted the meetings and conventions of America's labor unions favored the elimination of the Chinese worker from the labor market as well as the exclusion of the Chinese people from the United States.

The Chinese became not merely the indispensable enemy of Irish workers' opportunities, but also morally inferior people, those farthest down, but, more significantly, the people to be kept out of the labor movement and the country itself. The few Irish-Chinese marriages that had occurred in the early decades of Chinese arrival in the city came to be regarded thereafter as a threat to white civilization. Further, Tchen shows, after Irish minstrels, comedians, and actors began to add scathing stereotypes of Chinese to their popular variety shows in the Bowery, in the process providing Irish workers with a legitimation of their belief that there was a people further down in the social and moral scale than themselves further down, that is, than the Anglo-American Protestants held them to be they facilitated their own ascent into the economically and politically privileged "white" race, leaving behind both black laborers and their erstwhile fellow workers, the Chinese.

 

Congress passed this law to permit teachers, students, merchants, and tourists to enter the United States, but it stopped the immigration of laborers for ten years. It also stated that no Chinese could become a naturalized American citizen. This was the first of several Chinese Exclusion Acts passed by Congress. It severely curtailed Chinese immigration until 1943. By 1920, the Chinese American population shrinks by 40% as a result.

As the Western frontier matured, the growth of industry gave rise to a white laboring class. Those with grievances against capitalist exploitation found a convenient scapegoat in the Chinese. Finding big business too powerful to fight, working class Americans struck instead at the Chinese minority.

November 3, 1877 Letter from the Six Chinese Company to mayor of San Francisco was told the Chinese question. On the Chinese Exclusion Page 32 " Political careers balanced on the scale of the Chinese Question. The Chinese Question was expressed in terms of race." Anti-Chinese riots and conventions occupied western politics for over several decades.

Lee York Suety, the son of a transcontinental railroad worker, Lee Wong San, was born in S.D., but his wife was detained in Angel Island for 16 months when she immigrated to the United States from China.

CHINESE EXCLUSION ACT LEGISLATION Forty-Seventh Congress. Session I. 1882 Chapter 126.-An act to execute certain treaty stipulations relating to Chinese. Approved, May 6, 1882. Preamble. Whereas, in the opinion of the Government of the United States the coming of Chinese laborers to this country endangers the good order of certain localities within the territory thereof: Therefore, Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That from and after the expiration of ninety days next after the passage of this act, and until the expiration of ten years next after the passage of this act, the coming of Chinese laborers to the United States be, and the same is hereby, suspended; and during such suspension it shall not be lawful for any Chinese laborer to come, or, having so come after the expiration of said ninety days, to remain within the United States. To read the entire bill, click HERE

Additional sources regarding this can be found in the book that was published by the Philadelphia: Temple University Press in 1991 entitled "Entry Denied: Exclusion and the Chinese Community in American (1882-1943) that was edited by Sucheng Chan. Book contains the writings of Charles J. McClain and Laurene Wu McClain (The Chinese Contribution to the Development of American Law), Christian G. Fritz (Due Process, Treaty Rights, and Chinese Exclusion, 1882-1891), Lucy E. Salyer (Laws Harsh as Tigers: Enforcement of the Chinese Exclusion Laws, 1891-1924), Sucheng Chan (The Exclusion of Chinese Women), L. Eve Armentrout Ma (Chinatown Organizations and the Anti-Chinese Movement, 1882-1914), Him Mark Lai (The Kuomintang in Chinese American Communities Before World War II), Wesley Woo (Chinese Protestants in the San Francisco Bay Area), Sau-ling C. Wong (The Politics and Poetics of Folksong Reading: Literary Portrayals of Life under Exclusion)

1882
ANTI-CHINESE DEMONSTRATION DAY
An example of how widespread and strong anti-Chinese feelings were was the declaration by California Governor George C. Perkins making March 4, 1882. a legal holiday for anti-Chinese Demonstrations.

1883
WONG CHIN FOO'S 1ST WEEKLY BI-LINGUAL NEWSPAPER - THE CHINESE AMERICAN
Lecturer, showman, activist, provocateur and journalist Wong Chin Foo begins a weekly bilingual newspaper, the Chinese American. He is an outspoken critic of stereotypes held by Americans of Chinese and Chinese Americans. He wanted more than a new immigration law, more even than equal rights. For him it was also personal: he wanted respect.

He put the word Chinese American onto his newspaper like a banner and claiming America for himself. In the process, claiming America for the rest of the Chinese American community. More visionary than businessman, he printed eight thousand copies of his paper for a New York Chinese population of under a thousand. In less than a year, his venture was dead. But he wouldn't quit. In 1883, that great baiter of the Chinese -- their arch-enemy Dennis Kearney -- was touring the East. But Wong was probably the first to proclaim a New World identity Chinese American (the name of his short-lived weekly broadside, New York's first Chinese newspaper).

He (along with crusading newspaper editor and progressive opponent of exclusionism, Ng Poon Chew) was one of the first activists for Chinese citizenship and voting rights, these essays speak eloquently about the early struggles in the Americanization movement through the first influential and short-lived anti-exclusionist East Coast Chinese newspaper - appropriately entitled publication "The Chinese American." (Hua Mei Xin Bao). Wong Chin Foo stated "Remember the politician who lords it over you today is a coward. When you don't [have the] vote, they denounce you as a reptile; the moment you appear at the ballot box, you are a brother and are treated to cigars and beers."

In any true labor history of the late 19th century, Wong Chin Foo should be included, for he was the principal leader of the Chinese community's attempt to overcome the citizenship provisions of the Chinese Exclusion Act, and in 1892 founder and secretary of the Chinese Equal Rights League of America, an association of English-speaking Chinese dedicated to securing the civil rights of all Chinese in the United States. According to the New York Times, the League's members "wore American clothes, . . . patent leather shoes and white neckties, "thus displaying openly the lie of unadaptability broadcast nationwide by the spokesmen for the white labor unionists.

1884 
CHINESE EXCLUSION ACT AMENDMENT
The 1882 Chinese Exclusion Law amended to require a certificate as the only permissible evidence for reentry. Joseph and Mary Tape sue San Francisco school board to enroll their daughter Mamie in a public school. Chinese Six Companies sets up Chinese language school in San Francisco. United Chinese Society established in Honolulu.

1884  
LABOR UNIONS BOYCOTT CHINESE-OWNED BUSINESSES
Labor unions in Butte ordered Chinese immigrants to leave town, with no results. In 1891-92 and again in late 1896 during another nationwide depression, the labor unions boycotted Chinese-owned businesses as well as businesses employing Chinese, blaming the immigrants for the adverse economic climate. Union flyers promoting the boycott, several of which are featured as document 1, were one means of notifying members and encouraging the general public not to patronize these establishments.

While many Chinese fled Butte, some merchants retaliated in federal court. In Hum Lay, et al. v. Baldwin, also known as the Chinese Boycott Case, an injunction to stop the boycott was sought by Chinese merchants. The court paperwork lists 132 Chinese names. The affidavit of Huie Pock and Quon Loy, testimony in this case, is the second featured document. The case was heard in the Circuit Court of the United States, Ninth Circuit, District of Montana, and contrary to the prevailing public attitude of the time, the court ruled in favor of the Chinese plaintiffs. The defendants were "enjoined and refrained from further combining or conspiring to injure or destroy the business of the said complainants or any of them and from threatening, coercing or injuring any person or persons becoming or intending to become patrons of said complainants." The Chinese also recovered costs of $1750.05 from the defendants for fees and expenses.

The relief sought was injunctive, which is an equitable remedy, so the court "sitting in equity" rather than "at law" provided relief in the form of prohibiting (enjoining) certain behavior (injunction) or causing the defendant to perform certain actions (specific performance) rather than money damages. In other words, the federal court listened to the grievances of a hated minority and ruled based on fairness rather than race. The union was ordered to stop their activities.

1885 
CANADIAN HEAD TAX
Canada imposed a discriminatory tax on Chinese immigrants between 1885 and 1923. The head tax was intended to discourage Chinese immigration after the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway by many Chinese laborers. Some 82,000 Chinese migrants paid the tax, which was set at $50 in 1885. It grew to $500 by 1903, the equivalent of two years' wages for many of the immigrants. In 2006, the Canadian government apologized for imposing this tax.

REMEMBERING 1882 PANEL (Part 2 of 8)

Click HERE to Go to Part 3

Panelists Are the Following

Justice Harry Low He is the former Insurance Commissioner for the State of California, Presiding Judge for the California Court of Appeal and judge for the San Francisco County Superior Court. He was a Past President of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission, the San Francisco Police Commission, Chinese American Citizens Alliance and the Center for Pacific Rim at the University of San Francisco. He has 25 years of judicial experience in civil, criminal, and government law while authoring opinions on virtually every area of California law.

Attorney Michael Lee He has been the Past President of the Bar Association of San Francisco, Legal Aid Society/Employment Law Center, and the Asian American Bar Association of the Greater Bay Area. He has argued cases before the United States Supreme Court, U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit, and U.S. District Courts. His principal practice areas include complex civil litigation, unfair competition, and employment and labor while serving as a Pro Tem Judge in the San Francisco Superior Court.

Bill Ong Hing He is a Professor of Law and Asian American Studies at the University of California, Davis. Throughout his career, he has pursued social justice by combining community work, litigation, and scholarship. He has authored books on immigration policy and race relations, including Deporting Our Souls—Morality, Values, and Immigration Policy (Cambridge Univ. Press 2006) and Defining America through Immigration Policy (Temple Univ. Press 2004). He is on the board of directors of the Asian Law Caucus and the Migration Policy Institute and serves on the National Advisory Council of the Asian American Justice Center in Washington, D.C.

Donald Ungar He has been practicing immigration law since 1962 and has litigated numerous cases before the Board of Immigration Appeals, the federal district courts, and the United States Supreme Court. He is Professor Emeritus at the University of California at Berkeley, Boalt School of Law and was the recipient of the first Jack Wasserman Award for excellence in litigation by the American Immigration Lawyers Association as well as the Phillip Burton Immigration and Civil Rights Award.

Connie Young Yu She has documented the affect of the exclusion laws on the lives of her grandparents, following a paper trail from Canton to Angel Island to various Chinatowns. She has written extensively on Asian America and issues of civil rights and is a board member of the Chinese Historical Society of America and the Chinese Historical and Cultural Project. Her books include Chinatown, San Jose, USA (History San Jose 2001).

1885 
ANTI-CHINESE CONGRESS MEETING
Cronin organized a meeting called the Congress of Sinophobes (or, "The Anti-Chinese Congress") at Yesler Hall in Seattle on September 28, 1885. A president was appointed, along with officers, and several resolutions were made. They agreed that the Chinese had arrived illegally; had thirty days to leave; and that they would not be "[held] responsible for any acts of violence which may arise from the non-compliance of these resolutions."

The anti-Chinese movement, also known in some circles as "the better element" and spanning the Western states from California to Oregon to Washington to Wyoming, were in substantial agreement that the Chinese must go. Radical members of the movement wanted to load the Chinese into boxcars and ship them back to China. The more "conservative" members wanted to "talk the Chinese into going home."

In January 1886 a law forbidding Chinese to own real property was passed. Three other laws that would prohibit Chinese from obtaining public or private employment were blocked thanks in part to former Seattle mayor, Orange Jacobs, who called the laws unconstitutional.

1885  
JAPANESE IMMIGRATION BEGINS
February 8, 1885: Japanese immigration begins. The first shipload of Japanese contract laborers arrived in Hawaii aboard The City of Tokio. It brought 676 men, 158 women and 110 children. Among them was Katsu Goto, who would become a successful storekeeper after his three-year contract expired, then be murdered by Whites who resented his influence over Japanese laborers. It would become the most sensational murder case in the history of Asian immigration to Hawaii.

1885 
SEGREGATED "ORIENTAL SCHOOL" ESTABLISHED
San Francisco builds new segregated "Oriental School." Anti-Chinese violence at Rock Springs, Wyoming Territory. First group of Japanese contract laborers arrvies in Hawaii under the Irwin Convention.

1886 
CHINESE ARE BOOTED OUT IN WEST COAST (OREGON, WASHINGTON, ETC.)
Residents of Tacoma, Seattle, and many places in the American West forcibly expel the Chinese. End of Chinese immigration to Hawaii. Chinese laundrymen win case in Yick Wo v. Hopkins, which declares that a law with unequal impact on different groups is discriminatory. In Seattle, Anticoolie riots of white workers broke out and the Chinese were evicted from the city in 1886.

Tacoma had the largest population of Chinese in Washington. In 1885, out of a total population of 6,900, more than 700 were Chinese. The mayor of Tacoma and other civic leaders agreed with the Knights of Labor that the city would be better off without the Chinese. The leading newspaper in town hoped that Tacoma would soon be known as "a town without a Chinaman." Threats against Chinese and vandalism against their property increased.

When tough economic times came, white resentment toward the Chinese grew. The Knights of Labor, a workers' union active in the Northwest, blamed the Chinese for low wages and few jobs. "Treason is better than to labor beside a Chinese slave," they said. Signs began to appear on the streets of Puget Sound cities stating: "The Chinese Must Go!" Some residents resented the sight of pony-tailed Chinese working in their conical straw hats. Tacoma, Seattle, Puyallup, Olympia and other towns called for the expulsion of the Chinese. Many Chinese led to Canada or Oregon in order to escape the mounting tension.

On November 3, 1885, an armed mob in Tacoma rounded up the Chinese and forced them onto a train bound for Portland. They stole property and burned Chinese homes and businesses to the ground. Seattle and several other Northwest communities followed suit. In Pierce City, Idaho, a mob lynched five Chinese men.

Portland had the largest population of Chinese immigrants in the Northwest, numbering between 6,000 to 10,000 people. The Knights of Labor organized anti-Chinese demonstrations and riots in Portland in 1886. Protesters smashed windows in Chinese shops and threatened the Chinese with violence if they did not leave the city. However, white business leaders resisted the Knights and soon crushed the anti-Chinese crusade. Still, many Chinese fled Portland, returning to China or moving to the eastern half of the United States where they were safe from the anti-Chinese fervor of the West Coast.