Anti-Asian Violence

1. Anti-Asian Violence Asian Americans and the Law Dr. Steiner

2. Samuel Bowles, Our New West (1869) • [The Chinese], of course, have been the victims of much meanness and cruelty from individuals. To abuse and cheat a Chinaman; to rob him; to kick and cuff him; even to kill him, have been things not only done with impunity by mean and wicked men, but even with vain glory. Terrible are some of the cases of robbery and wanton maiming and murder reported from the mining districts.

3. Samuel Bowles, Our New West (1869) • Had “John,” ...--a good claim, original or improved, he was ordered to “move on,”--it belonged to somebody else. Had he hoarded a pile, he was ordered to disgorge; and, if he resisted, he was killed. Worse crimes even are known against them; they have been wantonly assaulted and shot down or stabbed by bad men, as sportsmen would surprise and shoot their game in the woods. There was no risk in such barbarity; if “John” survived to tell the tale, the law would not hear him or believe him.

4. San Francisco, April 1, 1876H. H. Ellis, Chief of Police, City and County of San Francisco. Sir: We wish to call your attention to the fact that at the present time frequent and unprovoked assaults are made upon our Chinese People while walking peacefully the streets of this city. The assaulting party is seldom arrested by your officers, but if a Chinaman resists the assault he is frequently arrested and punished by fine or by imprisonment.

5. Inflammatory and incendiary addresses against the Chinese, delivered in the public streets to the idle and irresponsible element of this great city, have already produced unprovoked and unpunished assaults on some of our people, and we fear that if such things are permitted to go on unchecked a bloody riot against the Chinese may be the result. Letter from the Chinese Six Companies

6. Huie Kin, Reminiscences (1932) • On San Francisco in the 1870s • The Chinese were in a pitiable condition in those days. We were simply terrified; we kept indoors after dark for fear of being shot in the back. Children spit upon us as we passed by and called us rats.

7. Wunder, Anti-Chinese Violence in the American West • What is the geography of violence in the American West? Where did these episodes occur? • What state had the most “outbreaks”?

8. Wunder, Anti-Chinese Violence in the American West • Which state had the most deaths? • Did these outbreaks occur in urban or rural areas? • What type of violence was occurring in the western states?

9. Wunder, Anti-Chinese Violence in the American West • Wunder writes about a sixty-year period. When did the outbreaks of anti-Chinese violence occur? • Does Wunder agree or disagree with the notion that anti-Chinese violence was a temporary aberration occurring in 1885-1886? • Which state had what Wunder calls the longest embrace of anti-Chinese sentiment?

10. “The Chinese Massacre”Los Angeles 1871 • After white police officer shot in Chinatown, white mob gathers to take revenge • Mob loots Chinese homes and shoots or hangs two dozen Chinese

11. Denver Riot1880 • Denver newspapers warned of Chinese “invasion” • Democratic Party sponsored anti-Chinese parade • Mob of 3000 gathered in Denver’s Chinatown and looted and burned homes and businesses

12. Tacoma, Washington 1885 • Anti-Chinese mayor elected, who calls congress that demands ouster of Chinese • Committee of Fifteen selected, which selects November 1 deadline for Chinese expulsion • In November mobs begin forcible ejection of Chinese from homes and businesses • Committee of Fifteen subsequently acquitted of charges of civil rights violations

14. Seattle 1886 • After acquittal, Committee of Fifteen sets sights on Seattle • Four hundred Chinese are forced to leave • By March 1886, most of the Chinese in western Washington had been expelled

18. A Chinese Laundry at a Bargain SaleMrs. H. Scovile (Seattle) • What I remember best about the early days in Seattle in the Chinese riots in 1886. My husband came home one Sunday morning and told me an officer from the Home Guards had come into the church and commanded all the men to report for duty at once. There were a number of Chinese in Seattle then, some running laundries, others having cigar stores, and so on. The people of the town had become incensed at the idea of Orientals being allowed to carry on business when Americans needed work.

19. A Chinese Laundry at a Bargain SaleMrs. H. Scovile (Seattle) • The Committee of Fifteen had told the Chinese that they must go, get out of town, by a certain date. A steamer from San Francisco would be in the harbor on that date, and they must go aboard. The Chinese began selling off their goods and equipment. My husband and I decided to buy a laundry. We knew nothing about the laundry business but we thought we could learn. We bought the laundry and all the equipment for almost nothing, and opened for business. We prospered, the business grew fast, and we never regretted buying a laundry at a bargain sale.

27. Memorial of Chinese Laborers Resident at Rock Springs (1885) • What was going on in Rock Springs before the outbreak of violence? • Were whites and Chinese working together or was there occupational segregation? • Were the Chinese aware of white hostility before the violent outburst?

28. Memorial of Chinese Laborers Resident at Rock Springs (1885) • According to the Memorial, what happened in Rock Springs in the first few days of September 1885? • What role did the federal government play after the Rock Springs massacre? What was the reaction of the mining company? • In the aftermath of the massacre, what did the Chinese laborers from Rock Springs want?

30. The Chinese Examining Commission at Rock Springs, 1885, Harper's Weekly. L to R, Lt. Groesbeck; Tsang Hoy, interpreter from Chinese Legation; Frederick A. Bee, lobbyist and lawyer for the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association (the "Six Companies"), San Francisco; Huang Sih Chuen, Chinese Consul, New York; unidentified; Lt. Col. (Brevet Maj. Gen.) Alexander McDowell McCook, Commander Fort Leavenworth.

33. 1903 Anti-Chinese Riot in Tonopah, Nevada

34. The 1903 Anti-Chinese Riot in Tonopah, Nevada, from a Chinese Perspective • We had intended to accept the humiliating treatment and stopped pursuing the case, but the merchant leaders reproached us severely, saying “… People will regard you with contempt if you don’t do your utmost to fight back against these Westerner ruffians after you suffered this cruel treatment.” • With the help of our fellow countrymen, we hope to win the court case and execute the head ruffians to avenge the soul of the innocent dead and to comfort those of us who were brutally expelled.

35. South Asian Immigration • Indians emigrated to British Columbia, Canada in the first decade of the 20th century at the rate of 2000 per year • White Canadians begin calls for exclusion based upon fear of economic competition and the inability of “Hindus” to assimilate • In 1909, Canadian government ends Indian immigration

36. South Asian Immigration • Indian immigration to United States begins roughly in 1898 • From 1898 to 1903, number of immigrants averaged thirty per year • From 1904 to 1906, 250 per year average • In 1907, 1,072 • In 1908, 1,710 • In 1909, 377 • In 1910, 1,782 • In 1940, 2,405 • Initially, Immigrants were working primarily as laborers in the lumber industry of Washington and California

37. Indian Immigrants, Angel Island, c. 1910. Echoes of Freedom: South Asian Pioneers in California

38. Pacific & Eastern RR construction, c. 1909. Echoes of Freedom: South Asian Pioneers in California

39. Studio portrait of California Sikhs, 1910.

40. Puna Singh Chima harvesting celery, Yuba City, CA c. 1922 Echoes of Freedom: South Asian Pioneers in California

41. “The Hindoo Question in California,” Proceedings of the Asiatic Exclusion League (1908) • From every part of the Coast, complaints are made of the undesirability of the Hindoos, their lack of cleanliness, disregard of sanitary laws, petty pilfering, especially of chickens, and insolence to women.

42. Herman Scheffauer, “The Tide of Turbans,” Forum (1910) • This time the chimera is not the saturnine, almond-eye mask, the shaven head, the snaky pig-tail of the multitudinous Chinese, nor the close-cropped bullet-heads of the suave and smiling Japanese, but a face of finer features, rising, turbaned out of the Pacific and bringing a new and anxious question.

43. “The Hindu, the Newest Immigration Problem,” Survey (1910) • The civic and social question concerns the ability of the nation to assimilate this class of Hindus and their probable effect on the communities where they settle. Their habits, their intense caste feeling, their lack of home life—no women being among them—and their effect upon standards of labor and wages, all combine to raise a serious question as to whether the doors should be kept open or closed against this strange, new stream.

44. San Francisco Call (Aug. 13, 1910) Echoes of Freedom: South Asian Pioneers in California

45. New York Times, (Jan. 28, 1908) Echoes of Freedom

46. Bellingham Reveille, Sept. 6, 1907 • From every standpoint it is most undesirable that these Asians should be permitted to remain in the United States. They are repulsive in appearance and disgusting in manners. They are said to be without shame, and while no charges of immorality are brought against them, their actions and customs are so different from ours that there can never be tolerance of them. They contribute nothing to the growth and upbuilding of the city as a result of their labors. They work for small wages and do not put their money into circulation.

47. Bellingham Reveille, Sept. 5, 1907 • The Hindu is not a good citizen. It would require centuries to assimilate him, and this country need not take the trouble. Our racial burdens are already heavy enough to bear. . . . Our cloak of brotherly love is not large enough to include him as a member of the body politic.

48. Filipino Immigration, 1910-1930 • Mainland Population • 1910 405 • 1920 5,603 • 1930 45, 208 • California Population • 1910 5 • 1930 30,470

49. Filipino Immigration • Between 1925 and 1929, 22,767 Filipinos and 1,356 Filipinas entered California • One-third of the males were between 16 and 21 years old and nearly half were between 22 and 29 years old