Anti-Chinese Legislation and Court Cases

Testimony restriction

Statutes prohibiting the testimony of Africans and Native Americans in cases involving white Americans are applied to the Chinese in American courts.

Foreign Miner’s License Tax

This California tax law requires a payment of $3 each month from all foreign miners who do not “desire” to become citizens, thereby targeting Chinese and Mexican miners. While the law is in force, the tax extracts $5 million from Chinese miners, supplying between 25% and 50% of all state revenue.

"The Last Addition to the Family,” Harper’s Weekly, 1869.
Courtesy of The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley

People v. Hall

In People v. Hall, the California Supreme Court rules that the testimony of a Chinese man who witnesses a murder by a white man is inadmissible, largely based on the prevailing opinion that the Chinese are "a race of people whom nature has marked as inferior, and who are incapable of progress or intellectual development beyond a certain point, as their history has shown; differing in language, opinions, color, and physical conformation; between whom and ourselves nature has placed an impassable difference" and as such had no right "to swear away the life of a citizen" or participate "with us in administering the affairs of our Government."

Act for the Protection of Fisheries

The Act for the Protection of Fisheries, the first fishing restriction, requires the purchase of a $4 license by all Chinese American fishermen.

"The Chinese are a source of danger to American civilization."

— Briefs for Debate on Current Political, Economic and Social Topics, 1908

Chinese Police Tax

Entitled “An Act to Protect Free White Labor against Competition with Chinese Coolie Labor, and to Discourage the Immigration of Chinese into the State of California,” the legislation levies a tax of $2.50 per month on all Chinese residing in the state, except those not employed in production or manufacture of tea, rice, coffee, or sugar.

It is declared unconstitutional in Lin Sing v. Washburn.

“Chinese? No! No! No!” poster， 1892
Courtesy of Washington State Historical Society, Tacoma

Protests

Fung Tang, a prominent Chinese American merchant, testifies in Congress to the House Ways and Means Committee, protesting that the Chinese—being singled out for taxation, barred from public schools and hospitals, and prohibited from serving on juries or testifying in court—were “unable to obtain justice” in America.

"We have boasted, for a century past, that this is a land of refuge for the oppressed and down-trodden of all nations; that under our flag the family of man might gather, assured of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness"....Let us stand by these grand old truths, and bid the Chinaman, the Japanese and all others, welcome."

— David Phillips, Letters from California, 1877

Ahn Goon, ca. 1913
Idaho State Historical Society

Sidewalk Ordinance

Sidewalk Ordinance decrees that transporting goods on "yeo-ho" poles slung across the shoulders is prohibited in San Francisco.

Another ordinance declares that gongs may not be rung at theatrical performances, and no plays may be performed between midnight and daylight.

Fees on laundries

San Francisco ordinance imposes a fee of $2 for laundries using one horse-drawn vehicle, $4 for those using two, and $15 for laundries without carts or more than two animals. It is invalidated by People v. Soon Kung.

Queue Ordinance

The Queue Ordinance requires the county jail to shear the hair of all convinced prisoners to within one inch of the scalp. The regulation is based on recognition that the loss of the braided queue worn by Chinese men entails disgrace and humiliation and, further, that Chinese found guilty of violating the lodging house ordinance (which was just beginning to be enforced) were choosing to serve jail sentences rather than pay fines.

It is declared unconstitutional in Ho Ah Kow v. Matthew Nunan.

Work on the Last Mile of the Pacific Railroad—Mingling of Europeans with Asiatic Laborers," Harper’s Weekly, 1869.
Courtesy of The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley

"The Central Pacific men are thieves, and will soon feel the power of the workingmen…. The Chinamen must go. If they don’t, by the eternal we will take them by the throat, squeeze their breath out and throw them into the sea….The Chinese must go! They are stealing our jobs."

— Denis Kearney, president of the workingman’s party of california, 1877

Defendant's Exhibit B, U.S. Commissioner. Photograph of Na Lay, ca. 1900.
Courtesy of National Archives and Records Administration-Pacific Alaska Region, Seattle

Na Lay was arrested for prostitution, and placed under threat of deportation.

Asian Exclusion Act

Immigration Act of 1875 is the first immigration law to exclude groups of people from the United States—and women are part of that exclusion.

Commonly referred to as the Asian Exclusion Act, the legislation prohibits the importation of Chinese laborers who do not voluntarily consent to come to work in America and Chinese women for the purposes of prostitution. Although the law is enacted to limit the trafficking in women for prostitution, it is used in a negative way to prevent women who are single and unemployed from entering the United States when they do not appear to have a means of support.

Chinese Exclusion Act

Congress passes the Chinese Exclusion Act, suspending the immigration of Chinese laborers to the United States. It is the first U.S. restriction on immigration based on race and nationality.

Yick Wo v. Hopkins

Yick Wo v. Hopkins is the first case in which the U.S. Supreme Court rules that a law that was race-neutral on its face but that was administered in a prejudicial manner was an infringement of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Tape v. Hurley

Tape v. Hurley: Chinese immigrants Joseph and Mary Tape try to enroll their eight-year-old U.S.-born daughter in San Francisco's all-white Spring Valley School. The principal refuses to admit Mamie Tape, citing school board policy barring Chinese children from attending the city’s public schools.

The Tape family sues the principal and takes the case to the California Supreme Court. School officials defend their position by arguing that the California constitution declared Chinese to be “dangerous to the well-being of the state,” and thus the city had no obligation to educate Chinese students. The court decides in favor of the Tape family, creating one of the pioneering decisions in the fight for equality in education.

"E Pluribus Unum [Out of Many, One] (Except the Chinese)," Harper’s Weekly, 1882.
Courtesy of The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley

Scott Act

The Scott Act prohibits the reentry of a Chinese laborer to the U.S. unless he has property worth $1,000 or family in the country. The Act reclassifies all persons of Chinese ancestry, regardless of citizenship or nationality, as Chinese and therefore subject to exclusion.

It is upheld by Chae Chan Ping v. United States.

Bingham Ordinance

The Bingham Ordinance creates a ghetto, declaring that Chinese people, including citizens, must not live or work in San Francisco, except in "a portion set apart for the location of all the Chinese."

It is declared unconstitutional in In re: Lee Sing, 43 F.359 (C.C.N.D. Cal. 1890).

Chinese workers building the Loma Prieta Lumber Co.'s railroad, California, ca. 1885
Courtesy of Pajaro Valley Historical Association

"It has been [Chinese] labor that has cleared up farms, that has planted fruit trees, that has built cities.... Everything has been done by this labor…."

— Charles v. Stuart, delegate to the California Constitutional Convention, 1878-79

Certificate of Identity for Shee Ng, Boston, 1921.
MOCA collection

Geary Act

The Geary Act requires all Chinese residents of the United States to carry a resident permit—America’s first internal passbook. Failure to carry the permit at all times is punishable by deportation or a year at hard labor. In addition, Chinese are not allowed to bear witness in court, and could not receive bail in habeas corpus proceedings.

The Chinese Equal Rights League

The Chinese Equal Rights League, the first U.S. Chinese civil rights organization, is formed; Chinese all across America stage acts of civil disobedience in protest against the Geary Act.

In the same year, Fong Yue-Ting v. United States challenges the constitutionality of the Geary Act.

Emigration: The Anti-Chinese wall. The American wall goes up as the Chinese original goes down, 1882.
Donated by Corbis-Bettmann

"[The Chinese Exclusion Act] is contrary to the National Policy which has prevailed since the foundation of the Government... [it] would be decidedly prejudicial to the commercial interests of the country... if not absolutely destroy our growing commerce in China, which promises to be of vast importance to the financial and industrial interests of the United States."

— Senator Lapham of New York, San Francisco Chronicle, 1882

Identification photograph for Wong Kim Ark, "Native Born Citizen," 1904.
Courtesy of National Archives and Records Administration-Pacific Region, San Bruno

Wong Kim Ark v. United

Wong Kim Ark v. United States upholds the rights of citizenship conferred by the 14th Amendment upon persons born in the United States regardless of race.

Wong Wai v. Williamson and Jew Ho v. Williamson

San Francisco ordinance mandates that all Chinese people must be placed under quarantine and inoculated for bubonic plague. It is declared unconstitutional in Wong Wai v. Williamson and Jew Ho v. Williamson.

"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...."

— The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882

"Pacific Railroad Complete," Harper's Weekly, 1869.
Donated by Corbis-Bettmann

Section 60 of California’s Civil Code

Section 60 of California’s Civil Code is amended to forbid marriage between whites and "Mongolians."

"Chinese exclusion is the best remedy."

— Briefs for Debate on Current Political, Economic and Social Topics, 1908

California Alien Land Acts

The California Alien Land Acts prohibit Chinese and Japanese from owning land. Other states pass similar laws.

Asiatic Barred Zone

The Immigration Act of 1917 adds to the number of "undesirables" banned from entering the country. The definition includes but is not limited to "idiots," "feeble-minded persons," "epileptics," "insane persons," alcoholics, "professional beggars," all persons "mentally or physically defective," polygamists, and anarchists. Furthermore, it bars all immigrants over the age of 16 who are illiterate. The most controversial section of the law designates an "Asiatic Barred Zone," including much of eastern Asia and the Pacific Islands, from which people cannot immigrate. The zone excludes Japan, Guam, and the Philippines. Previously, only the Chinese had been excluded from admission to the country.

Cable Act

The Cable Act decrees that any American woman who marries "an alien ineligible for citizenship shall cease to be a citizen of the United States."

"A Statue for Our Harbor," The Wasp, 1881.
MOCA Collection

National Origins Act

National Origins Act sets immigration quotas at 2% of the 1890 population figures, favoring northern European immigrants.

Gong Lum et al. v. Rice et al.

U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the decision of the Mississippi Supreme Court, which had previously decided that Martha Lum, a child born in the United States but of Chinese descent, was not denied equal protection of the law by being classed by the state as a colored person; therefore, it remained the right of the state to assign her to a public school separate from white students.

Amendment to Cable Act

Amendment to Cable Act declares that no American-born woman who loses her citizenship (by marrying an alien ineligible to citizenship) can be denied the right of naturalization at a later date.

"Chinese exclusion is at variance with fundamental American principles"

— Briefs for Debate on Current Political, Economic and Social Topics, 1908

Chinese Hand Laundry sign, New York City, ca. 1980s.
MOCA Collection

Chinese Hand Laundry Alliance

The New York City Council, at the behest of white laundry operators, passes an ordinance that required one-person laundries to pay a $25 annual fee and to post a $1000 bond. This ordinance was clearly aimed at the 3,500 Chinese laundry establishments in New York. In the same year, the laundry owners formed the Chinese Hand Laundry Alliance (CHLA) and convinced the city’s aldermen to reduce the fee.

Chinese Exclusion Act repealed

The Chinese Exclusion Act is repealed and Chinese in the United Sates are given the right to become naturalized citizens. The quota for Chinese immigration is set at 105 people per year.

U.S. signs Treaty for the Relinquishment of Extraterritorial Rights in China and the Regulation of Related Matters