Chinese in America

The Chinese had been denied the right to become naturalized citizens, ever since their initial entrance into the United States. Despite the immense hard work and intelligence of the Chinese in American gold mines, their help in building the trans-continental railroad, and their painstaking work in creating an agricultural California, the economic panics of the late 19th century of the created pressures that led eventually to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. This was the legal beginning of racism towards Chinese Americans. This Act barred Chinese from entering the United States for over a decade. This was followed by a wave of anti-Chinese immigration laws and court cases that made their way to the Supreme Court of the United States over the next 25 years. What follows are a few highlights and lowlights of the period, including the Wong Kim Ark case, which has come under renewed pressure by white identity anti-immigrant groups to be reversed.

For many people studying the Chinese in America, the history usually begins and ends with their participation in the building of the transcontinental railroad. Yet, the Chinese actually are one of the nation's oldest immigrant groups are they were already here as scholars, merchants, gamblers, doctors and cooks. The first big wave of immigration came with the discovery of gold in California. By the time the railroad was completed in 1869, a pattern had been set: The Chinese were willing to work harder than their white counterparts, under worse conditions and for less pay. They could not testify against white men in court, own property, become naturalized citizens or marry white women. In their immigration they were not allowed to bring their wives along the journey. The predominantly Irish laborers who headed West felt entitled to jobs the Chinese had held and set about systematically driving them out. Chinese men and boys were shot, killed and hanged in massacres and riots; they were burned out of their homes and removed from towns and settlements.