Asian Americans Part 4

“The Chinese Must Go!” – The Anti-Chinese Movement Big Essay Logic (how it all connects): Economic competition + racial difference → fear Fear + nativism + Yellow Peril ideology → local discrimination Local laws + court rulings (People v. Hall) → violence Violence + political pressure → treaties rewritten Treaties rewritten → federal exclusion laws Exclusion laws → permanent foreigner status

1. Passenger Cases (1849)

Early court cases that limited the power of states to tax immigrants, ruling that immigration regulation belonged to the federal government, not individual states.
➡ Even though states lost direct control, California continued finding indirect ways to target Chinese immigrants through local laws and taxes.

2. People v. Hall (1854)

A California Supreme Court case that ruled Chinese people could not testify against whites in court.

• Based on the idea that Chinese were racially inferior

• Effectively made violence against Chinese legal and unpunishable
  ➡ This decision encouraged anti-Chinese violence and reinforced racial hierarchy.

3. Anti-Chinese Movement

A political, economic, and racial campaign aimed at removing Chinese immigrants from American society.

• Supported by white workers, politicians, and labor unions

• Framed Chinese as unassimilable, immoral, and a threat to wages
  ➡ This movement pushed local laws, violence, and eventually federal exclusion laws.

4. Nativism

The belief that native-born Americans should be favored over immigrants.

• Rooted in fear of job competition and racial difference

• Chinese immigrants became the main target of 19th-century nativism
  ➡ Nativism provided the ideological foundation for exclusion laws.

5. Naturalization Act of 1790

Restricted U.S. citizenship to “free white persons” only.

• Excluded Chinese from citizenship from the very beginning
  ➡ This legal exclusion made Chinese people permanent foreigners, even if they lived in the U.S. for decades.

6. Naturalization Act of 1870

Extended naturalization to people of African descent, but explicitly excluded Asians.

• First major congressional debate on Chinese rights
  ➡ Confirmed Asians’ permanent exclusion and legalized racial discrimination until 1952.

7. McCarran–Walter Act of 1952

Finally abolished racial restrictions on naturalization.

• Ended the category of “aliens ineligible for citizenship”
  ➡ Marked the legal end of racial exclusion in U.S. citizenship law.

8. Foreign Miners Tax (1850)

A tax aimed specifically at non-white miners, especially Chinese.

• $20/month at first

• Designed to force Chinese out of gold mining
  ➡ One of the earliest economic tools used to target Chinese workers.

9. Cubic Air Ordinance

A housing law requiring a minimum amount of air space per person.

• Selectively enforced in Chinese boarding houses

• Made Chinatown housing technically illegal
  ➡ Used public health excuses to criminalize Chinese living conditions.

10. Laundry Ordinance

Required laundries in wooden buildings to get special permits.

• Almost all Chinese laundries were wooden

• Permits routinely denied to Chinese owners
  ➡ Example of facially neutral laws used discriminatorily.

• Tax based on horses

11. “Yellow Peril”

An ideology portraying Asians as a civilizational and racial threat to the West.

• Popularized in newspapers and political speeches

• Claimed Chinese were biologically, morally, and culturally inferior
  ➡ Justified exclusion as self-defense, not racism.

12. Anti-Chinese Riots (Los Angeles & Denver)

Violent mob attacks in which Chinese communities were beaten, looted, and killed.

• Police often did nothing
  ➡ Showed how legal discrimination + racist ideology = mob violence.

13. Rock Springs Massacre (1885)

In Wyoming, white miners attacked Chinese workers over labor competition.

• 28 Chinese killed, homes burned

• Federal government paid compensation to China, not victims
  ➡ Demonstrated how economic conflict escalated into racial violence.

14. Snake River Massacre (1887)

White settlers murdered 31 Chinese miners in Oregon.

• Bodies dumped in the river

• Almost no prosecutions
  ➡ Reinforced Chinese vulnerability and lawlessness of the frontier.

15. Burlingame Treaty (1868)

A treaty between the U.S. and China that encouraged Chinese immigration and promised equal treatment.
➡ Later seen as a mistake by U.S. politicians when anti-Chinese sentiment grew.

16. Page Act of 1875

The first federal immigration restriction law.

• Targeted Chinese women as prostitutes

• Effectively prevented Chinese families from forming
  ➡ Strengthened the bachelor society and justified moral panic.

17. Treaty of 1881

Revised the Burlingame Treaty.

• Allowed the U.S. to limit Chinese immigration
  ➡ Directly opened the door to full exclusion.

18. Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882

Suspended Chinese labor immigration and denied naturalization.

• First law banning a group based on race

• Renewed and expanded repeatedly
  ➡ The legal climax of the anti-Chinese movement.

19. Scott Act of 1888

Barred reentry of Chinese laborers who left the U.S., even if they had legal permission.
➡ Trapped Chinese residents inside the U.S. or permanently excluded them.

20. Geary Act of 1892

Extended exclusion and required Chinese residents to carry certificates of residence at all times.

• Failure meant deportation or forced labor
  ➡ Criminalized Chinese existence and normalized surveillance.

Big Essay Logic (how it all connects):

1. Economic competition + racial difference → fear

2. Fear + nativism + Yellow Peril ideology → local discrimination

3. Local laws + court rulings (People v. Hall) → violence

4. Violence + political pressure → treaties rewritten

5. Treaties rewritten → federal exclusion laws

6. Exclusion laws → permanent foreigner status