History
History
Embedded Files
Timeline
Timeline
The timeline below is meant to inform and interest viewers to learn more about Asian Pacific American History. It is not meant to be exhaustive. We encourage viewers to seek more education on Asian Pacific American History by reading below, navigating this timeline or reading about the history of anti-Asian racism and violence, and/or providing their own research.
1845-1855 - California Gold Rush
1845-1855 - California Gold Rush
To flee China's Opium War in pursuit of gold in California, numerous Chinese peasants and farmers immigrated to the U.S.
Anti-Chinese sentiment were voiced, blaming the immigrants for taking too much gold.
May 1852 - California imposed a Foreign Miners Tax, a second tax on non-Americans in two years aimed explicitly at the Chinese miners. Violence ensued.
Chinese men pursued other occupations, such as laundry business, domestic service and later railroad building (which they were demeaned to weak for the difficult and dangerous job but proved to be vital).
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Image: Thomas Nast Cartoon: "The nigger must go," and "The Chinese must go." The poor barbarians can't understand our civilized Republican form of government"
1854 - The Case of People v. Hall
1854 - The Case of People v. Hall
A white man, George W. Hall, was convicted of the murder of Ling Sing based on three Chinese witnesses.
His lawyer argued that the state law barred testimony by African Americans, mulattoes, and Indians applied to all non-whites.
The California Supreme Court overturned his conviction. The court called "Chinese people 'inferior' and warned that if Chinese-born people were to have the right to testify in court, they would soon claim the right to vote. Despite laws and practices that excluded Chinese testimony in court, white witnesses could testify against Chinese people in court with impunity."
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Image: Ging Cui, Wong Fook, and Lee Shao, three of the eight Chinese workers who put the last rail in place, 1867Courtesy of Amon Carter Museum of American Art Archives, Fort Worth, Texas
1863-1869 - Pacific Railway Act
1863-1869 - Pacific Railway Act
1862 - President Lincoln approved the Pacific Railroad Act which chartered the Central Pacific and Union Pacific Railroad Companies to build a transcontinental railroad connecting the United States from east to west.
The Union Pacific Company hired mainly Irish immigrants and Civil War veterans. The Central Pacific was unable to hire enough white workers, so they reluctantly hired the Chinese.
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Image: Chinese camp and construction train in Nevada when building of the first transcontinental railroad was being speeded across the state by the Central Pacific.Bettmann Archive/Getty Images
1863-1869 - Transcontinental Railroad
1863-1869 - Transcontinental Railroad
The white and Chinese workers were treated differently.
The white workers slept in train cars while the Chinese slept in tents. White workers were provided meals by the railroad company while the Chinese had to find their food which they bought mainly from San Francisco merchants.
The white workers were paid twice as much as the Chinese workers. The Chinese workers were tasked the dangerous jobs of tunneling and using explosives. They were at times physically abused by some supervisors.
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Image: The bodies of 17 Chinese men and boys lie in the Los Angeles jail yard on October 24, 1871, the results of the Chinese massacre.
1871 - Chinese Massacre
1871 - Chinese Massacre
The 1870 U.S. Census showed L.A. had 172 Chinese residents, 3% of the 5,728 total population. The majority of them lived along Calle de los Negros or Negro Alley. Only 6 police officers were employed there. Lynchings and mob justice were commonplace.
A white civilian, Robert Thompson, was assisting a police officer during a cross-fire between two feuding Chinese societies or "tongs". News spread that the Chinese killed Thompson that gave way to a race riot of about 500 "people of all nationalities" who assaulted the Chinese.
After the evening of October 24, 18-19 Chinese males were murdered (some disagree about the exact death toll).
The result was an increase in anti-Chinese sentiment for future years, including an establishment of the Anti-Coolie Club of 1876 with well-known citizens as members and newspapers that continued their anti-Chinese editorials.
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1875 - The Page Act
1875 - The Page Act
Chinese women were stereotyped as promiscuous and prostitutes and so spreading sexually transmitted diseases. This scapegoating was legitimized with the Barring Female Immigration law.
The Page Act prohibited immigrants for labor who were from "China, Japan or any Oriental country" and Chinese women who were prostitutes.
Those women who entered Angel Island Immigration Station were "subject to invasive and humiliating interrogation" and had to prove they were never a prostitute, were not planning to become one, and will never be one. The law legalized ethnic cleansing.
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Image: A cartoon about the Chinese Exclusion Act depicting a Chinese man hanging from a branch labelled 'Freedom to All' with a tiger, representing Irish workers, and an elephant, representing Republicans, weighing him down.
1882 - The Chinese Exclusion Act
1882 - The Chinese Exclusion Act
President Arthur approved the 10 year prohibition of Chinese immigrants who were unskilled and skilled laborers and Chinese employed in mining. The Chinese were also denied citizenship. If they left the U.S., they had to obtain certifications to re-enter.
The first time that the U.S. legally restricted immigration of a group based on race.
1892 - It expired but extended for 10 more years under the Geary Act. The act was permanent in 1902 and applied until the 1920s. It also included each Chinese to register for and carry a certificate of residence. Without it, they faced deportation.
1943 - Congress repealed all exclusion acts which had lasted for 60 years. They only allowed 105 Chinese immigrants into the country per year. Foreign-born Chinese could now seek naturalization. This repeal was to increase U.S.- Chinese solidarity during WWII.
1946 - Admittance of Filipino and Asian-Indian immigrants
1965 - Immigration Act broaden immigration to 20,000 visas per country per year with a family reunification clause.
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Image: A 1882 cartoon titled, "The Anti-Chinese Wall," showing the "American" wall going up even as the Chinese original wall depicted in the background goes down.Bettmann Archive/Getty Images
1884 - Territory of New Mexico v. Yee Shun
1884 - Territory of New Mexico v. Yee Shun
Yee Shun set the precedent for Asian Americans to testify in court, a civil right that had not been granted for Asians before this case.
Shun, a Chinese immigrant, was involved in an altercation that left a Chinese man, Jim Lee, dead. Only one Chinese witness testified that Shun had killed Lee. Shun was found guilty even after a repeal. While in prison, he committed suicide.
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Image: The Tape family, including (L-R) Joseph Tape, Emily Tape, Mamie Tape, Frank Tape, and Mary Tape, crica 1884. Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images
1885 - The Case of Tape v. Hurley
1885 - The Case of Tape v. Hurley
70 years before Brown v. Board of Education, a middle-class Chinese-American couple, Joseph and Mary Tape, sued the San Francisco Board of Education for not allowing their daughter, Mamie Tape, 8 years old at the time, to attend the all-white Spring Valley Primary School in her attendance area. The principal refused admission “citing the school board policy does not permit admission of Chinese children."
Their lawyer, William Gibson, argued that the school board violated the 1880 California school law, they violated Mamie’s right to equal protection under the 14th Amendment, and “it would be unjust to levy a forced tax upon Chinese residents to help maintain our schools, and yet prohibit their children born here from education in those schools.”
They won. The Supreme Court ruled that state law required public education to be open to “all children”.
The school board successfully pushed for a new California law stating separate schools for “children of Chinese and Mongolian descent".
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Image: In August 1898, the Hawaiian flag was lowered from Iolani Palace and replaced by the flag of the United States of America.
1893 - Invasion of the Territory of Hawai'i
1893 - Invasion of the Territory of Hawai'i
1893 - The U.S. unlawfully invaded the Hawaiian Kingdom and overthrew the government. The Queen was never re-instated.
1894- The "insurgents" renamed themselves as The Republic of Hawai'i and sought to be annexed by the U.S.
1897- President McKinley entered a treaty of annexation with the "insurgents." However, the Queen submitted a formal protest, which sparked other associations to also oppose the annexation. This led to a stop of the treaty.
1898 - After the war with Spain, the treaty was once again submitted; and despite objections from some Congressman stating it was unconstitutional, it received the majority vote. On July 7, 1898 President McKinley signed the treaty, annexing Hawai'i.
1900 - U.S. Congress changed the name of the Republic of Hawai‘i to the Territory of Hawai‘i.
March 18, 1959 - U.S. Congress changed the name of the Territory of Hawai‘i to the State of Hawai‘i.
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1839 - The Hawaiian Kingdom had the highest literacy rate in the world, just behind Scotland and New England. In 1841, it became the 5th country to provide compulsory education for all children, 77 years before the U.S.
1906 - The Americanization of the school system in the Territory of Hawai'i begins. Children were taught American history and could only use English. Those who used the national native Hawaiian language were severely punished.
Image: "FOR HEAVENS SAKE DO NOT EMBARRASS THE ADMINISTRATION!"
1907-1908 - Gentlemen's Agreement
1907-1908 - Gentlemen's Agreement
President Theodore Roosevelt had negotiated peace to end the Russo-Japanese War.
1906 - The San Francisco School Board made a policy that required Japanese and Korean children to attend segregated schools (where Chinese children were already required to attend). The Japanese government was outraged.
The President did not want an international incident. To satisfy Japan and the school board, the school board was to rescind their segregation policy and in turn Japan would limit the number of labors to immigrate to the U.S. This was called the Gentlemen's Agreement.
The agreement replaced the exclusionary Immigration Act of 1924.
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Image: "Angel Island detainees were subjected to unusually stringent medical examinations for the detection of contagious diseases. Chinese immigrants felt this was one more racist obstacle to their entry to the United States." National Archives
1910 - Angel Island is the new Immigration Station
1910 - Angel Island is the new Immigration Station
1910-1920 - The station processed an estimate of "up to one million Asians and other immigrants, including 250,000 Chinese and 150,000 Japanese, earning it a reputation as the 'Ellis Island of the West'."
The process at Angel Island was not like that of Ellis Island. The mostly Chinese immigrants at Angel Island were detained from weeks to years in prison-like environments while those European immigrants were detained for a few hours. It included grueling interrogations and humiliating examinations that brought about a decrease in Chinese women immigrants in the 1870s and later "paper sons" and sometimes "paper daughters".
Poems scratched on the walls at Angel Island describe the discriminatory exams.
1940s - The station becomes a Japanese internment camp.
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1915 - The First Chinatown
1915 - The First Chinatown
It was built by Chinese immigrants for Chinese immigrants.
Chinese businessmen secured a verbal agreement with George Locke to lease nine acres of land in the area known as Lockeport.
California’s Alien Land Law of 1913 prohibited non-U.S. citizens from owning land, so the lease gave ownership of any buildings, but not the land which stayed with George Locke and his family.
In 1990, Lockeport which became known as Locke was designated a National Historic Landmark.
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Image: The Supreme Court stated that wartime internment of American citizens of Japanese descent was constitutional. Above, Japanese Americans at a government-run internment camp during World War II. Reproduction courtesy of the Library of Congress
1942-1945 -Japanese Internment Camps
1942-1945 -Japanese Internment Camps
After the Pearl Harbor bombing (the start of WW II), the U.S. feared Japanese spies on American soil even though there were no evidence. President Franklin Roosevelt's Executive Order 9066 was implemented. The people of Japanese descent were to be placed in internment camps.
1976 - President Gerald Ford officially repealed Executive Order 9066.
1988 - Forty-six years later, "Congress issued a formal apology and passed the Civil Liberties Act awarding $20,000 each to over 80,000 Japanese Americans as reparations for their treatment."
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Also search for the Loyalty Questionnaire, Questions 27 and 28, & No-No Boys
Image: "In order for things like this to never happen again, we have to protest. Protest, but not with violence. Otherwise they won't listen to you. So don't be afraid to speak up." -Fred Korematsu
1942 - The Case of Korematsu v. United States
1942 - The Case of Korematsu v. United States
At 23 years old, Toyosaburo, "Fred", Korematsu refused to relocate to a Japanese internment camp. His attorney argued that Executive Order 9066 violated the Fifth Amendment.The Supreme Court upheld the Executive Order.
He went on to become a civil rights activist.
In 1998 he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
California created Fred Korematsu Day (Jan. 30, his birthday), the first U.S. holiday named for an Asian American.
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Also search for the cases of Gordon Hirabayashi and Minoru Yasui
Image: Mitsuye Endo leaving Topaz War Relocation Center in Topaz, Utah, for the final time in 1945. Utah State Historical Society
1944 - The Case of Endo v. the United States
1944 - The Case of Endo v. the United States
At 22, Mitsuye Endo, the daughter of Japanese immigrants from Sacramento, CA "was approached to become the lead plaintiff in a case challenging the internment camp." Her lawyer, James Purcell, believed she was the best candidate - she spoke English only, she had never been to Japan, and she was a U.S. citizen. He argued that Japanese Americans had answered their questions of loyalty through the U.S. questionnaires provided and so should not be detained.
After filing a habeas corpus petition, the state court realized they might lose. They granted her permission to leave the camp and never return to the West Coast.
She refused and her case went to the Supreme Court. The court gave President Roosevelt a chance to announcement the closing of internment camps before making their ruling.The court ruled that the War Relocation Authority “has no authority to subject citizens who are concededly loyal to its leave procedure.”
In 1944, Endo won her Supreme Court case on the same day that Korematsu lost his Supreme Court case in 1942.
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Image: U.S. troops come ashore.
1959 - Territory of Hawai'i Becomes State of Hawai'i
1959 - Territory of Hawai'i Becomes State of Hawai'i
1900 - U.S. Congress changed the name of the Republic of Hawai‘i to the Territory of Hawai‘i.
March 18, 1959 - U.S. Congress changed the name of the Territory of Hawai‘i to the State of Hawai‘i.
The process of denationalizing the Hawaiian Kingdom was pervasive. It impacted who could attend high school and enter the work force.
The U.S. eliminated universal free health care, so “Today, Native Hawaiians are perhaps the single racial group with the highest health risk in the State of Hawai‘i. This risk stems from high economic and cultural stress, lifestyle and risk behaviors, and late or lack of access to health care."
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Image: Klansmen cruised Galveston Bay in a show of intimidation against Vietnamese fishermen. Southern Poverty Law Center
Last 1970s - Early 1980s - Vietnamese Fishermen & the KKK
Last 1970s - Early 1980s - Vietnamese Fishermen & the KKK
After the Vietnam War, many Vietnamese took refuge in the Galveston Bay area in Texas. There, they became shrimp fishers.
Some white Texans complained that the Vietnamese were taking their jobs. The complaint got the attention of Louis Beam and his Texas Knights of the Ku Klux Klan who trained children as young as eight in commando-style attacks. Destruction and threats came.
The Southern Poverty Law Center helped a group of fisherman sue the Knights of the KKK.
"The judge issued a court order ending the harassment. A second order disbanded Beam's paramilitary group, and five training camps were shut down. The fisherman had won the suit, but many of them had lost their sense of security and their livelihood".
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Timeline: The war between Vietnamese fishermen and the KKK signaled a new type of white supremacy
The Washington Post: The long, ugly history of anti-Asian racism and violence in the U.S.
Also search for Louis Malle's movie, Alamo Bay.
Image: Tereza Lee is the original "Dreamer" whose case inspired the first attempt in 2001 to protect undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as minors.Jessica Rinald/Boston Globe via Getty Images
2001 - The DREAM Act
2001 - The DREAM Act
The DREAM Act was scheduled to be introduced to Congress on Sept. 12, 2001, but the terrorist attacks on 9/11 canceled it.
In the last 20 years, the Development, Relief, and Education of Alien Minors (DREAM) Act has undergone 11 versions but still has not passed. The bill would allow undocumented high-school graduates and GED recipients a opportunity to become U.S. citizens through college, work or the armed services.
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2003 - SARS and 2020 - COVID-19
2003 - SARS and 2020 - COVID-19
During the 2003 SARS outbreak, Canada and the USA saw a rise of anti-Asian racism, and then again with the COVID-19 outbreak.
One example of this was when SARS broke out, those in Toronto, Canada began a boycott of the businesses in the Chinese community. Some Asian-owned businesses lost up to 80% of their income during 2003.
During both SARS and the COVID-19, for example, many news outlets reported on the "weird" meat Chinese consume, such as bats; and their "unsanitary" practices, which led to many Asians and Asian Americans who never lived in China nor were from China experiencing "shame" and "blame" for the viruses.
"In her 2008 study, sociologist Carrianne Leung highlights the everyday racism against Chinese and Filipina health care workers in the years that followed the SARS crisis. While publicly celebrated for their work in hospitals and other health facilities, these women found themselves fearing for their lives on their way home. No expression of patriotism – not even being front-line workers in a pandemic – makes Asian migrants immune to racism."
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