In this lithograph, Kearney wears a prison uniform. It was published by San Francisco book producer Isadore Nathan Choynski, and dates from late 1877 or early 1878, when Kearney had been jailed for inciting a riot. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors had passed an emergency “gag law” banning incendiary speech following some of Kearney's fiery speeches. Kearney was detained for numerous violations of this gag law; his scapegoat tactic had led to mob violence. The print’s title alludes to Kearney’s rallying slogan, “The Chinese Must Go!”, with which he often began and concluded his speeches. Depicted in the print is a group of Chinese workers heckling Kearney while offering products (seafood, laundry, cigars) from their various jobs. The artist who created this lithograph was probably white; they drew Chinese faces in a very caricatured manner compared to that of Kearney’s. It is possible that the artist may share similar racist ideals as Kearney, even if they do not necessarily agree with his tactics. This lithograph is significant to the Chinese community because it exemplifies how anti-Chinese sentiment in America grew in the nineteenth and early twentieth century.

As the targets of violence, ridicule, and discrimination, Asian Americans in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were scapegoated to be the root of various problems. Despite racist claims that claims that “hordes” of Asians would overtake the nation, European immigration far surpassed other groups. Still, periods of economic and social crisis intensified anti-Asian xenophobia, resulting in organized campaigns by the white majority to end Asian immigration. Leaders of these campaigns claimed that exclusionism was necessary for the greater good; they often linked Asian immigration to public health, racial purity, and corporate power. Provoked by anxieties stemming from factors such as economic depression, worker discontent, and cultural change, participants of anti-Asian movements saw a way to advance their own own self-interests through the subjugation of another group. Seeking to overcome their own marginalization, European immigrants and leaders of the “workingman” became the loudest proponents for Chinese exclusion. No other group exemplified the degree to which anti-Chinese politics mobilized the white working class as much as the Workingmen’s Party of California (WPC), formed by Denis Kearney in the fall of 1877.

Much of the appeal of the Workingman’s Party came from discontent with the poor economy; in 1877, the United States was in its fourth year of depression. Politicians framed Chinese exclusion as a solution to the people’s problems, and regional figures like Denis Kearney would utilize the solidarity of unemployed workers at sandlot meetings to push his xenophobic agenda. In addition, the working-class population had a high proportion of European immigrants who had been targets of racism (especially the Irish). Denis Kearney was an Irish orphan who had come to San Francisco and then naturalized. By embracing anti-colored politics, white immigrants such as Kearney could identify an “enemy” to work against. Kearney became known throughout California for his racially charged speeches in which he repeated his slogan “The Chinese Must Go!” Not only did the WPC help to make Chinese exclusion a major issue in the state elections of 1878, but it also swept local offices in San Francisco. Since workingmen made up one-third of the delegates at the 1879 state Constitutional Convention, their influence added several anti-Chinese provisions to the new state constitution. These provisions included a prohibition on the hiring of Chinese by corporations and on public works, authorization for the legislature to relocate Chinese beyond town lines, and the discouragement of immigration. This lithograph is important in documenting the economic disenfranchisement that early Chinese immigrants faced.