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Filipinos Settle in Louisiana
After a long-awaited return to America, nearly two hundred years after their first sight on American soil, Filipino sailors and navigators were once again hauled onto giant, Spanish ships across the Pacific, in 1763. In a desperate attempt to flee their cruel masters, the Filipinos jumped into the ocean and swam to shore. These people quickly settled into modern-day Louisiana and built homes of their own; they were free from their masters and were the only apparent settlers of the area. -
Gold Rush Attracts Company
The California Gold Rush attracted many different ethnicities into the hunt for gold. Chinese immigrants began officially coming into the United States, primarily for the chance to become wealthy off of gold. The term "sojourners" was used to describe poor Chinese people who had traveled to America to earn riches, and then come back to China. -
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Battle for Civil Rights
Throughout American history, Asian Americans struggled to gain and keep their civil rights. -
People vs. Hall
In the 1854 California Supreme Court case of "People vs. Hall", a Chinese man had witnessed the murder of a white American man. Unfortunately, this court case was ordered invalid for the fact that a Chinese man had witnessed the murder and nobody else. At this time, the public believed that the Chinese people were below the "true" Americans who were citizens, while the Chinese people could not obtain American citizenship. -
There is Such Thing as "Too Much!"
As California bursted with heavy, Asian immigration, major cities decided to crack down. Laws were almost immediately signed and put into place, limiting Chinese immigration and even work options for the Chinese. In Marisopa County, California, one of the first Anti-Chinese laws put into place forced Chinese laborers into eviction and whippings with a ten day notice to leave the area. -
Schools for Chinese Children
San Francisco was one of the big, major cities in California that took extreme measures to ensure the Chinese population never mixed or mingled with the "true" Americans. This included schools. In the year of 1859, Chinese children were sent to segregated schools that were often called "Chinese Schools" or "Oriental Schools". Chinese children were not allowed to enter any other public school in San Francsico that were not "Chinese Schools". -
Building of the Transcontinental Railroad
As the California gold rush attracted many worldwide attendants, many of them left after the Californian mines were closed down. However, several Chinese immigrants stayed behind and/or began immigrating to America to help supply support for the building of America's Transcontinental Railroad in 1865. With the promise of a steady salary, Asian immigrants often found themselves working for less and less money than their European and American counterparts. -
Burlingame Treaty (1868)
In 1865, the Chinese immigrated to America once the news of found gold in California reached international news. The help of clearing out California's gold mines helped extend a warm welcome to Chinese immigrants. The Burlingame Treaty (1868) was created to facilitate and allow the immigration of Chinese immigrants into the United States. More Information -
We Are Never, Ever Getting Back Together
The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was passed, due to the heavy Chinese immigration that suddenly poured into the United States West Coast. Hopeful to stop the immigration and the apparent "job stealing", President Chester A. Arthur signed the law into place. This was one of the major immigration restricting laws signed into place, causing absolutely no Chinese immigration into the United States. Continuously extended, the end of this law didn't stop until the twentieth century, 1943. -
No More "Chinese Schools"
Refusing to fund any more "Chinese Schools" in San Francisco, many Chinese families were forced to hire teachers to homeschool their children or find church-sponsored schools. One family of Chinese Americans enrolled their child into a public, non-Chinese school, and sued when they didn't allow the child. Fortunately, this court case officially declared that any child born to Asian parents within California earned the rights to a public education. -
Filipinos Seek a Better Life
When the hoardes of immigrants from Asia started pouring in the early 1900's, Filipinos first traveled to Hawaii to seek a better life to supply themselves with riches before traveling back to the Philippines. Most of this was because the conversion between the USD equaled a lot of money in PHP, the Philippine peso. Filipinos traveled to Hawaii and West Coast United States in search for work. -
The Ellis Island of the West
Angel Island, a scenic island off the coast of San Francisco, was beginning to hold primarily Chinese immigrants in detention centers across the island. In 1910, despite the constant protests and complaints about the formation of the detention centers, Angel Island opened up as a bustling deportation station for immigrants, about 70% Chinese. The cause of this is commonly linked back to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 that was passed, restricting Chinese immigration to the US. -
Alien Land Law of 1913
Although Asian Americans were eligible for American citizenship, it was denied to them. Complications occured when events called for American citizens only, leaving out all other minority groups that did not have citizenship. The Alien Land Law of 1913 restricted all aliens, people who were not citizens, from purchasing American land. Because citizenship was denied to Asian Americans, they were not able to own American property. -
America's Established Quotas
The inclusion of the Philippines as a US Colony lead to an exclusion of this act on Filipinos. A rollback on American immigration quotas to what they were in the 1890's lead to a complete restriction on allowing any Asians into the United States. This was, simply put, because of the fact that no actual, official records showed Asian immigration before this time. Many argued on lowering the quotas, restricting the immigration even more, or raising the quotas to allow more worldwide immigration. -
Tydings-McDuffie Act of 1934
Once the Great Depression hit America at the very beginning of the 1930's, Americans were terrified of losing jobs to Filipinos, who were still heavily immigrating at the time. Because of this, President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Tydings-Mcduffie Act of 1934 into place. This limited strictly the Filipino immigration to only 50 people per year and stripped the title of "citizen" from all rightful Filipino citizens in the US. -
Executive Order No. 9066
The fear of Japanese Americans becoming spies for the Japan side of World War II certainly reached a peak when President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order No. 9066 in the year 1942. This law was created to put Japanese Americans into interment camps for the duration of the war. Many Japanese Americans were not spies for the war, and many protested against being stripped of their civil rights as an American citizen purely for the fear that they were secretly Japanese spies. -
Magnuson Act of 1943
This was one of the first Pro-Chinese Immigration laws passed after the harsh, unfortunate Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. Although this only allowed 105 Chinese people to immigrate to the United States, it still allowed a small portion of Chinese to come to America for a better chance at life. Many people believed that there was still a prejudice against the Chinese, explaining why the Magnuson Act only allowed specifically 105 Chinese to immigrate to America. -
Chinese IN-clusion
In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed the bill that passed the Immigration Act of 1965. This bill triggered a dramatic increase in world-wide immigration into the United States. A definite step up from the Magnuson Act of 1943, this act allowed 20,000 people from each country world-wide a chance to come into America. Specifically, this ended the Magnuson Act of 1943, and allowed a cap of 20,000 Chinese people to come into the United States per year. -
Desegregated Public Schools
Despite many attempts to desegregate American-only schools and Chinese schools, nothing was ever set in place. However, in 1971, a federal court order demanded the desegregation of California public schools. Successfully, many Chinese schools were closed down, and students transferred to the public schools that they previously had been unable to attend. -
Reparations for Internment
Following the Japanese Internment during World War II, President Jimmy Carter signed a law that created the Committee on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians (CWRIC), and allowed them to research on the interment of the Japanese Americans. The Committee found the interment unjust, and offered reparations of $20,000 per living person or heir of those interned as compensation.
