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Asian American Experience: Legislative Acts & Laws

Asian American History and Heritage

1882: The Chinese Exclusion Act

 According to this act, Chinese laborers were prohibited from immigrating to the United States for ten years. (Read more)

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Anti-Alien Laws in California - Japanese Diaspora

1862: Coolie Trade

  Poor rural Chinese villages were the origin of the trade and congress passed the act to prohibit the "Coolie Trade" by American citizens in American vessels in 1862.

1942: Day of Remembrance

The US Army was authorized on Feb. 19th, 1942 to remove civilians from military zones established in Washington, Oregon, and California during World War II by Executive Order 9066 signed by President Franklin Roosevelt. As a result, around 120,000 Japanese Americans living on the West Coast were incarcerated and forced to give up their jobs, homes, and lives to be sent to one of ten concentration camps scattered throughout the country.
To commemorate how the incarceration experience affected many Japanese American families and our country, the Japanese American community commemorates Executive Order 9066 every February. You can find more here & here.

1913: The Alien Land Act

 Asian immigrants were barred from owning land after California enacted its Alien Land Law on May 3, 1913. In 1920 and 1923, California enacted even stricter laws prohibiting leasing land and owning land by American-born children of Asian immigrants or by corporations controlled by Asian immigrants.

Asian American Soldiers

During the War of 1812, Asian-Americans served on behalf of the United States as soldiers. Asian American units ceased to exist in 1948 after the United States desegregated its military, and subsequently, Asian Americans have served in integrated armed forces up to the present (Read More).

Larry Itliong: United Farm Workers Movement

In order to campaign for better pay, housing options, and working conditions for farmworkers in the United States, Filipino American labor leader Larry Itliong organized the West Coast farmworkers movement in the 1930s. Read More

 

 

1854: People v. Hall

A Chinese man's testimony in 1854 was ruled inadmissible by the California Supreme Court, depriving Chinese, and Native and African Americans, of their right to testify against whites.

1898: Wong Kim Ark

  In 1898, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the United States that even children born in the United States to parents not eligible to become citizens were still citizens under the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution.

1964: The First Asian/Woman of Color to Congress

Patsy Takemoto Mink was the first woman of color elected to the United States Congress in 1965. She is well known for being the primary sponsor of Title IX, which is a reaction to the challenges she faced as a woman in her education.

1871: Los Angeles Chinese Massacre


In Los Angeles, California, in the United States, on October 24, 1871, a racial massacre targeted Chinese immigrants. As a result of increasing discrimination against Chinese immigrants, California experienced this massacre and Chinese immigrants were considered aliens by white residents of Los Angeles. Ten men stood trial for the murder of the Chinese despite 25 indictments being returned by a grand jury. Eight rioters were found guilty of manslaughter, but the convictions were reversed due to a legal error, and the offenders were never put on trial again. Read More