Pacific Coast race riots of 1907

The Pacific Coast race riots were a series of riots that took place within the United States and Canada. The riots, which resulted in violence, were the result of anti-Asian tension caused by the increasing Asian population during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The riots took place in San Francisco, California; Bellingham, Washington; and Vancouver, Canada. Each city and anti-Asian activist group held its own unique reasoning for their specific riot.

History

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the United States was experiencing a wave of Asian immigration. As the Asian immigrants continued flooding into the United States, a growing number of citizens became concerned with the mounting numbers of Asian immigrants. American and Canadian citizens, uneasy about the ability of Asian immigrants to fill potentially white jobs. With the possibility of cheap labor, several employers were firing Caucasian workers and replacing them with immigrants. “By [the] 1880s more than 100,000 Chinese were employed in a wide array of occupations, ranging from work on the railroads, in agriculture, and in mining, to work as domestics, in restaurants, and in laundries”.^[1] Shortly after the Chinese immigration wave, Japanese citizens followed suit and migrated to the United States. By the late 1880s, the number of Japanese immigrants were equivalent the number of Chinese immigrants.^[1]

As the 19th century came to a close, immigration continued to increase along with Nativism, the idea of preserving the current American social values.^[2] Nativists viewed immigrants that were not Caucasian or from select regions of Europe “un-American” and therefore unable to assimilate into society.^[3] If citizens were seen as unfit for society, they were considered a threat to the preservation of American values.^[3] Many Canadian and American citizens used violent actions to force Asian immigrants out of jobs and certain cities in the spring, summer and fall of 1907.

Riots

The Pacific Coast race riots consisted primarily of three major riots. These riots took place in San Francisco, Bellingham, and Vancouver.

The San Francisco riot was led by anti-Japanese activists, rebelling with violence trying to establish segregated schools for Caucasian and Japanese students. (Lee, 551) Along with the Gentlemen’s Agreement, the San Francisco riot resulted in segregated schools for Caucasian and Japanese students.^[4]

The Bellingham riot took place on September 5, 1907. As Asian immigrants migrated to Bellingham, employers saw an opportunity to employ Asian immigrants at cheaper wages than Caucasian workers. This created tension and hostility between Caucasian lumber workers and South Asian immigrants as immigrants continued to take Caucasian jobs.^[5]

Both the San Francisco riot and the Bellingham riot resulted in further restrictions on the Gentlemen’s Agreement between the United States and Japan. The Japanese government agreed to not issue passports for entry into the United States to any skilled or unskilled labor if they had not previously been to the United States.^[6]

The Vancouver riot took place two days after the Bellingham riot, on September 7 and 8, in response to anti-Asian activists becoming concerned with the growing Asian population during the summer of 1907 (Lee, 551). The Vancouver race riots resulted in restrictive legislation, In 1907–1908, 2,623 Indians and South Asians entered Canada. In 1908–1909, only six South Asian immigrants entered Canada.^[7]

The riots resulted in more attention focused on Asian immigration policies within the United States and Canada.

References