People of Color in the USA

8 Sept. 2014

Guiding questions• 1. Why is consideration of “race” so important in

understanding US history and culture?• 2. What role did educators play in shaping views on

race in the early to mid-20th century? • 3. What path did US immigration policy take until

reversed in the 1960s?• 4. How did the 14th Amendment both harm and

help Asian immigrants to the US?• 5. Which aspects of the Asian-American experience

in the Pacific Northwest are most noteworthy?

Some preliminary questionsIs there a biological basis for dividing

humans by “race”?

Photo: Seattle P-I

No!

Some preliminary questions

What then, is “race”?• A social and cultural construct• (attitudes and beliefs developed by

western Europeans after their conquest of much of the rest of the world beginning in the 15th century)

Adapted from “Race,” Encyclopaedia Britannica article by Audrey Smedley, Professor emerita of Anthropology and African-American Studies, Virginia Commonwealth University. Author of Race in North America: Origin and Evolution of a Worldview.

Some preliminary questionsOf the major European imperial powers, which developed the most rigid & exclusivist views on race?

A. The SpanishB. The PortugueseC. The FrenchD. The English

Audrey Smedley opines:• Race is the

kaleidoscope through which Americans have been conditioned in our culture to view other human beings.

--Race in North America: Origin and Evolution of a Worldview, page 15

People of Color in the USAIf it’s not “real,” then Why is “race” important?Racial classification determined:• Who could be a citizen• Where you could live• Where you could go to school• Where you could work• Where you could play• Whom you could marry

People of Color in the USAI. Who lives here & how did they get here?II. Looking back 100 years: EducationIII. Trends in immigration & citizenship policyIV. USA in 2013: A rainbow nation?V. Case study: Asian Americans

I. Who lives here & how did they get here?

• A. First Nations (Native Americans; Indians)• B. “Hispanic” (Latinos)• C. “Whites” (others of European origin)• D. “Blacks” (Sub-Saharan African origin)• E. Asians and Pacific Islanders

Food for thought: I

Food for thought: II

Food for thought: III

Assimilation of First Nations

• Persons of, Comanche, Cheyenne, Creek, Cherokee, Iroquois, and Choctaw nations. (Photos date from 1868 to 1924)

First Nations: U.S. v. Kagama (1886)

• Unanimous decision; greatly extends power of Congress and Federal Courts over the tribes.

• "The power of the general government over these remnants of a race once powerful, now weak and diminished in numbers, is necessary to their protection, as well as to the safety of those among whom they dwell.”

First Nations: Dawes Act (1887)

• The Dawes Severalty Act imposes private land ownership on formerly communally held land reserved for Indian nations.

• Results? Amount of land in Indian hands:• 1887: 138 million acres• 1934: 48 million acres

(Congress repeals the act in 1934)

First Nations: U.S. Citizenship (1924)

• “[A]ll non citizen Indians born within the territorial limits of the United States … are hereby declared to be citizens of the United States.”

Hispanics / Latinos

“We didn’t cross the border. The border crossed us.”

Historical significance: • St. Augustine, Florida

(1565)• Santa Fe, New Mexico

(1608, 1610)

• ¿ El Estrecho de Juan de Fuca?

• ¿Puerto Ángeles? • ¿ Las Islas

San Juan?

II. 1910 U.S. Census

88.5%

10.7%0.3% 0.2% 0.4%

WhiteBlackIndianAsianMexican

II. Looking back 100 years

How did education shape attitudes on race and ethnicity?

• B. Public education in 1914, or

“Is our children learning?” (George W. Bush, 11 Jan. 2000)

II. Looking back 100 years

II. Looking back 100 years• B. Public education in 1914, or

“Is our children learning?”

Dodge’s Advanced Geography, by Richard Elwood Dodge, professor of geography, Columbia University, New York (1904)

II. Looking back 100 years

II. Looking back 100 years

II. Looking back 100 yearsDodge divided the

societies of the world into three categories:

• 1. Savage people• 2. Barbarous people• 3. Civilized people

II. Looking back 100 yearsDodge divided

humanity into these categories:

• 1. The White Race• 2. The Yellow Race• 3. The Red Race• 4. The Black Race

II. Looking back 100 yearsDodge on the

“White Race”:

• “They are the most active, enterprising, and imaginative race of the world.”

III. Looking back 100 yearsDodge on the

“Yellow Race”:• “ not

progressive . . . some of the most backward tribes of the world.”

II. Looking back 100 yearsDodge on the

“Red Race”:• “They are usually

considered a sullen and cruel-hearted people, but this reputation is often far from just.”

II. Looking back 100 yearsDodge on the

“Black Race”:• “As a race they are

somewhat indolent … often impulsive … but faithful and affectionate to any one for whom they care.”

III. Trends in immigration & citizenship policy

• Naturalization Act of 1790 limits naturalization of immigrants to “free white persons” of “good moral character.”

• Further restrictions in 1795 limit citizenship to same.

III. Trends in immigration & citizenship policy

• Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848)extends US citizenship to Mexicans in southwest region annexed by the US after the war with Mexico.

• Three years later Congress breaks treaty with Land Law of 1851, which required Mexicans to prove legal title to their land or risk losing it.

III. Trends in immigration & citizenship policy

• 14th amendment declares anyone born in U.S. is a citizen (ratified 1868).

• Naturalization Act of 1870 extends citizenship to blacks, but excludes Asians.

III. Trends in immigration & citizenship policy

• Chinese Exclusion Act (1882):

• First serious restriction on immigration in US history

• First law to exclude a specific ethnicity

III. Trends in immigration & citizenship policy

• Emergency Quota Act (1921)limits immigration per country to 3% of number from that country presentin the US in 1910

• National Origins Act (1924)drastically curtails immigration & establishes quota system that heavily favors NW Europeans as it restricts all others

III. Trends in immigration & citizenship policy

• McCarren-Walter Act (1952)Retains but modifies national origins quotas, shifts to ideology and “morality,” ends exclusion of Chinese. Congress passes this over President Truman’s veto.

• Immigration & Nationality Act (1965) Abolishes “racial” and national quotas. Opens door to immigrants from all parts of world.

“Race” & the US census: 200 years

1810

1910

2010

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

81

88.8

63

19

10.7

12 16 5

WhiteBlackHispanicAmer IndAsianMixed

IV. USA Today: A Rainbow Nation?

63%12%

1%5%

16%

3%

2010 Census

White

Black

Amer Ind

Asian

Hispanic

Mixed

Washington State 2013 estimate

71%

4%2%

8%

12%

3%

WhiteBlackAmer IndAsianHispanicMixed

Diversity in Wash. State? % “Hispanic”

Adams County 62% Lincoln County 3%

Diversity in Wash. State? % “White”

Garfield County 92% Adams County 36%

Wash. State cities by “race” 2010

Spokane

Yakima

Renton

Bellevue

Seattle

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

84

52.2

49.4

59.2

66.3

2.3

1.7

10.6

2.3

7.9

5

41.3

13.1

7

6.6

2.6

1.5

21.2

27.6

13.8

WhiteBlackHispanicAmer IndAsian

A tale of three cities

Pasco

Kennewick

Richland

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

39

69

83

56

24

8

WhiteBlackHispanicAmer IndAsian

V. Case study: Asian Americans

1763:• First Asians arrive in what is now US:• Filipinos imprisoned on Spanish galleons jump

ship in New Orleans & flee into Louisiana bayous.

V. Case study: Asian Americans• First Chinese sailors and peddlers arrive in

New York, 1830• Gold discovered in California; Chinese miners

begin to arrive, 1848

Source: http://www.sikhspectrum.com/092002/images/chinese_miners.jpg

V. Case study: Asian Americans

1852:• More than 20,000 Chinese arrive in California• People v. Hall rules that Chinese cannot give

testimony in court against whites

V. Case study: Asian Americans1865: Central Pacific Railroad Co. recruits

Chinese workers for construction of transcontinental railroad

Source: http://www.understandingrace.org/images/482x270/society/trans_railroad_west_indian.jpg

V. Case study: Asian AmericansBurlingame Treaty (1868):• Establishes friendly relations with China• Encourages immigration of Chinese to US• Promises fair treatment of Chinese in US

V. Case study: Asian Americans1879: California state legislature requires all

incorporated towns to remove Chinese from within city limits

• US. Circuit Court declares law unconstitutional

V. Case study: Asian AmericansUS Congress passes Chinese Exclusion Act 1882• Suspends immigration of laborers for 10 years• In 1892 extended another 10 years• In 1902 extended again• In 1904 extended indefinitely & made

applicable to US territories

V. Case study: Asian Americans• 1880s: Mob

violence against Chinese erupts throughout the western US.

Anti-Chinese riot in Denver, 1880. source: http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2007/07/29/books/29lime.html

V. Case study: Asian Americans• Thousands of Chinese settle

in the Pacific Northwest beginning in the 1870s

Source: http://www.washington.edu/uwired/outreach/cspn/Website/Course%20Index/Lessons/15/15.html

V. Case study: Asian Americans• White residents of

Seattle, Tacoma and other Northwestern cities forcibly expel Chinese residents in 1886

Source: http://www.washington.edu/uwired/outreach/cspn/Website/Course%20Index/Lessons/15/15.html

V. Case study: Asian Americans• Seattle's anti-Chinese

riot of February 8, 1886• In front of the New England

Hotel on S. Main St. & 1st Ave.

• Five Chinese were killed in the violence.

• Reproduction of a drawing in Harpers Weekly. Special Collections, UW, Social Issues Files Cb, neg. 527)

V. Case study: Asian Americans• Court challenges to discriminatory laws:• 1889: Chae Chan Ping v U.S. upholds

constitutionality of Chinese exclusion laws.• 1894: A Japanese plaintiff, Mr. Saito, turned down

for US citizenship because he is neither white nor black.

• 1896: Ulysses Shinsei Kaneko, a Japanese Californian, is naturalized.

• 1898: Wong Kim Ark v U.S. rules that Chinese born in US cannot be stripped of citizenship.

V. Case study: Asian AmericansJAPANESE AMERICANS• Arrive in San Francisco by 1893• San Francisco School Board attempts to

segregate Japanese schoolchildren• Japanese scientists studying aftermath of 1906

San Francisco earthquake attacked by stone-throwing mob

• Gentleman’s Agreement of 1907 imposed on Japan by U.S. President Teddy Roosevelt

V. Case study: Asian Americans• 1913: California enacts Alien Land Law• 1917: Arizona does same• 1921: Washington does same• 1923: Idaho, Montana and Oregon follow suit• US Supreme Court in Terrace v. Thompson

(1923) upholds constitutionality of Washington’s Alien Land Law

• Washington’s law was not repealed until 1966, by citizen initiative

Wing Luke (1925-65)• Wash. State Assistant

Attorney Gen., 1957-62• Elected to Seattle City

Council, 1962• 1st Asian-American in

PNW in elected office• Passed Seattle Open

Housing Ord., 1963

Source: http://www.blackpast.org/?q=aaw/luke-wing-chong-1925-1965

Ruby Chow (1920-2008)• Born on a Seattle fishing

dock, Chow was the eldest daughter in a family of 10 children, dropping out of high school during the Depression to help support her family.

• First Asian-American on the King County Council

• Elected to three termsSworn in to King County Council, 1974. source: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/365754_chow05.html

Gary Locke -- 駱家輝• Born 1950• Elected governor of

Washington State, 1996• Served two terms• 1st Chinese-American governor

in US history• U.S. Secretary of Commerce

2009-11• US Ambassador to China, 2011

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Gary_Locke.jpg