April 29, 1876: Antioch Chinese Pogrom
April 29 1876, a white mob in Antioch forcibly evicted all Chinese residents from the town after rumors proliferated that Chinese sex workers had spread venereal diseases to a handful of men. The next day, after Sunday services, Antioch’s Chinatown was burned down. As early as the late 1840s, hundreds …
October 29, 1877: Angry Crowd Mobs Charles Crocker's Mansion
October 29 1877, an angry crowd of 2000 white San Francisco workers marched to railroad magnate Charles Crocker’s mansion. They were led by Denis Kearney of the anti-Chinese California Workingmen’s Party, who demanded the Central Pacific fire all their Chinese workers. 1877 saw an incredible wave of militancy by American …
July 15, 1881: Burnette G. Haskell established the IWA
July 15 1881, Burnette G. Haskell established the International Workingmen’s Association in San Francisco. Taking its name from Karl Marx’s by-then defunct First International, the IWMA was the Bay Area’s first locally-founded Marxist organization Haskell, born to California pioneers in 1857, had trained as a lawyer before being put in …
February 11, 1884: Chinese Cigar Makers in San Francisco Get a Win
February 11 1884, Chinese cigar makers in San Francisco, recently organized into a union, won an increase of $1 per 1000 cigars from their white employers. The white-dominated labor movement ignored militancy by Chinese workers, whom it largely considered unorganizable. Rather than organize with them against factory owners, white workers …
May 4, 1887: San Jose's Chinatown Burns
May 4 1887, a fire ripped through the Second Market Street Chinatown in San Jose, destroying the neighborhood. Part of a wave of anti-Chinese violence, this was the third time fire had destroyed one of San Jose’s Chinatowns, previously burned down in 1870 and 1872. Built after the Vine Street …