Through the late 19th century and into the 20th, Chinese Americans faced systemic discrimination on interpersonal, societal and legal levels. Famously, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 forbade all immigration from China and barred current Chinese residents from becoming U.S. citizens.
But these broad, federal laws are only one piece of the legal framework. A patchwork of local and statewide legislation targeted activities and stereotypes associated with Chinese-Americans and created other avenues of legal discrimination.
Guest
- Beth Lew-Williams, historian and author of "John Doe Chinaman: A Forgotten History of Chinese Life Under American Racial Law"
