Beyond Exclusion: The Anti-Chinese Policy Database

Hannah Postel, Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University
Beth Lew-Williams, Princeton University

We present a novel, comprehensive database of state- and local-level policies regulating Chinese immigrants in the American West from 1850-1920. Beginning in the mid-19th century, Chinese migrants on the Pacific Coast encountered a growing number of discriminatory laws. Local and state governments attempted to regulate what jobs the Chinese could perform, who they could marry, where they went to school, whether they could own property, and what civil rights they possessed. Historians have catalogued some of these policies in particular places and industries (Courtney 1956; Janisch 1971; Chin and Ormonde 2018; Chin and Chin 2022). However, archival challenges have made it difficult for scholars to develop a broad view of these laws and their implications. In an attempt to understand this anti-Chinese legal regime more systematically, we conduct computational text analysis on full-text charters, ordinances, and statutes from 182 municipalities across the three Pacific Coast states. This process involves 1) identifying, collecting, and cleaning full-text policies at both the state and municipal level; 2) compiling a set of relevant search keywords; and 3) narrowing the resulting policies to those with likely anti-Chinese intent and/or effect. We identify 564 policies that targeted Chinese immigrants either explicitly or implicitly. This database allows us to consider the geographic and temporal scope of these social measures and develop a typology outlining how they affected Chinese migrant lives. These laws and their enforcement forged a unique racial regime that regulated nearly aspect of Chinese life in the American West. We argue that state and local governments’ main goals were to restrict access to resources, public services, and civil rights; limit cultural practices; and promote social distance. Moreover, these policies did not cease with federal immigration restrictions against the Chinese; instead, they became the blueprint for the racial policing of other groups throughout the 20th century.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 68. Race to the Archives