The Legacies of Chinese Exclusion

• 4 activities 
• Recommended videos and photographs for exploring this topic

We recommend that you preview the image used in Activity 1 before using it in class, as it contains stereotypical imagery of various ethnic groups, including Irish, African Americans, Italians, and Jews. If you have not done so already, we advise using our contracting guidelines for creating a classroom contract to help navigate challenging topics like race and racism. See the lesson Preparing Students for Difficult Conversations for more resources and guidance.

Before students dig into the history of the Chinese Exclusion Act, project or print copies of the 1882 cartoon "The Anti-Chinese Wall". (Be sure to read the background information from the Library of Congress in advance of class to help students grasp the meaning of the cartoon.) Ask students to analyze the cartoon using either the See, Think, Wonder or Crop It teaching strategy. Once students have individually analyzed the cartoon, have them debrief their answers in a Think, Pair, Share. Encourage students to generate hypotheses about the cartoon, prompting them with the following questions:

• What’s happening in this cartoon? What was happening when this cartoon was made?
• Who do you think was the audience for this cartoon?
• What message do you think the cartoonist is trying to send? What connections can you draw between the message of the cartoon and the today?

To introduce students to the history of Chinese exclusion in the United States, show this clip from the PBS documentary The Chinese Exclusion Act. Ask students to take notes on the clip that will help them answer the following question:

Why do many historians consider the Chinese Exclusion Act a turning point in American history?

In exchange or addition to the clip, ask students to read the NPR Code Switch article As Chinese Exclusion Act Turns 135, Experts Point To Parallels Today. Since the article is fairly long and may be challenging for some students, consider previewing some vocabulary in advance, or using the Read Aloud or the Annotating and Paraphrasing Sources teaching strategy to promote students’ understanding of the ideas and arguments presented.

Use the following questions to guide a class reflection and discussion after reading:

• What was new about the Chinese Exclusion Act?
• What parallels does the article draw between the Chinese Exclusion Act and today? What are some differences between the exclusion era and today?

Tell students that they will now be reading an excerpt from a protest letter from Chinese immigrant Saum Song Bo, who was mentioned in the NPR article. Explain to students that in 1885, the American Missionary magazine published a letter Bo wrote in response to a flyer requesting donations for the construction of the Statue of Liberty:

SIR: A paper was presented to me yesterday for inspection, and I found it to be specially drawn up for subscription among my countrymen toward the Pedestal Fund of the Bartholdi Statue of Liberty. Seeing that the heading is an appeal to American citizens, to their love of country and liberty, I feel that my countrymen and myself are honored in being thus appealed to as citizens in the cause of liberty. But the word liberty makes me think of the fact that this country is the land of liberty for men of all nations except the Chinese. I consider it as an insult to us Chinese to call on us to contribute toward building in this land a pedestal for a statue of Liberty. That statue represents Liberty holding a torch which lights the passage of those of all nations who come Into this country. But are the Chinese allowed to come? As for the Chinese who are here, are they allowed to enjoy liberty as men of all other nationalities enjoy it? Are they allowed to go about everywhere free from the insults, abuse, assaults, wrongs and injuries from which men of other nationalities are free? ¹

Divide the class into small groups. Give each group a large sheet of paper on which you have taped Saum Song Bo’s letter (above) and have students respond to it in a Big Paper activity. Once all students have responded, ask a representative from each group to share their group’s responses.

• 1Saum Song Bo, “A Protest Against the Statue of Liberty,” Digital History website, accessed May 14, 2018.

Note that Activity #4 requires students to have completed Activity #3.
Next, project and read aloud the following quotation from writer Rosemary Bray:

When people wrote "All men are created equal," they really meant men; but they didn't mean any other men except white men who owned land. That's what they meant. But because the ideas are powerful, there's no way that they could get away with holding to that. It's not possible when you have an idea that's as powerful and as revolutionary as a country founded on the idea that just because you're in the world, just because you're here, you have a right to certain things that are common to all humanity. That's really what we say in those documents. The idea that we begin the Constitution with, "We, the People" . . . even though they didn't mean me! They had no idea I'd ever want to make a claim on that. And they'd have been horrified if they'd known that any of us would. But you can't let that powerful an idea out into the world without consequences.

First in a Think, Pair, Share and then in a whole-class discussion, ask students to reflect on the following questions:

• What tension does Bray identify in founding documents such as the US Constitution? What does she mean when she says “you can’t let that powerful an idea into the world without consequences”?
• How do the ideas in this paragraph connect to Saum Song Bo’s letter?

Encourage students to point to specific quotes from the Bo letter to support their reasoning.
Then, close the lesson asking students to reflect on the following question, either privately in their journals, in an exit ticket, or in a class discussion:

• Why do you think the history of Chinese exclusion matters today? What lessons should we as a nation or as a society draw from it?