The Tacoma riot of 1885, also known as the 1885 Chinese expulsion from Tacoma, involved the forceful expulsion of the Chinese population from Tacoma, Washington Territory, on November 3, 1885. City leaders had earlier proposed a November 1 deadline for the Chinese population to leave the city. On November 3, 1885, a mob that consisted of prominent businessmen, police, and political leaders descended on the Chinese community.Pfaelzer 2007, pp. 219-220. The mob marched Chinese residents to a railroad station and forced them to board a train to Portland.Pfaelzer 2007, pp. 221-222. In the following days, the structures that remained in the Chinese community were razed.Pfaelzer 2007, pp. 222-223. The event was the result of growing anti-Chinese sentiment and violence throughout the American West.
This organized action became known as the "Tacoma method", and despite national and international outcry, it was used as an example of how to forcibly remove Chinese residents from cities and towns throughout the American West.Pfaelzer 2007, p. 219. The anti-Chinese sentiment in Tacoma and Washington Territory more broadly made it so that those involved did not face repercussions for their actions.Pfaelzer 2007, pp. 224-228.
This impacted Chinese immigration to Tacoma for decades. In 1992, the Chinese Citizens Reconciliation Committee was created.Chinese Reconciliation Project Foundation 2013, "The History of the Foundation." In 1993, the Tacoma City Council issued a statement on the expulsion saying that it was "a most reprehensible occurrence". In 2005, Chinese Reconciliation Park broke ground on the Tacoma waterfront to commemorate the event.Chinese Reconciliation Project Foundation 2013, "Tacoma Chinese Park."
Background
Chinese community of Tacoma
In 1873, the Northern Pacific Railway announced plans to situate its western terminus in Tacoma. Given the experience of Chinese laborers on other major railroad projects, they were among the laborers that were hired to work on the new construction.Hildebrand 1977, pp. 20-21. The Northern Pacific Railway completed its Tacoma terminal on December 27, 1873.Hildebrand 1977, p. 21. Because there was still work to be done building wharves and smaller rail lines, Chinese workers remained in the area. The Northern Pacific Railway leased the Chinese land near the train tracks which became the Tacoma Chinatown.Chin 1992, p. 59. This was located on the Tacoma waterfront near present-day Downtown Tacoma.
By the 1880s, there were approximately 1,000 Chinese residents living in Pierce County with 700 of them in Tacoma.Wilcox 1978, p. 204 There was a fluctuation of the numbers of Chinese residents during this time due to the lack of record keeping and the transient nature of the industries that many Chinese residents worked in. There were several Chinese owned businesses within Chinatown selling groceries and household goods, but the majority of the Chinese were employed in laundries, small stores, hotels, restaurants, and domestic work.Chin 1992, pp. 58-59.
Regional and national anti-Chinese sentiment California became the core site of early anti-Chinese sentiment in the United States beginning in the 1850s. While Chinese immigrants enjoyed a much older history in the United States, the true expansion of Chinese immigration to the United States was with the California Gold Rush in 1848. This gave poor Chinese families the hope and opportunity to raise their families. The rate of immigration was relatively small until 18,000 Chinese came to California in 1852.Hildebrand 1977, p. 7 As they formed communities, they developed their own benevolent societies to support them in their new lives. This gave them a connection to their homeland but it also provided them job opportunities, education, recreation, medical help, and assistance in settling disputes.Hildebrand 1977, p. 7.
As Chinese miners began to work in California's mines, tensions began to rise between European and Chinese workers. Similar animus took place once the Chinese began to branch out into other industries.Hildebrand 1977, p. 8. Anti-Chinese sentiment was particularly strong with labor organizations in California. Denis Kearney, an Irish immigrant and one of California's most public anti-Chinese labor leaders, popularized the call of "The Chinese Must Go!" This rallying cry became increasingly common throughout the American West and was used in the buildup to the Chinese expulsion in Tacoma.Hildebrand 1977, p. 43. As anti-Chinese sentiment became common in California, corresponding incidents of violence and anti-Chinese legislation occurred throughout the state. This included several riots as well as ordinances that set limits on housing and property ownership.Hildebrand 1977, pp. 8-9. Racial animus and new economic opportunities led Chinese immigrants to other territories, moving to other parts of the American West and Pacific Northwest.Hildebrand 1977, p. 9.
In the following decades, anti-Chinese sentiment began to be reflected in national policy. The 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, and the subsequent 1892 Geary Act, were federal laws that targeted Chinese immigrants by barring all new immigration from China. Local sentiment among anti-Chinese activists in the Washington Territory was that this legislation was not being enforced, and that Chinese migrants were entering primarily from British Columbia.Chin 1992, p. 64.
Throughout the 1880s, anti-Chinese incidents became increasingly common. On September 4, 1885, the Rock Springs Massacre occurred in Rock Springs, Wyoming Territory and represented one of the deadliest anti-Chinese incidents in the United States during the nineteenth century. A group of coal miners drove out hundreds of Chinese miners and killed at least 28 of them. News of this event spread nationally and internationally and led to increased friction between the Chinese consulate and the United States government.Yung, et al. 2012, pp. 48-54. This would become one of a string of violent incidents directed towards the Chinese population in the Pacific Northwest territories.
This violence soon spread to Washington Territory. On September 7, 1885, in Squak Valley (present-day Issaquah, Washington), a group of white and Native American laborers fired into the tents of Chinese hop pickers and killed three of them.Pfaelzer 2007, p. 215. On September 11, 1885, another instance of anti-Chinese violence occurred in the Coal Creek mines of Newcastle, Washington Territory. There, one Chinese miner was kidnapped and the barracks of several dozen Chinese workers was set on fire.Chin 1992, pp. 66-67. On September 19, 1885, in the coal mining community of Black Diamond, Washington Territory, white miners drove the Chinese out and injured nine of them.Wilcox 1978, pp. 205-206.Chin 1992, p. 67. These events spurred a flurry of organizing activity devoted to expelling the Chinese from other communities in the Washington Territory.
Growing anti-Chinese sentiment in Tacoma
In February 1885, Tacoma Mayor Jacob Weisbach (a German immigrant) met with a small group of men to discuss the Chinese question. William Christie, who had witnessed the Chinese expulsion that had recently occurred in Eureka, California, was among the attendees.Morgan 1979, p. 222.Hunt 1916, p. 359. During this meeting, they discussed the actions taken by other localities to expel their Chinese citizens and considered how they might do the same in Tacoma. This was one of the earliest recorded instances of Tacoma citizens meeting to discuss taking direct action to expel Chinese residents.
On February 21, 1885, Mayor Weisbach called a mass meeting at the Alpha Opera House to discuss methods of expelling the Chinese population of Tacoma. Roughly 900 of Tacoma's 6,936 total citizens came to the meeting. The crowd was mostly male and white, and the crowd represented nearly half of the town's electorate. A former alderman, J. E. Burns, suggested passing sanitation laws to enable the city to evict Chinese residents and burn down Chinese homes.Morgan 1979, p. 223. Reverend J. A. Ward suggested that white property owners cease selling and leasing property to the Chinese community. Weisbach roused the crowd with a closing speech, stating: "If the people are in earnest, if they are Free Americans in fact they will not yield up their homes and business to the filthy horde." The crowd adopted a resolution to exclude Chinese people from Tacoma and discourage citizens from employing any Chinese people. The resolution stipulated that any citizen who did not boycott Chinese employment would have their name published.Morgan 1979, pp. 223-224.
Herbert Hunt stated that during 1885, "the discussion of the [Chinese] question was constant and it figured in many business and social affairs."Hunt 1916, p. 361. Many groups formed in 1885 in Tacoma with the express goal of expelling the Chinese community.Morgan 1979, pp. 225-226. On September 7 of 1885, a Tacoma chapter of the Knights of Labor was formed, which helped to increase hostility against Chinese residents.Chin 1992, p. 66.
The Tacoma City Council also tried to pursue expulsion through legal means, by making residence in Tacoma more difficult for the Chinese community.Hildebrand 1977, pp. 39-40. The council passed an ordinance at the recommendation of Mayor Weisbach stating that all sleeping rooms needed to have 500 cubic feet of air per individual.Hunt 1916, p. 363.
On September 28, 1885, an "Anti-Chinese Congress" met in Seattle. Tacoma's Mayor Weisbach presided over the congress, which proclaimed that all Chinese people must leave Western Washington by November 1 of that year. The congress planned for "ouster committees" to notify the Chinese residents in the communities assembled of the expulsion date.Wilcox 1978, p. 206. A meeting was held at the Alpha Opera House in Tacoma on October 3 to elect the Tacoma "ouster committee," which would later become known as the Committee of Fifteen.Morgan 1979, pp. 229-230. Following the meeting, members of this committee alerted members of Tacoma's Chinese community that they had to leave the city by November 1. Other anti-Chinese community members put additional pressure on white Tacomans to fire their Chinese employees.Morgan 1979, pp. 230-231.
After this alert, much of the Chinese community left the city, with merchants and some laborers choosing to remain behind. Some members of the Tacoma community gave their assurances to Chinese residents that they would be protected and not forced to leave.Morgan 1979, p. 230.
A series of events occurred in the days leading up to the expulsion. On October 31, the night prior to the deadline for the Chinese residents to leave, a final rally was held. Nearly 700 people came to show support for the expulsion.Hunt 1916, p. 371.Morgan 1979, p. 236. As the November 1st deadline approached, an additional 150 Chinese people left the city, leaving roughly 200 Chinese people in Tacoma. The following day, November 2, those accused in the Squak Valley massacre were acquitted, leading to a feeling that those involved in anti-Chinese actions could act with relative impunity.
Expulsion and destruction of Chinese community On the morning of November 3 at 9:30 am, 200 to 300 white citizens of Tacoma gathered on Pacific Avenue.Morgan 1979, p. 237. The mob had shortly thereafter grown to nearly 500 people.Pfaelzer 2007, 219. The mob marched from Seventeenth Street to Old Tacoma, stopping at each Chinese residence and business to tell the people within to pack and be ready for a wagon to come at 1:30 PM that day to take them away.Morgan 1979, pp. 237-238. They visited the homes and businesses of white citizens who had refused to fire their Chinese employees, delivering their message to them as well.Morgan 1979, p. 239. The mob acted methodically and militaristically in their action to expel the Chinese population of Tacoma, and many of the men were armed with either guns or clubs.