The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882

On May 6, 1882, there was a United States federal law passed to implement the suspension of Chinese immigration into America. This ban would last up until World War II.

In 1849, there was a massive gold rush in California which attracted many Chinese which came in huge droves. They settled in well known places such as Los Angeles and San Francisco (a boomtown for the gold rush next to Sutter's Mills). In addition to that, the Chinese were prominent workers on large portions of the Central Pacific railroad during the Transcontinental Railroad period which link America's East and West Coasts. At first during the California Gold Rush, the precious element was plenty to be prospected. However, as gold became scarce, attitudes about the many Chinese and other foreigners changed for the worse. Many Chinese went to work in restaurants, parlors, and laundries. Some found work as cooks and were successful enough to open up businesses.

During the 1870s, the number of Chinese were well over 200,000. Labor jobs were now very competitive between Chinese immigrants, second generation Chinese Americans, Blacks and Whites. At this point, racism against the Chinese went political. Labor leader Dennis Kearney and his political party called the Workingman's Party tackled Chinese immigrant labor, mainly against railroads like Central Pacific which employed them. He found a lot of support from other White Californians who hated Asians in that time. He was one of the catalysts behind the Chinese discrimination in the state of California and the halting of Chinese immigration into America.

The Chinese Exclusion Act made Chinese Americans and Chinese immigrants lifetime legal aliens. Married Chinese couples were torn a part by the act. For example, Chinese men were not able to return to their families because of the special paper work needed from the Chinese government which had to prove that they were able to immigrate back into the United States of America.