Asian American Experience in The United States

Asian American Experience in The United States

TIMELINE 1600 to present



Chinese and Filipinos land in Mexico on the ships of the Manila galleon.

First recorded settlement of Filipino Americans. They escape impressment aboard Spanish galleons by jumping ship in New Orleans, Louisiana.

First recorded arrival of an Asian Indian in the United States.

Strike of gold in California draws Chinese immigrants to West Coast to mine gold. Chinese immigrants arrive as

indentured servants during the California Gold Rush. The majority comes later as cheap labor to work the railroads and

in other industries.

Transcontinental railroad is completed. Chinese laborers build most of the western section.

First Japanese settlers arrive in Gold Hill, California.

Under the Naturalization Act, Chinese are not eligible for citizenship. The act also forbids the entry of wives of laborers.

Anti-Chinese riots break out in Los Angeles and other cities. A mob of whites shoot and hang 20 Chinese one night in Los Angeles.

Chinese Exclusion Act suspends immigration of Chinese laborers for 10 years. Excludes Chinese from citizenship by naturalization and halts Chinese

immigration for 60 years.

Japan lifts ban restriction on emigration of Japanese.

Chinese laundrymen win case in Yick Wo v. Hopkins, which declares that a law with unequal impact on different groups is discriminatory.

President Theodore Roosevelt enters into Gentlemen’s Agreement with Japan whereby Japan stops issuing passports to laborers desiring to emigrate to the United States. Gentleman’s Agreement opens up jobs in Hawaii for Filipinos, but also includes ban on further Korean immigration to the United States as laborers.

Angel Island established as a detention center for those Asian non-laboring classes desiring entry in the United States.

The U.S. Supreme Court extends the 1870 Naturalization Act to other Asians, making them aliens ineligible for citizenship.

Immigration Act declares that no one ineligible for citizenship may immigrate to the United States. Excluding Filipinos, who are subjects of the United States, this act completely ends Asian immigration.

Filipino Federation of Labor founded in Los Angeles to protect migrant workers from abuses of labor contractors and farm owners.

Tydings-McDuffie Act promises independence to the Philippines in 10 years. It also creates a quota of 50 Filipino immigrants per year.

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9066, putting 120,000 Japanese (primarily U.S. citizens) in 10 concentration camps.

Please read complete time to present day at link below:

http://www.aaichicago.org/documents/publications/compas_aahistoricaltimeline.pdf

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