H.T. in the Membrane: L.A. Love Chinese Short Time

In one of my classes I had to research a topic for a term paper regarding Chinese in America. As I have stated before, I am currently obsessed with California history; so I decided to focus on the Chinese experience in California. In my research so far I stumbled across a racially charged incident that I have never heard of before & it is what I plan on writing about.

In the Fall of 1871, in the chinatown of Los Angeles, 2 battling Chinese factions were engaged in a gun fight over the abduction of a Chinese woman named Yut Ho. A local white rancher named Robert Thompson found himself caught in the cross-fire and was unfortunately killed. His death would lead to a racially charged riot that ended up leaving a confirmed 19 Chinese dead at the hands of an angry mob.

On October 24, 1871, a group of 500 made up Anglos & Latinos entered Los Angeles' Chinatown on the street Calle de Los Negros with the aim of attacking & murdering any Chinese they came across as vengeance for the accidental death of Thompson. Buildings with Chinese writing on them were ransacked and numerous Chinese people were beaten and murdered.

In the book Chinese Los Angeles in 1870—1871: The Makings of a Massacre, Scott Zesch writes,

"The dead Chinese in Los Angeles were hanging at three places near the heart of the downtown business section of the city; from the wooden awning over the sidewalk in front of a carriage shop; from the sides of two “prairie schooners” parked on the street around the corner from the carriage shop; and from the cross beam of a wide gate leading into a lumberyard a few blocks away from the other two locations. One of the victims hung without his trousers and minus a finger on his left hand."

In the end, only ten individuals were tried in court for the massacre; seven of those ten were convicted, although they were later acquitted on a technicality. It is believed that this violent riot was the culmination of a growing anti-Chinese movement in California following the passing of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 which attempted to suspend further Chinese immigration. Growing Chinese discrimination coupled with high unemployment rates in the state contributed to the violent response that occurred that day in 1871. While this incident is rarely mentioned today, there is a footnote of the massacre shown on the Great Wall of Los Angeles depicting the event.