leland stanford anti chinese

This May, for the 150th anniversary, descendants of the Chinese railroad laborers and other advocates have been working hard to ensure history does not repeat itself. Stanford was an odious character whose theft of public resources and victimization of the public was widely recognized for many years. This came amid rising anti-Chinese sentiment and violence in the U.S., as whites blamed the Chinese for squeezing them out of jobs by accepting work at lower wages. He was one of eight children of Josiah and Elizabeth Phillips Stanford. But it wasn’t just the blasting that was dangerous. Leland’s real first name was Amasa, after a troublesome Old Testament figure who joined a failed rebellion against his own uncle, the duplicitous warrior king, David. Stanford Historical Photograph Collection / Stanford University Libraries. Follow NBC Asian America on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr. The Transcontinental Railroad was a dream of a country set on the concept of Manifest Destiny. Leland Stanford, president of the Central Pacific, drove a ceremonial golden spike, but a selected crew of Chinese workers laid the last rail. The Chinese had earlier worked on other California railroads as well as the Central Pacific in small numbers, according to the project. “There were occasions when avalanches buried workers in snow and they weren’t found until the snow melted the following spring,” Fishkin said. In this lesson, students will explore the social and economic factors that led to this restriction. The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University (“Stanford”) appeals from orders of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“Board”) in three interference proceedings between Stanford and the Chinese University of Hong Kong (“CUHK”). ... built by the railroad baron and public figure Leland Stanford. So the company arranged with labor contractors to bring workers directly from China, mostly from Guangdong province in the south. But the ceremony featured nothing more than a “passing mention of the Chinese.” The five minutes promised to the society never happened. Even Leland Stanford, whose anti-Chinese views were central to his gubernatorial campaign, changed his tune. Crocker’s solution for ending the strike, though cruel, proved to be extremely effective. The success of the experiment led the Central Pacific to hire additional Chinese workers, but the Chinese labor pool in California soon ran out. A camp of Chinese workers near Brown's Station of the Central Pacific Railroad. “But there’s also lots of evidence to show that the Stanfords had an affection for many of the Chinese, especially in their employ. In the first of 5 articles about the Transcontinental Railroad anniversary, descendants of Chinese railroad workers share their hope for the recognition of their ancestors' labor. His articles have appeared in Foreign Policy and the Taipei Times and in Chinese on ETToday.net, a popular Taiwanese news website. Leland Stanford would soon become embroiled in scandals, including one of the greatest in American history. He is one of the 19th-century entrepreneurial tycoons called robber barons. Even Leland Stanford, president of the Big Four called the Chinese “’dregs’ of Asia,” and “a ‘degraded’ people.” The diligence of Chinese workers created a competitive atmosphere that made white workers work harder, much to their resentment. It was during this time that the Central Pacific Railroad was also struggling with a severe labor shortage and fear of competition from nearby mining fields which threatened to draw Chinese workers away from the railroad. 17 in Port Washington, Wisconsin. So it wasn’t just an exploitative relationship.”. Even Leland Stanford, president of the Big Four called the Chinese “’dregs’ of Asia,” and “a ‘degraded’ people.” Facing a labor shortage, the railroad may have turned to recruiting Chinese at the suggestion of Central Pacific construction contractor Charles Crocker’s brother, E.B., a California Supreme Court justice and an attorney for the company. Date of experience: December 2018. “The Chinese and the Iron Road: Building the Transcontinental Railroad” and Chang’s separate book “Ghosts of Gold Mountain: The Epic Story of the Chinese Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad,” which is scheduled to be released in May, both describe the Chinese taking on some of the most dangerous, most exhausting assignments for less pay (and worse treatment) than their Euro-American counterparts. Leland Stanford, president of Central Pacific, former California governor and founder of Stanford University, told Congress in 1865, that the majority of the railroad labor force were Chinese. Anti-Chinese Sentiment and the 1867 Chinese Workers Strike, 5. They also know the men set up camps along the worksites, didn’t imbibe too much alcohol, worked well together, and sent money back to their families in China. Historical Essay. There’s also the Chinese Railroad Workers Memorial Project, which has raised at least a quarter of a million dollars for a monument, and the Chinese Railroad Workers Descendants Association, whose members visit Utah schools to teach kids about the Chinese laborers. But at times Stanford, who was later elected to the U.S. Senate, still resurrected certain anti-Chinese rhetoric when running for or in office, Chang noted. It is the best opportunity I will have in my lifetime to have this story shared, to have it understood and appreciated by people outside our community. One investor, Leland Stanford, a one-time candidate for governor who actively denounced Chinese immigration during his campaign, openly advocated for the immigration of 500,000 more laborers from China. Among those initially against it was the Central Pacific construction supervisor, James H. Strobridge. Leland Stanford, a wealthy former California governor who ran under an anti-Chinese immigrant platform, was also president of the Central Pacific. by Nathan Weiser, 2015. To grow its workforce, the Central Pacific took out an advertisement in January 1865 seeking 5,000 railroad laborers, but only a few hundred whites responded, according to “The Chinese and the Iron Road: Building the Transcontinental Railroad,” a book scheduled for release in April and edited by Gordon H. Chang and Shelley Fisher Fishkin, co-directors of the Chinese Railroad Workers in North America Project at Stanford University. Later ancestors settled in the eastern Mohawk Valley of central New York about 1720. Leaders of the Central Pacific and Union Pacific Railroad lines meet and shake hands in this iconic photograph taken by Andrew J. Russell on May 10, 1869. The Union Pacific Railroad pushed west from Council Bluffs, Iowa (bordering Omaha), where their rails joined existing eastern lines. An Anti-Coolie Labor Association was launched in San Francisco while the Chinese were battling the snows on Donner’s summit. He cut off the workers’ supplies and stopped agents from delivering food and provisions to their camps. And a commemorative postage stamp in their honor has been proposed as well. When Leland Stanford was elected governor of California in 1862, he promised in his inaugural address to protect the state from "the dregs of Asia." Among his siblings were New York State Senator Charles Stanford (1819–1885) and Australian businessman and spiritualist Thomas Welton Stanford (1832–1918). The Hoover Project on China’s Global Sharp Power held an event on How Racist Rhetoric Increases Chinese Overseas Students' Support for Authoritarian Rule with Jennifer Pan, Assistant Professor of Communication and Yiqing Xu, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Stanford University on Friday, November 13, 2020 at 10:00 AM PT. Produce and natural resources were among the things that could now be moved more quickly and cheaply from coast to coast. In a new spring course, students are excavating the location of the former living quarters of Chinese workers who helped build Stanford. The Union Pacific began construction of their rail in Omaha, Nebraska working toward the west. They instead relied on Civil War veterans and East Coast immigrants, among others, according to Chang. “Who else but Americans could drill 10 tunnels in mountains 30 feet deep in snow?” then-Transportation Secretary John A. Volpe said in his speech, according to a May 12, 1969, San Francisco Chronicle article. Previous scholars and historians believed that there were no Chinese workers in this photo, but Stanford researchers identified two of them in the crowd. Owing to white hostility, tens of thousands of Chinese were forced to leave the U.S. by 1882, according to “The Chinese and the Iron Road.” That same year, Congress responded by passing the Chinese Exclusion Act, the first and only major federal law to explicitly suspend immigration for a specific nationality. Ultimately, the strike only lasted one week. Almost a quarter of a century later, in 1969, amid the backdrop of the civil rights movement, Choy and Chinn found themselves at Promontory Point, Utah, waiting for a moment that never came. “Who else but Americans could chisel through miles of solid granite? Among the attendees were Philip P. Choy, president of the San Francisco-based Chinese Historical Society of America, and Thomas W. Chinn, one of its founders. The Grant of Endowment. The eastern end of the transcontinental railroad—a scandalous enterprise in itself—met the Stanford group’s western end at Promontory Summit, Utah, in 1869. “And particularly for sons who were not the first sons in the families, it often made more sense to try to seek your fortune abroad,” Fishkin added. San Francisco and the Connection to the Big Four. That's not to say he wasnt anti-immigration or disagreed with the platform but I mean, come on, the guy hired Chinese laborers for his company and it worked out well for him so it's hard to believe he personally considered it at the top of his list of concerns. Since records of worker deaths weren’t kept, Stanford scholars don’t know precisely how many Chinese died building the railroad. Less than two years later, almost 90 percent of the Central Pacific workforce was Chinese; the rest were of European-American descent, mostly Irish. At its highest point, between 10,000 and 15,000 Chinese were working on the Central Pacific, with perhaps as many as 20,000 in total over time. A ceremony commemorating the anniversary drew a crowd of around 20,000. The silver plated spike maul was also given to Leland Stanford and became part of the Stanford University Museum. Stanford also served as president of the Central Pacific and later established the university that bears his name. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use. Moana Hotel, Honolulu, c. 1908. However, the wage increase was unsuccessful in placating the Chinese workers, and on June 25, 1867 a group of Chinese working the eastern Sierra slope walked off their jobs. “He didn’t think they were strong enough,” Obenzinger told NBC News in a 2017 interview. Many whites who took the jobs did so for only a time, reluctant to shoulder the demanding and hazardous work expected of them. But the plan hit opposition amid anti-Chinese sentiment that stemmed from the California Gold Rush. 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