The Unwritten Law of Ballard
A Chinese laundryman is chased from the suburb by a mob enforcing a local, extra-legal ban on residents of Chinese descent.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
See We, proprietor of a Chinese laundry at the corner of Washington and Sixth streets, was chased out of Ballard a few days ago when he went there to retrieve some washing. It seems the people of Ballard refuse admittance to the Chinese. See We went out on a car and did not know anything about the rule until he got off and proceeded toward the house for his laundry. The woman whose clothes he was after had just moved there and was also ignorant of the rule. A crowd gathered about him, and he says he had to run to avoid bodily injury. He was very much incensed over the affair, but he says he will not go to Ballard after any more washing.
“It seems that the people of Ballard refuse admittance to the Chinese.”
This incident captures the exclusionary era of the 1880s and 90s in Washington, where suburbs and towns often enacted 'sundown' policies or vigilante expulsions to maintain racial homogeneity. It serves as a reminder that the character of today's neighborhoods was often shaped by systematic, forceful exclusion of immigrant communities.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.