Sunnydale Residents Organize Against Chinese Laborers
A local group passes a resolution to exclude and boycott Chinese workers after a land lease is finalized.
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.
The anti-Chinese feeling seems to have broken out in Sunnydale. The circumstances which appear to have led the people to the present action are that Chin Kee, manager and owner of the Gee Lee Company, has leased eighty acres of land from M. L. Hamilton for seven years at $1,200 per year. Forty acres of this land were already cleared and Chin Kee is clearing ten more and has five Chinamen putting in hops and vegetables. The appearance of these men has aroused some opposition, and a meeting of citizens held last Friday evening adopted a resolution stating: 'That we use every honorable and equitable means in our power to prohibit any more Chinamen from renting or leasing any real estate in Sunnydale or vicinity; that we will not rent or lease to or traffic or trade with them in any form whatever.' Chin Kee wishes to put some more Chinamen to work on the place to improve and make it profitable, and says: 'I do not want to be molested or hindered from attending to my own business.'
“They are an element we do not desire, as their manners and customs are obnoxious to a free, moral people.”
This 1893 report from the outskirts of Seattle reflects the persistent climate of xenophobia and exclusion that defined Washington's labor history. Today, while the specific 'Sunnydale' campaign has faded, the struggle over land use, labor, and the right to belong in an evolving city remains a central tension in the Pacific Northwest.
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