Anti-Japanese Agitation in Kent Hop Yards
White hop pickers form a committee to forcibly exclude Japanese laborers from local harvest fields.
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.
KENT, Sept. 8.—Considerable feeling is manifested here against the employment of Japanese people in the hop yards. A meeting of white pickers was held at the fair grounds Wednesday evening and a committee appointed to notify the growers that Japanese pickers would not be allowed to work. Yesterday, the committee visited the growers who were understood to be intending to employ Japanese labor and gave them warning. All the growers but one agreed to employ whites, and probably he will agree to avoid trouble. Generally, the growers are averse to employing Japanese labor. Another meeting of the pickers will be held on Saturday evening.
“A committee appointed to notify the growers that Japs would not be allowed to work.”
This event reflects the intense anti-Asian nativism that defined Washington’s labor landscape in the 1890s. While today’s Kent is a diverse hub of global commerce, the 'hop field' conflicts of the 19th century laid the groundwork for the systemic exclusion policies that would eventually culminate in the expulsion of many immigrant communities.
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