The Ghost of the Seattle Riots
A labor organizer confronts senatorial candidate Thomas Burke over his role in the 1886 anti-Chinese expulsions, challenging the sanitized historical narratives of his political campaign.
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.
Since Judge Thomas Burke entered the race for United States Senator, he has been dogged by the memories of the anti-Chinese riots in Seattle in 1886. An article in 'The Westerner' by Edgar L. Hampton recently attempted to paint Burke as a defender of order and justice during those events. However, C. O. Young, a national organizer for the American Federation of Labor who witnessed the events firsthand, has sharply contested this account. Young argues that Burke and his associates were not sincere proponents of peace but were instead using political tactics to thwart the labor-led efforts to exclude Chinese workers. He disputes claims that the movement was violent, asserting that most participants were organized laborers seeking to protect their livelihoods. Young further alleges that the so-called 'Home Guards,' which Burke and his allies supported, were the true instigators of potential violence, specifically referencing the actions of C. H. Hanford and others who allegedly hoped for a riot to justify military intervention against laborers.
“Knowing the facts as I do, and being an eye witness to it all, I would be a coward if I remained silent and permitted those intentional untruths to go unrefuted.”
This article captures the volatile intersection of labor politics and xenophobia that defined Washington's territorial history. It highlights how political candidates have historically weaponized sanitized versions of traumatic civic events, a struggle over public memory that remains central to our local political discourse today.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.