The Shadow of 1885 Lingers in Tacoma
Twenty years after the forced expulsion of the city's Chinese population, rumors of new arrivals trigger threats of vigilante action.
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.
A rumor that the Chinese race is again trying to get a foothold in Tacoma is causing the old-time residents of the city some uneasiness. It is said that at least six of the Chinese have taken up their residence here and are employed as cooks and servants. Though it has been nearly twenty years since the citizens of Tacoma drove the Chinese workmen from the city, the ill feeling against them is still manifest. Several times since the first general clean-up, residents have brought Mongols to Tacoma to act as servants, and as many times the ill feeling toward the race has shown itself and they have been forced to embark for other parts. The report now going the rounds has caused the Old Town and the waterfront men to decide to take an investigation. A close watch is being kept for Chinamen who are infringing on the unwritten law barring them from work in the city. The story that several of the popular eating houses were employing Chinese cooks was started yesterday by a longshoreman in Old Town. He claims to know of two restaurants in the city where Chinamen are engaged in that capacity. An investigation is being made, and if the stories are true some excitement is promised in the near future. The parties interested in the search do not intend that the 'pigtails' shall again get a foothold in Tacoma.
“The parties interested in the search do not intend that the 'pigtails' shall again get a foothold in Tacoma.”
Tacoma’s 1885 expulsion of its Chinese population remains a foundational trauma and a dark stain on the city's history. This 1904 report reveals that even two decades later, the threat of racist violence was maintained by white residents as a mechanism to enforce segregation and labor control.
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