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The Open Campaign for Racial Exclusion

A local advertisement explicitly calls for a boycott of Asian-owned businesses in Walla Walla.

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.

Portland Restaurant leads. Don't patronize Japs and Chinamen when you can eat at the Portland.

“Don't patronize Japs and Chinamen when you can eat at the Portland.”

— Printed in The Evening Statesman (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1903
Then · 1903123 years apartNow · 2026

This advertisement is a stark artifact of the anti-Asian sentiment that permeated the Pacific Northwest during the early 20th century. While Walla Walla’s demographic landscape has evolved, these overt calls for economic exclusion illustrate the systemic racism that minority-owned businesses fought to survive during that era.

The original page

The Evening Statesman (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1903-10-08. Library of Congress, Chronicling America.

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About this story

From
The Evening Statesman (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, OCT 8, 1903, Page 5
Rights
Public domain
Place
46.20552, -118.51743 · placed automatically
The paper in the Library of Congress catalog ↗