Anti-Chinese Violence in Ballard
A Chinese man is brutally assaulted by a mob in Ballard, highlighting the dangerous climate of racial exclusion in 1890s Washington.
Tuesday night about 7 o'clock a Chinaman got off a West street car at the foot of Ballard avenue, in Ballard, and was immediately set upon by a crowd of boys and young hoodlums. He was struck across the face with a club, kicked and cuffed. The man broke away and ran up Ballard avenue, where Marshal Peters protected him until he could take the next car for Seattle. No Chinese person has ever been allowed to pass quietly along the streets of Ballard. Whenever one appears a crowd of boys and half-grown men seek to terrify him by chasing, hooting at, and roughly using him.
“No Chinaman has ever been allowed to pass quietly along the streets of Ballard.”
This incident occurred during a period of virulent anti-Chinese hostility in the Pacific Northwest. Recognizing these events is essential to understanding the racial history of Seattle and the institutionalized exclusion that residents of color faced in neighboring towns like Ballard.
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