The Anti-Chinese Convention of 1885
Delegates from across the Puget Sound gather in Seattle to organize for the mass expulsion of Chinese laborers.
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 convention was held in Seattle on September 28, 1885, to formulate a plan of action regarding the Chinese question. Labor organizations and citizens from towns across the Puget Sound attended. Mayor Welebach of Tacoma served as temporary chairman, denouncing the presence of Chinese laborers as a violation of law and a blight upon the prosperity of the white working man. Speakers advocated for an immediate boycott of any business employing Chinese laborers and proposed that all Chinese be driven from the territory by November 1st. A resolution was passed calling for the abrogation of the Burlingame Treaty and demanding that citizens discharge all Chinese in their employ, signaling the start of a period of organized exclusion and forced expulsion efforts throughout the region.
“I won't go in for shooting Chinamen or burning their property, but should any peaceable means be devised I'll put my shoulder to the wheel.”
This meeting was a pivotal, dark moment in Seattle's civic history, marking the formalization of the anti-Chinese movement that would lead to the expulsion riots of 1886. Today, the site of the Occidental Hotel stands as a reminder of the era's deep-seated systemic racism that shaped the city's labor and social policies for generations.
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