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Great Plains Quarterly Great Plains Studies, Center for

Winter 2002

A Slave To Yellow Peril The 1886 Chinese Ouster Attempt In Wichita, Kansas

Julie Courtwright University of Arkansas, [email protected]

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Courtwright, Julie, "A Slave To Yellow Peril The 1886 Chinese Ouster Attempt In Wichita, Kansas" (2002). Great Plains Quarterly. 2351. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly/2351

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Great Plains Studies, Center for at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Great Plains Quarterly by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. A SLAVE TO YELLOW PERIL THE 1886 CHINESE OUSTER ATTEMPT IN WICHITA, KANSAS

JULIE COURTWRIGHT

Wichita's war on the Chinese began in 1886. cott against Chinese businesses. Citizens at­ Although a small war in comparison to other tacked the "yellow peril" on the streets while anti-Chinese outbursts in the American West, the Wichita Beacon condemned them in black the persecution and violence against the city's and white. small Asian population was nonetheless terri­ Kansas in the nineteenth century, includ­ fying and significant to those who were the ing Wichita, was considered a social barom­ focus of the racist demonstrations. In an at­ eter for the United States on issues such as tempt to follow the national anti-Chinese women's rights, prohibition, populism, and trend of the late nineteenth century, which innovative industry.2 The conflict between the Chinese called the "driving out time,"! labor and Chinese Americans, however, was groups such as the local assemblies of the an issue in which the state was less progres­ Knights of Labor and the Women's Industrial sive. Although violence against immigrants League in Wichita, Kansas, organized a boy- was not as severe as in other states because of lower Asian population densities and a con­ spicuous absence of significant economic competition, the people of Wichita neverthe­ KEY WORDS: Chinese Americans, immigrants, Kansas, racial conflict, Wichita, "yellow peril" less played a part in the widening hostility of the 1880s. The nineteenth-century anti-Chi­ Julie Courtwright is a doctoral student in American nese sentiment and ouster attempt in Wichita history at the University of Arkansas. Her research is not only a reflection of local racist senti­ interests include Kansas history and western history. ment in the city, but a dark example of the Her recent publications include, "Want to Build a influence of national trends on the normally Miracle City!: War Housing in Wichita," appearing progressive and individualistic "Peerless Prin­ in Kansas History: A Journal of the Central Plains (Winter, 2000-2001). cess of the Plains." Labor groups and city lead­ ers decided to employ a preemptory strike against the small and unobtrusive Chinese [GPQ 22 (Winter 2002): 23-33) population in the city. The infiltration of Asian

23 24 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, WINTER 2002 labor and influence so prominent elsewhere, Palumbo-Liu, is largely what gave rise to "yel­ argued the Wichitans, would not occur in their low peril."5 city. Therefore, they had to strike against the The belief that Chinese immigrants could few Chinese already inhabiting Wichita be­ not be assimilated into American culture ex­ fore the city became yet another mecca for acerbated fears. According to John Kuo Wei migrating Asians in the American West. In Tchen, author of New York Before Chinatown: effect, the city of Wichita, which was exposed Orientalism and the Shaping of American Cul­ to extensive and influential national newspa­ ture, 1776-1882, white perceptions of the Chi­ per coverage of anti-Chinese activities, be­ nese changed drastically between the founding came a "slave" to the influences of widespread of the country and the passage of the Chinese yellow peril. Exclusion Act of 1882. In the Revolutionary At first, white Americans identified the period "China was an imagined place of fabu­ Chinese as simply another group set apart from lous luxuries, an advanced civilization" that themselves, similar to American Indians and the founders emulated. Chinese goods were African Americans. Whites assigned innate respected and valued.6 But as immigration con­ characteristics to Chinese men similar to those tinued, whites feared that sojourner Chinese imposed upon black men. They were thought men would decide to permanently settle in to be heathens, morally inferior, childlike, the country. The Asian culture, once admired lustful, sensual, and a sexual threat to white from afar, became a threat to whites when women. Unlike black men, however, the Chi­ Chinese families wanted to make their homes nese were also viewed as intelligent, quiet, in their adopted country. and peaceful. After the emancipation of the By the late 1800s, white Americans walked slaves, many whites believed that Chinese a tightrope of fear regarding the Chinese. They agricultural workers should be used as "models were, on one hand, cheap and useful labor in of discipline" to help reform black laborers the West and South after the emancipation of "spoiled" by freedom. Others, however, de­ the slaves. Chinese men usually came to the spaired at the thought of giving the South and United States without their wives and there­ West over to the Chinese after the Indians fore could work for low wages and live in inex­ had finally been contained on reservations. pensive barracks. In 1875 officials passed the Some even talked of establishing similar re­ Page Law, which ostensibly prohibited the serves for the Asian immigrants.3 immigration of "immoral" Chinese women. In Ultimately, however, according to histo­ actuality, however, the law was used to ex­ rian Ronald Takaki, the Chinese became a clude almost all Asian women, thereby pre­ different threat in the minds of white Ameri­ serving the Chinese men's willingness to live cans than had African Americans or Indians. in sparse conditions and work for minimal Because the Chinese were thought to be more wages. "The addition of unemployed women intelligent and competitive than other races, and children," noted George Anthony Peffer, they could, whites reasoned, usurp the posi­ "would have forced male immigrants to press tions of white laborers and "suck the blood for higher wages, upsetting their employers' from Uncle Sam." Furthermore, whereas payroll structures."7 But although Chinese la­ whites saw Indians and black people as part bor was useful, whites feared that once allowed of the past, "in the white imagination," noted in, the Chinese would take over the entire Takaki, the Chinese and the majority of their labor system. As conflict between labor and immigration numbers "were located in the capital escalated at the end of the nineteenth future."4 In fact, the great number of poten­ century, Chinese labor became more and more tial immigrants living in China and the pos­ of a threat to disgruntled white workers. sibility they would take over the labor force The city of Wichita hosted a small group of in the United States, maintained David Chinese residents in the racially explosive A SLAVE TO YELLOW PERIL 25

1880s, despite its landlocked status and con­ society.1O They could, however, maintain that siderable distance from California, where the belief about the Chinese. In some cases, for­ majority of Chinese settled. We can speculate eign-born whites led anti-Chinese action, on the reasons for relocation to Kansas using which began in earnest as early as the 1870s. the national situation as a guide. In Califor­ In Los Angeles, for example, twenty-two Chi­ nia, the Chinese worked in crowded, unhealthy nese were killed during a two-day riot in 1871. sweatshops and factories making items such as Later, in 1876, an anti-Chinese meeting of shoes, clothes, blankets, brooms, and other the Sacramento Order of Caucasians attracted household goods. As anti-Chinese mania in­ 4,000 participants.ll creased, however, many workers were driven After the passage of the Chinese Exclusion out of manufacturing in western cities, where Act of 1882, however, violence and discrimi­ boycotts made Chinese goods virtually unmar­ nation greatly accelerated. When President ketable. Chester Arthur signed the act on 6 May, many The resulting job search led many men to sinophobes saw the new law as an affirmation the profession of laundering, which was in high of anti-Chinese sentiment and were encour­ demand and was a fairly sure and quick way to aged to act on their feelings. According to make money. Although not a traditional oc­ Asian American historian Andrew Gyory, cupation for men in China, laundry work be­ "the Chinese Exclusion Act set the precedent came common among male Chinese in the for ... broader exclusion laws and fostered an United States, in part because of the scarcity atmosphere of hostility toward foreigners that of Chinese women to labor in the profession. would endure for generations." The law itself Prominent in California, the laundry business, actually "legitimized racism as foreign according to historian Sucheng Chan, was policy."12 even more important in other states because The vehicle for this perceived policy was, the demand for the profession allowed it to in large part, the Order of the Knights of La­ be a "pioneering" job that Chinese men were bor. The organization was founded in 1869 able to fall back on after relocation, and it with a broad vision to form a group based on required only between $75 and $200 for ini­ the solidarity, ironically, of all the nation's tial establishment. As boycotts and violence workers "without regard to sex, creed, or became more debilitating, the laundry busi­ color."13 Power and participation of the labor­ ness, because it filled a universal need, re­ ers grew until, in 1886, the Knights reached quired little equipment or initial capital, and the zenith of their influence, which corre­ was a profession deemed "feminine" enough sponded with the height of Chinese persecu­ for the "heathen Chinese," facilitated the mi­ tion. The crux of labor's complaint about the gratory moves eastward of many Chinese men.8 Chinese was, according to Grand Master The laundrymen in Wichita were likely trying Workman Terence V. Powderly, that "the to escape omnipresent racism in other areas of practice of importing cheap men had grown the country where Asian population densities until it became recognized as a menace to the were much higher, making the Chinese immi­ welfare of the American worker." The Knights grants more of a "problem" than in Kansas.9 cited cases such as a shoe manufacturer in Although lower population densities doubt­ Massachusetts who imported seventy Chinese less eased some tensions, Chinese immigrants to work in his factory for one dollar per day in Kansas, as in other areas of the United when the original workers worked for three States, were still more discriminated against dollars per day. When he realized the benefit than members of any other race. As historian of the arrangement, the shoe manufacturer John Higham noted in Strangers in the Land, imported sixty more Chinese and released his Americans never believed that every Euro­ other workers. In addition to economic discon­ pean was a fundamental threat to American tent, more abstract and simply racist feelings 26 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, WINTER 2002 dictated the Knights' behavior. Noted deaths or for the $147,000 of property de­ Powderly: stroyed. Many people involved in the massa­ cre investigation, including the officers and a During their stay in this country the Chi­ justice of the peace, were members of the nese never associate with other people, Knights of LaborY Terence Powderly wrote never adapt themselves to our habits, modes four years later in his Thirty Years of Labor: of dress or our educational system; they carry their pagan idolatry into every walk in life; Had steps been taken to observe the law, never pay heed to the sanctity of an oath; and had the Chinese been as rigidly ex­ see no difference between right and wrong; cluded as they should have been, the work­ and live in the same fashion in California men at Rock Springs would not have as their ancestors did in China twenty-five steeped their hands in the blood of a people hundred years ago. 14 whose very presence in this country is con­ tamination, whose influence is wholly bad, The Knights, whose "chivalric" name im­ and whose effect upon the morals of what­ plied a noble group jousting with evil capital­ ever community they inhabit tends to de­ ists, chose to express the idea of sanctioned grade and brutalize all with whom they come racism through riots and boycotts. IS The strike in contact.18 had been used as an effective tool for several years prior to the major anti-Chinese out­ Powderly placed dominant blame for the out­ breaks. In fact, the success of the 1885 strike rages against the Chinese not only on the vic­ against railroad magnet Jay Gould served as tims themselves, who theoretically demeaned an effective recruiting agent in Kansas and society through their presence, but also on the across the nation for the Knights, whose mem­ government, who, in the Grand Master's esti­ bership increased significantly, to over mation, had not done everything possible to 700,000, in 1886. More local assemblies were exclude the immigrants. The "inexcusable" formed that year than in the previous sixteen behavior of the rioters and murderers was thus years, despite the fact that the general policy qualified with excuses and explanation. of Powderly and other traditional leaders was The boycott was another form of "persua­ to avoid strikes and boycotts whenever pos­ sion" used by the local Knights that was not sible in favor of organization and political ac­ officially sanctioned by the national organiza­ tion.16 tion. In fact, the Order of the Knights of Labor Despite this policy, riots and boycotts oc­ was the most successful at boycotting of any curred all over the western United States and, labor group in American labor history, with like strikes, fostered greater union support hundreds of protests arranged each year by within the Knights' assemblies. Violence and local leaders. Boycotts had distinct advantages forced Chinese ousters from jobs and cities over strikes because they were less expensive occurred in Denver, Colorado; Seattle and to finance, easy to organize, and usually less Tacoma, Washington Territory; Portland, violent. Hardship on non-Asian workers was Oregon; Sacramento, California, and many indirect, hidden, and therefore convenient. other locations in that state. The most famous Because the Knights formed a large segment riot, however, occurred in Rock Springs, Wyo­ of the population in many towns and could ming Territory, on 2 September 1885. In the not only perpetrate but participate in the boy­ altercation, twenty-eight Chinese miners were cotts, they were frequently highly successful. killed and fifteen wounded when the Chinese But Powderly warned that the practice, by the refused to cooperate with white workers in an mid-1880s, was getting out of hand. "To de­ intended strike against the Union Pacific Coal clare a boycott for every trifling thing is not Department. No one was prosecuted for the only foolish but dangerous," he said. "The A SLAVE TO YELLOW PERIL 27 boycott is a two-edged sword and should re­ forefront until it turned local. Violence in ceive as careful consideration as the strike Seattle and Portland and the creation of an before being resorted to."19 anti-Chinese association in California were Newspaper coverage of anti-Chinese activi­ carefully reported, and on 5 November 1885 ties brought the national conflict, and the re­ the paper told of a shocking incident in Los sulting local boycott, to Wichita. Beginning Angeles where sixty Chinese attacked a ranch with the Civil War, noted Hazel Dicken-Garcia foreman with fists and pistols. In contrast, the in her book Journalistic Standards in Nineteenth­ Beacon proudly praised the Wyoming rioters Century America, the newspaper press estab­ for bravely eliminating the "heathen" Chinese lished itself as part of the daily lives of and suggested that a well-placed yearly massa­ Americans: "The insatiable demand for news cre would "enable the large bulk of our people created thousands of new newspaper readers to attend and witness the annual round-up and established reading habits and reliance on and killing."23 newspapers that would not readily lapse after Although the riots and boycotts proved the war." Also because of the war, national contagious, spreading from city to city in the events took center stage, news items became West, little evidence exists to support the more standardized, and people believed that theory that labor competition was the source the press had great powers of suasion.20 In 1870 of conflict in Sedgwick County, Kansas, as it a poem by Bret Harte containing the phrase was in other locations. Wichita in 1886 was "the Heathen Chinee" was reprinted in many experiencing her greatest boom. Early that year newspapers across the country. The poem's there were between twenty and thirty trans­ debut corresponded with the completion of fers of real estate a day in the city and the the transcontinental railroad in 1869 and the value of property sold reached $1,000,000 a resulting influx of unemployed Chinese men month. The boom peaked in June 1887 when into the cities, thereby heightening racial ten­ Wichita ranked third in the nation in abso­ sions. "Until 1870," observed Ronald Takaki, lute volume of real estate sales regardless of "the Chinese had been mainly a 'California population. Although New York City, which problem.'" But that year a mob of North was first in sales volume, grew by 30 percent Adams, Massachusetts, residents hurled stones that year, Wichita increased 500 percent. to greet the arrival of seventy-five Chinese Therefore, at the time of the anti-Chinese workers to town. Three months later Harte's outbreak, most jobs were plentiful and spirits poem "on the 'heathen Chinee' helped to crys­ were high. Although some laborers and tallize and focus anti-Chinese anxieties and mechanics who flocked to Wichita for the paranoia."21 And the press gradually helped building boom were sometimes temporarily move the Chinese issue into the national unemployed because of an abundance of arena. workers, all evidence suggests that the Chi­ As anti-Chinese violence in the West be­ nese were solely involved in the laundry busi­ gan to snowball in the fall of 1885, sensation­ ness and not associated with construction.24 alistic newspaper stories assisted in promoting Also, so few Chinese immigrants resided within and quickening the anti-Chinese movement. 22 the city that any economic competition was The headline for the Wichita Beacon's initial marginal, except possibly to the five Cauca­ coverage of the Rock Springs massacre on 4 sian laundries within the city and the inde­ September 1885, for example, read "War of pendent white laundrywomen.2s Before the Races, Wyoming Short-Crops vs. Chinese Pig­ Chinese achieved national prominence, how­ Tails." The paper, always Wichita's greatest ever, the white laundries received little atten­ literary supporter of the labor interest, con­ tion from the soon-to-be vitally interested tinued similar stories throughout the remain­ Knights of Labor. Therefore, national and lo­ der of 1885, keeping the national issue in the cal newspaper coverage of Chinese activity, 28 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, WINTER 2002 and communication between assemblies of the in comparison to other US cities. Chinese Knights were, in all probability, the sparks that businesses were usually relegated to the less started the anti-Chinese "fire" in the Plains prosperous periphery, which can be seen as an city. Although real economic competition was indicator of the level of early acceptance, or not present in Wichita, a perception of its at least tolerance, experienced by the Wichita existence was created by the newspaper cov­ Chinese.3o In 1884 at least four Chinese laun­ erage of the western incidents, and the result­ dries were open for business in Wichita. Pa­ ing "yellow peril" fear of future Chinese trons could choose between three laundries domination in the "Peerless Princess" spurred on Main Street, two near First or Second local outcries. Streets and one farther north, or an establish­ The Chinese population in 1880s Wichita ment on Douglas Avenue near Mead.3! The was a small but growing part of the city. Pioneer­ state of Kansas claimed ninety-six male and ing residents such as twenty-seven-year-old seventy-seven female Chinese residents in Charlie Sing and his wife, eighteen-year-old 1885, while in Wichita, and in fact all of Gung Sing, were living and working in a Sedgwick County, there were seven Chinese Wichita laundry as early as 1880.26 Of course, men but no women on the eve of the anti­ inaccuracies concerning the Chinese in Chinese outbreakY The men were all laundry Wichita no doubt exist, as is typical in other workers, ranging in age from nineteen to cities. Although the 1880 census lists Charlie twenty-seven years. One man was married, but Sing's age as twenty-seven years, for example, his wife was not listed in the Wichita census. the 1885 Kansas census records it as nineteen. Neither was Gung Sing, who disappeared from Various sources spell his name either "Charlie" the census in 1885 and was apparently the or "Charley," and Chinese names in general, only Chinese Wichita woman of the 1880s. although normally consisting of three parts, Her husband, Charlie Sing, whose origin the are usually listed with only two in the early city directory gave as Canton, China, was a American censuses. Also uncertain is the true laundry proprietor at 525 East Douglas Av­ status of Charlie Sing's "wife." The appropri­ enue. All of the other six men came to the ate mark in the "married" column of the cen­ United States from China, but when they re­ sus form, the ages listed, and her occupation located to Wichita, four came to Kansas from as "laundrywoman" indicated that Gung and California and two traveled from New York. 33 Charlie were legally married. Other specula­ Newspaper coverage of the local Chinese tions, however, based on similar situations began in 1885. In July the Wichita Eagle re­ nationwide and the mysterious disappearance ported an altercation between "Sambo and of Gung from a later census, are that she was a John Chinaman," otherwise known as an uni­ second "unofficial" wife or a prostituteY dentified African American barber and Charlie Names and relationships recorded in the cen­ Sing. The article demonstrates that although sus are probably highly inaccurate due to loss overt segregation did not materialize in during translation, bias, and the lack of ad­ Wichita until the 1890s, racism against all equate training for census workers.28 minorities was nevertheless present.34 The re­ As the decade progressed and Wichita's porter noted that Charlie Sing had many men population increased, so did the number of he called relatives helping him with his laun­ Chinese immigrants. Three years after the dry business, but no women. His relatives be­ census, Wichita's city directory listed two lieved that Charlie was a "big man among the Chinese laundries near the central district of Americans" and did exactly what he told town. 29 The perpetual location of Chinese them. The black man, stated the Eagle, dis­ laundries near the center of Wichita's thriv­ liked his Chinese neighbors and threw water ing business community is somewhat unusual all over their clean laundry at "Chinese head- A SLAVE TO YELLOW PERIL 29 quarters." Understandably, the Chinese were citizens to protect them from competition angry because "if there is anything in this from the world that would make a Chinaman mad it would be an attack of this kind by a lone nigger pig tailed opium eaters whose mode of liv­ on the combined rights of seven Chinamen." ing and filthy habits are an insult and a The group, therefore, attacked the black man disgrace to American labor. Too long have with "Chinese implements of warfare" and the people of the Pacific coast meekly held overtook him.35 Two days later the heretofore themselves in obedience to the powers of quiet and peaceful Charlie Sing mysteriously government, hoping against hope as it were, went on a "rampage" at a competing Chinese that relief would come to them through "washee" business to maintain his first and remedial legislation .... We in the east are exclusive laundry rights in the city. The style threatened with the same evil that our coun­ of the second report of Sing's violence is an trymen west of the Rocky mountains are indicator that the Wichita Eagle had begun making an organized effort to get rid of. Let participating in the "Chinese vengeance"-style us, therefore, fellow-citizens, be warned in reporting that was becoming typical across the time and aid in preventing an evil which, if nation.36 Newspaper articles such as these con­ allowed to grow, may lead to sterner mea­ tributed to the budding Chinese racism in town sures that men will use, rather than witness that would culminate in 1886 during the ac­ the same results which have followed ev­ tivities of the Knights of Labor. erywhere the curse of Chinese labor.39 The local assemblies of the Knights of La­ bor greatly increased membership in 1885-86, Preventive boycotting to drive the Chinese following the national trend. Although two out of town, therefore, was the key to stopping assemblies were organized in 1883-84, four the immigrants from dominating Wichita as more were added in 1886 alone, with a final they had started to do farther west. assembly forming in 1888.31 An advertised At their 9 January meeting, the labor group meeting of the Knights on 9 January 1886 at­ pledged continued support for their boycott, tracted over 200 people. The Wichita Beacon, in conjunction with the Women's Industrial a Democratic "blue collar" publication, dif­ League. A resolution passed without a dissent­ fered from its Republican "white collar" rival ing vote and a collection was taken to help when it stated that "these Wichita laborers support the action. One member asked A. D. are certainly a fine and intelligent looking Stryker, a Knight leader, how a boycott class of men, and from their appearance do worked, and he was told that it was a simple not deserve the imputation of dolts and tools procedure where participants induced the so gratuitously thrown out against them by people to stop patronizing Chinese laundries the Eagle not long since." After defiantly stat­ so that the proprietors would leave the city. ing that their sole purpose was to protect the The Beacon reporter noted that the Knights of workingman, Knight leaders continued with Labor were rapidly growing in influence. "The the main order of business for the meeting, o~der did not depend on violence to accom­ the ongoing boycott against the Chinese.38 plish its ends, but it never lacked the means of The boycott began on 26 December 1885 attaining them."40 when the Knights placed a plea on the front The Wichita Knights of Labor boycott reso­ page of the Beacon in favor of action to "pre­ lution made headlines in the general Kansas vent Chinese labor in any shape whatever press, including the Leavenworth Times, the from gaining a foothold in our fair city." Sud­ Commonwealth, the Union, and the Valley Cen­ denly concerned about the poor laundry­ ter News, and spurred further investigative women of Wichita, the labor group urged articles about the Chinese by the city's own 30 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, WINTER 2002 reporters.41 On 6 January 1886, in an article in our midst who depend upon the wash titled "The Chinese Residents of Wichita," tub for their living, but also in the interest the Eagle reported that there were thirteen of decency and morality. Stick to the boy­ Chinese in the city. Two days later, readers cott.44 were given a "revised" count of thirty or thirty­ five "Celestials" in Wichita. The article con­ Despite claims of a peaceful boycott, some tinued with a report on opposition to Chinese violence and intimidation did occur against labor in California and the motivation for the Chinese. The 3 January 1886 Eagle, in an the men coming to Wichita. They were here, article titled "War on the Chinese in Wichita," the reporter was told, because the "Chinese reported that a group of men surrounded who got away from the big companies that Charlie Sing and hit him several times. An­ make the contracts for the labor of their sub­ other incident occurred when a crowd went jects generally went away to some distant place into a Main Street laundry and told the pro­ for self-protection, and necessarily had to fall prietors to leave Wichita and close their busi­ out with the authorities who brought them ness. Although the police insisted they would over and claimed tribute, or a percentage of be protected, the Chinese men were under­ their wages." Although California was men­ standably concerned. Finally, a mob sur­ tioned in the report, the reporter did not ex­ rounded a wash house and threw bricks into plore the possibility that the Chinese were the building, prompting Marshall Murdock to actually seeking protection from the state's editorialize in the Eagle that "any emigration anti-Chinese riots. 42 to this state of any considerable number of Remarkably, self-protection was also what Chinese would be deplored, but the few that the local Knights of Labor were seeking do come here ought to be treated humanely through their boycott. They wanted to con­ and allowed to enjoy the rights of any other vince the people of Wichita to "withhold from aliens who may sojourn in this country. To them [the Chinese] the patronage that right­ that end it behooves the authorities to see fully belongs to the residents of the city, who that no outrages be perpetrated on them, and are a part of our body politic and from their that while they observe the law they may pur­ residence, nativity and Christianity are broth­ sue their occupations in peace. "45 The Beacon's ers and countrymen," thereby maintaining la­ editor did not know what to suggest as a cure bor rights for the citizens of Wichita. While for the Chinese "problem." Mob violence was the newspapers reassured the public that the not desired, of course, but there was no legal Chinese were assuredly sojourners and did not way for the Knights of Labor to compel the intend to remain in the community, the heathens to "move on." Therefore, the editor Knights of Labor worked to speed the ouster decided, it was left to "all Caucasians who process along through anti violent meansY In think the race capable with the assistance of a letter to the editor of the Beacon, the Knights its colored allies of washing its own 'dirty linen' reported that [to] unite in a formal petition to the Chinese to go away, and maybe they will do SO."46 The The Chinese boycott is bearing fruit. Six of editor even supported allying blacks and whites the almond-eyed have packed up and to drive off the hated Chinese. shaken the dust of our city from their feet. At first glance, Wichita's outbreak of Chi­ If our citizens will only lend their aid-refuse nese violence seems inexplicable and out of to patronize them-the time is not far dis­ place in local historical context. Because of tant when the last vestige of the plague will low Asian population densities and the boom­ be removed. Remember friends, that the ing economy, Wichita, Kansas, in 1886 seems Women's Industrial League is pleading for an unlikely location and time for anti-Chi­ their removal, not only in behalf of those nese sentiments to flare as they had in other A SLAVE TO YELLOW PERIL 31 western US cities. A newspaper-induced ma­ nese neighbors, a supposed preliminary step nia, however, resulted in a heightened and to subjugation, and envisioned that as the incorrect perception of imminent economic Asian population of Wichita increased, so competition and led to displays of what histo­ would the competition that would lead to a rian Gary Y. Okihiro, in his book Margins and Chinese takeover of their "all-American" Mainstreams: Asians in American History and town. Something had to be done to protect Culture, calls "yellow peril," or irrational fears her. of Chinese domination. The yellow peril con­ The city's history is full of incidents in cept existed inside the European mind as long which citizens, through sheer will and deter­ ago as the fifth century B.C. In 1275 Marco mination, did whatever was necessary to make Polo, on a trip to Cathay, described a Mongol Wichita successful. In the 1870s, when the army whose members were better able to with­ cattle trade was in danger, Wichitans used any stand extreme difficulties than other races, had means available, including bribery, to con­ great patience, were unalterably loyal to chiefs, vince the herders to return to the city. Later, and supported themselves at extremely small in the depression of the 1930s, a few deter­ expense. They are, Polo reported, "fitted to mined individuals refused to let the airplane subdue the world."47 It was this fear of subju­ industry die an easy death, only to see it make gation and the need for white supremacy that Wichita the "Air Capital" in World War 11. 50 led to anti-Chinese actions. According to These examples were, in the end, positive Okihiro, author Pierton W. Dooner, in his outcomes for Wichita's success, but the anti­ 1880 publication Last Days of the Republic, Chinese outbreak, although a similar attempt maintained that the Chinese were tradition­ to protect the city from destructive danger, ally a servile people, but the prejudice in Cali­ was, unfortunately, a misguided effort. As the fornia changed them and led them to scheme Knights of Labor plea in the 26 December 1885 for control of the entire human race. Their issue of the Wichita Beacon shows, racism and plan, Dooner said, was to make the United the fear of yellow peril drove Wichita's citi­ States dependent on their cheap labor, take zens to uncharacteristically imitate other west­ over political offices, and finally stage an open ern cities and to view the presence of the insurrection with an army. Like Marco Polo, Chinese as a threat to the success of their city. Dooner observed that the Chinese could live The Chinese of Wichita, no matter how frugally and endure much, and were simply much of a perceived threat, did not "go away." biding their time until they took over the coun­ The number of Chinese laundries actually in­ try.48 creased to twelve in the 1887 city directory As Wichitans watched the yellow peril listings following the boycott and intimida­ drama unfold in other western cities through tion attempts.5! Ten years later, in 1896, an­ the news, they were determined not to let the other anti-Chinese episode occurred in the Chinese domination plan succeed in Wichita. city. Although the later incidents occurred As 1880s newspaper editor Charles Dana amid a different atmosphere of economic col­ wrote, "[T]he press's power was great: it took lapse and concern over the Chinese drug trade, people when their information was incomplete, the yellow peril fear was no doubt still a factor their reasoning not yet worked out, their opin­ in the second ouster attempt, and minority ions not fixed, and it suggested, intimated and segregation in general was prominent in insinuated opinion and judgment that readers Wichita by the 1890s.52 Although the nine­ often accepted as 'established and concluded' teenth-century Knights of Labor and citizenry unless they had 'great intelligence and force of Wichita strove to align with a national trend of character."'49 After reading about the Chi­ of hatred and racism against the Chinese, as is nese trouble in the Eagle and Beacon, citizens evident by the boycott and sporadic violence, noticed the frugal lifestyle of their own Chi- the immigrants remained and continued to 32 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, WINTER 2002 prosper. The 1880s anti-Chinese outbreak in N.C.: University of North Carolina Press, 1998), Wichita, Kansas, slowly faded into history, p. 1. 13. Foster Rhea Dulles and Melvyn Dubofsky, but as the problems of racial relations and Labor in America: A History, 5th ed. (Arlington discrimination continue to evolve and change, Heights, Ill.: Harland Davidson, Inc., 1984), p. 122. it still serves as a reminder of the city's past 14. Terence V. Powderly, Thirty Years of Labor: and of how far the citizens of the "Peerless 1859-1889 (1889; reprint, New York: Augustus M. Princess" truly have come in their treatment Kelley, 1967), pp. 210-11, 213. Page citations are to the reprint edition. of Chinese American Wichitans. 15. Leon Fink, Workingmen's Democracy: The Knights of Labor and American Politics (Urbana: NOTES University of Illinois Press, 1983), p. 13. 16. Edith Walker and Dorothy Leibengood, "La­ 1. Helen Zia, Asian American Dreams: The bor Organizations in Kansas in the Early Eighties," Emergence of An American People (N ew York: Farrar, Kansas Historical Quarterly 4 (August 1935): 283. Straus, and Giroux, 2000), p. 27. 17. Shih-shan Henry Tsai, China and the Oversees 2. See Aaron K. Ketchell, "Contesting Tradi­ Chinese in the United States, 1868-1911 (Fayetteville: tion and Combating Intolerance: A History of University of Arkansas Press, 1983), p. 13. Freethought in Kansas" Great Plains Quarterly 20, 18. Powderly, Thirty Years of Labor (note 14 no. 4 (fall 2000): 281-95. above), p. 214. 3. Ronald T. Takaki, Iron Cages: Race and Cul­ 19. Norman J. Ware, The Labor Movement in the ture in Nineteenth-Century America (New York: United States, 1860-1895: A Study in Democracy, Alfred A. Knopf, 1979), pp. 219-20. (1929; reprint, Gloucester, Mass.: Peter Smith, 4. Ibid., pp. 221-22. 1959), pp. 334, 343. Page citations are to the re­ 5. David Palumbo-Liu, Asian/American: Histori­ print edition. cal Crossing of a Racial Frontier (Stanford, Calif.: 20. Hazel Dicken-Garcia, Journalistic Standards Stanford University Press, 1999), pp. 35-37. in Nineteenth-Century America (Madison, Wise.: 6. John Kuo Wei Tchen, New York Before University of Wisconsin Press, 1989), pp. 52-53. Chinatown: Orientalism and the Shaping of American 21. Takaki, Iron Cages (note 3 above), pp. 222-23. Culture, 1776-1882 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins 22. Minnick, Sanfow (note 11 above), pp. 134- University Press, 1999), p. xv. 35. 7. George Anthony Peffer, If They Don't Bring 23. Wichita Beacon: "Slaughter of Celestials," 4 Their Women Here: Chinese Female Immigration September 1885; "A National Enterprise," 8 Sep­ Before Exclusion (Urbana: University of Illinois tember 1885; "Chinese Investigation," 18 Septem­ Press, 1999), p. xv. ber 1885; "The Chinese Inflictions," 22 September 8. Sucheng Chan, Asian Americans: An Inter­ 1885; "Chinese Troubles," 25 September 1885; pretive History (New York: Twayne Publishers, "Scared Chinamen," 23 October 1885; "John on 1991), pp. 32-34, 65; Renqui Yu, To Save Our­ the Aggressive," 5 November 1885; "Anti-Chinese selves: The Chinese Hand Laundry Alliance of New Organization," 19 December 1885. York (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 24. Craig Miner, Wichita: The Magic City 1992), p. 10. (Wichita, Kans.: Wichita-Sedgwick County His­ 9. In 1900 Kansas had only forty-three Asian torical Museum Association, 1988), pp. 46, 56-57. residents, fewer than any other Great Plains state 25. Wichita City Directory, 1886, Wichita, Kan­ except for Oklahoma Territory, in which thirty­ sas, p. 272. one Chinese and Japanese people lived. Texas, 26. Census Population Schedules, Kansas, 1880, which had an Asian population of 849, was the city of Wichita, Sedgwick County, Microfilm Reel only Great Plains state to have more than 200 396:26. Asian residents at that time. See Frederick Luebke, 27. Ibid., 1885, Microfilm Reel 123-24. Ethnicity on the Great Plains (Lincoln: University 28. Benson Tong, Unsubmissive Women: Chinese of Nebraska Press, 1980), p. xxiii. Prostitutes in Nineteenth-Century San Francisco 10. John Higham, Strangers in the Land: Patterns (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1994), of American Nativism, 1860-1925 (New Brunswick, p.97. N.J.: Rutgers University, 1995), pp. 25,167. 29. Wichita City Directory, 1883, p. 101. 11. Sylvia Sun Minnick, Sanfow: The San Joaquin 30. Chan, Asian Americans (note 8 above), p. Chinese Legacy (Fresno, Calif.: Panorama West 32. Publishing, 1988), p. 128. 31. Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps, Wichita, Kan­ 12. Andrew Gyory, Closing the Gate: Race, Poli­ sas, 1884-1914, Microfilm 864, Reel 16, Ablah li­ tics, and the Chinese Exclusion Act (Chapel Hill, brary, Wichita State University, Wichita, Kansas. A SLAVE TO YELLOW PERIL 33

32. Fifth Biennial Report of the State Board of 41. Untitled, ibid., 6 January, 1886. Agriculture, Kansas 1885-86, vol. 10 (Topeka: State 42. "The Chinese Residents of Wichita," Wichita Publishing House, 1887), pp. 12-13; Kansas Cen­ Eagle, 6 January 1886; "The Chinese," ibid., 8 Janu­ sus, 1885, City of Wichita, Microfilm Reels 123-24. ary 1886. 33. Wichita City Directory, 1885, p. 186; Kansas 43. "The Chinese," Wichita Eagle, 8 January 1886. Census, 1885, City of Wichita, Microfilm Reels 44. Untitled, Wichita Beacon, 12 January 1886. 123-24. 45. "War on the Chinese in Wichita," Wichita 34. Miner, Magic City (note 24 above), pp. 96-97. Eagle, 3 January 1886. 35. "Sambo and John Chinaman," Wichita Eagle, 46. "Chinese Trouble," Wichita Beacon, 4 Janu­ 16 July 1885. ary 1886. 36. "Chinese Contest," ibid., 18 July 1885. 47. Gary Y. Okihiro, Margins and Mainstreams: 37. J ohnathan Garlock, compiler, Guide to the Asians in American History and Culture (Seattle: Uni­ Local Assemblies of the Knights of Labor (Westport, versity of Washington Press, 1994), pp. 119-20. Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1982), p. 146. 48. Ibid., pp. 131-32. 38. "Knights of Labor," Wichita Beacon, 9 Janu­ 49. Dana paraphrased and quoted in Dickens­ ary 1886. Garcia, Journalistic Standards (note 20 above), p. 39. "An Appeal," ibid., 26 December 1885. 162. 40. "Knights of Labor," ibid., 9 January 1886. 50. Miner, Magic City (note 24 above), pp. 19, The Women's Industrial League is thus far an un­ 178. known in Wichita history. It was possibly a local 51. Wichita City Directory, 1887, p. 478. women's group associated with the Knights of La­ 52. Miner, Magic City (note 24 above), pp. 96- bor which was open to women members and 98; Wichita Eagle, "They Hit the Pipe," 15 January women's assemblies. 1896; "He Loses His Pipe," 15 March 1896.