Chinese American Citizens Alliance

SIGNIFICANCE: This organization, started in 1895, became a major social and political force in the Chinese American community throughout the twentieth century.

Chinese immigrants began arriving in the United States in the mid-nineteenth century. Most of the immigrants were young men who left their families behind in China and who intended to return to China once they secured sufficient money to support their families comfortably. To secure passage to the United States, most of these men indentured themselves to a merchant or a labor agent, a system called the credit-ticket arrangement whereby merchants advanced Chinese immigrants money for passage to the United States and kept collecting payments for years. Some Chinese left less willingly, emigrating because of famine and political and social unrest in southern China or falling victim to the so-called “Pig Trade,” which replaced slavery after it was outlawed following the Civil War. They chose the United States because of exaggerated tales of wealth and opportunity spread by traders and missionaries.

Chinatowns Formed

Once Chinese indentured workers arrived in the United States, labor agents, under the credit-ticket arrangement, gained almost complete domination of the workers and kept them in isolated communities that became known as Chinatowns. Many Chinese immigrants ultimately were unable to secure sufficient money for return passage to China; however, because they did not want to remain permanently in the United States, they had little incentive to assimilate. Their unwillingness or inability to become acculturated into the American “melting pot” became an indictment against all Chinese.

Life in California in the late 1800s was difficult at best for most residents of Chinese descent. Chinese American communities organized huiguan (merchant guilds) that served as welcoming committees, resettlement assistance services, and mutual help societies for newly arrived immigrants. Chinese immigrants were also organized by the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association (the Chinese Six Companies), originally agents of Chinese firms in Hong Kong that had established the “coolie trade” to San Francisco. The Six Companies kept traditional Chinese rules, customs, and values as the basis for appropriate behavior, helping protect Chinese immigrants from an increasingly anti-Chinese atmosphere.

Violence—External and Internal

Anti-Chinese sentiments and violence against Chinese immigrants began almost as soon as they arrived in North America. These attitudes existed at the top levels of government and labor unions as well as being held by local citizens. During the mid- to late 1800s, various political parties, including the Know-Nothing Party, the Democratic Party, and the Republican Party, promoted anti-Chinese platforms. During this time, workers’ unions organized anti-Chinese activities and anti-Asian sentiments were propagated by newspapers in western states. In 1871, twenty Chinese immigrants in Los Angeles were killed and their homes and businesses looted and burned. In 1877, a similar incident occurred in San Francisco. In Chico, California, five farmers were murdered. Anti-Chinese riots broke out in Denver, Colorado, and in Rock Springs, Wyoming. In 1885, Chinese workers, employed as strikebreakers, were killed at a Wyoming coal mine. Chinese residents in Seattle and Tacoma, Washington, were driven out of town, and thirty-one Chinese were robbed and murdered in Snake River, Oregon. In 1905, sixty-seven labor organizations, in order to prevent employers from hiring Asians, formed the Asiatic Exclusion League.

In the early 1890s, the Chinese Six Companies influenced Chinese immigrants not to sign documents required by the Geary Act (1892), an extension of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which required all Chinese residing in the United States to obtain a certificate of eligibility with a photograph within a year. When the Geary Act was ruled legal, thousands of Chinese Americans became illegal aliens in the United States. The Tongs, secret societies of criminals that originated in China, used this opportunity to take control of the Chinatowns. The result was a vicious and bloody civil war among Chinese Americans. Few first-generation Chinese Americans actively opposed the rule of the Tongs.

Native Sons of the Golden State

Many young American-born (second-generation) Chinese opposed these “old ways” of doing things. They accepted the idea that they were never going to return to China and wanted to adopt American ways and fit into American culture. These young, second-generation Chinese formed the Native Sons of the Golden State in San Francisco in an effort to assimilate into American mainstream culture. The Native Sons of the Golden State emphasized the importance of naturalization and voters’ registration. All members were urged to become American citizens and to vote. The organization also encouraged active participation in the civic affairs of mainstream American life. The leaders thought that some of the anti-Chinese sentiments and discriminatory actions were, in part, caused by the traditional attitudes and behaviors of the Chinese immigrants who remained isolated, did not learn English, and did not take part in politics.

As the organization grew, it established chapters in Oakland, Los Angeles, San Diego, Chicago, Portland, Detroit, Pittsburgh, and Boston, eventually changing its name to the Chinese American Citizens Alliance (CACA). In 1913, CACA defeated a California law designed to prevent Chinese Americans from voting. The group fought against the National Origins Act, or Immigration Act of 1924, and sought the right for Chinese males to bring their wives to the United States. CACA helped defeat the Cinch bill of 1925, which attempted to regulate the manufacture and sale of Chinese medicinal products such as herbs and roots. By promoting numerous social functions, CACA also helped keep Chinese American communities together and moved them toward assimilation. CACA fought against the stereotyped portrayals of Chinese and Chinese Americans in films, newspapers, and magazines as heathens, drug addicts, or instigators of torture. In 1923, for example, the organization attempted to block publication of a book by Charles R. Shepard, The Ways of Ah Sin, depicting negative images of Chinese Americans living in San Francisco’s Chinatown. CACA has also supported other community organizations, such as Cameron House, Self-Help for the Elderly, and the Chinese Historical Society of America.

Throughout the late twentieth and into the twenty-first century, CACA continued to promote Chinese immigration issues and support Chinese immigrants coming to the United States. In 1977, women were permitted to join CACA for the first time, and many eventually held council and board positions. In 1997, Nancy Ann Gee was elected as the first female president of the organization. The organization also began gaining traction in the youth community and in 2001 formed The Chinese American Citizens Alliance LA Lodge Youth Council (YC). Among other outreach programs, YC has been a source for students interested in learning more about and engaging in the college entry process. They have also helped students gain access to fair admissions. For example, in the 2024 case Chinese Americans Citizens Alliance of Greater New York (CACAGNY) v. Adams, the New York CACA branch won a reversal that deemed an admissions policy to New York City specialized high schools, which sought to limit the number of Asian American students admitted, had a discriminatory effect on Asian American students.

Some other notable twenty-first century achievements include recognition from Congress in 2008 for the contributions of Asian American Pacific Islander soldiers who fought in the American Civil War, the unanimous Congressional resolutions condemning the Chinese exclusion laws in 2012, and, in 2014, the addition by the U.S. Department of Labor of inducted Chinese transcontinental railroad workers on its Wall of Honor. Aside from the headquarters in San Francisco, nineteen other headquarters exist in ten states and the District of Columbia.

Bibliography

Dillon, Richard H. The Hatchet Men: The Story of the Tong Wars in San Francisco Chinatown. Coward, 1962.

“History.” Chinese American Citizens Alliance, www.cacanational.org/htmlPages/history.html. Accessed 8 Nov. 2024.

Lai, H. Mark, et al. Chinese American Voices : From the Gold Rush to the Present. U of California, 2006.

Rouse, Wendy. “Chinese American Identity.” Journal of American Ethnic History, vol. 34, no. 3, Spring 2015, pp. 95–99. EBSCOhost, doi.org/10.5406/jamerethnhist.34.3.0095. Accessed 8 Nov. 2024.

Song, Jingyi. Shaping and Reshaping Chinese American Identity: New York’s Chinese During the Depression and World War II. Lexington, 2010.

Takaki, Ronald. Strangers from a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans. Little, 1989.

Tsai, Shih-Shan Henry. The Chinese Experience in America. Indiana UP, 1986.

“Victory for Asian American Students and Equality under the Law: Second Circuit Unanimously Rules in CACAGNY v. Adams.” Pacific Legal Foundation, 24 Sept. 2024, pacificlegal.org/press-release/victory-for-asian-american-students-and-equality-under-the-law-second-circuit-unanimously-rules-in-cacagny-v-adams/. Accessed 8 Nov. 2024.

Zhang, luwen. “Chinese American Voices: From the Gold Rush to the Present.” Western Folklore, vol. 68, no. 2/3, 2009, pp. 312–14. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lkh&AN=47881496&site=ehost-live. Accessed 8 Nov. 2024.