Some Notes on The Chinatown War
A few weeks ago, ImmigrationProf spotlighted Scott Zesch’s new book, The Chinatown War: Chinese Los Angeles and the Massacre of 1871 (Oxford University Press, 2012). I just finished reading the book, which was engaging, accessible, and incredibly interesting.
The book offers a detailed historical account into a little-known event in Los Angeles history. In October 1871, a turf war involving three Chinese gangs exploded into a riot that engulfed the small but growing town of Los Angeles. A large mob of white Angelenos, spurred by racial hatred, rampaged through the city and lynched some 18 Chinese immigrants — almost all of them innocent of any crimes — before order was restored. The nascent Los Angeles Police Department, which at the time included a good percentage of officers of Mexican ancestry, was later criticized for not doing enough to stem the violence.
Besides learning about some little known history, I learned soem fascinating factoids about my hometown:
1. Part of what is now Los Angeles Street in downtown Los Angeles was onced known as “Calle de los Negroes” or “N—-r Alley.” It was a place where poor and working class Mexicans, African Americans, and Chinese lived — often in squalor.
2. Perhaps as many as half of those involved in the killing of Chinese immigrants were of Mexican ancestry.
3. Some of the lynchings occurred in the area of downtown Los Angeles where the Los Angeles Mall and the federal courthouse now stand. This is a short distance from Olvera Street (El Pueblo Histroric Monument).
More generally, one passage from the book drove home one of the lessons of the massacre, which, in my view, continues to be relevant today:
“Perhaps it is most realistic, if most disturbing, to view the massacre as the natural result of a collapse of the communal forces that usually operate to keep the sinister, sadistic side of human nature in check. For nearly three years, Angelenos had ignored or laughed off the escalating attacks on the Chinese, doing littlle to curb them. Influential pundits such as the editors of the Los Angeles News had pronounced the Chinese less than human. Like the white man who, without provocation, had `hit a Chinaman on the head’ three months earlier, the rioters of October 24, 1871, apparently tortured and murdered random Chinese victims because they wanted to. They enjoyed it and thought it was fun. And, knowing that their ranks were too large for many to be apprehended, and that Angelenos did not seem concerned about protecting these inconseqwuential foreigners anyway, they were betting they could get away with it.” (p. 178) (footnote omitted).
KJ