Monday, November 14, 2011

"The Second Anti-Chinese Campaign"


1885: Anti-Chinese mass meeting held by the Independent Labor Union No. 1 at the plaza in LA (Los Angeles Times, 03/14/1885; 03/15/1885) initiates the 2nd anti-Chinese campaign in California; the meeting was orchestrated by Captain J. F. (John Frazer?) Janes, ship’s chandler agent and publisher of San Pedro’s 1st newspaper, the Shipping Gazette (published from 10/06/1883 to 08/xx/1886; masthead changed from San Pedro Shipping Gazette to Los Angeles and San Pedro Shipping Gazette when the publication moved to LA two months later—see December 22—and distribution expanded from San Pedro to include LA and Santa Monica); Janes had organized a Workingman’s Club earlier in March 1885 to foment a new anti-Chinese campaign (the group’s name was changed to the Independent Labor Union No. 1 and then the Anti-Chinese Union) because he found existing political parties too tepid on exclusionist issues (he briefly reestablished the Shipping Gazette as an organ for the movement in joint publication with The Advocate); Janes quit the Union in May when he lost the presidency (see Stimson, 1955, pgs. 61-63)

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