Existing comment:
1882: Chinese Exclusion Act:
During the 1850s, Chinese laborers first came to the United States in large numbers to build the transcontinental railroad. By the 1880s, racism and fear of job competition fostered a vocal anti-Chinese movement in the western part of the country. In response, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, which stipulated that most Chinese could not enter the United States (there were exceptions for diplomats, merchants, students, and tourists) and that Chinese not born in the Untied States could not become citizens. Virtually all immigration from China stopped. The act was repealed in 1943. |