Educating the Coolie, Deviant, and Yellow Peril

Before World War II, negative images of immigrants were prevalent.

This was demonstrated in the California school code of 1872, which stated: “Every school, unless otherwise provided by special statute, must be opened for the admission of all white children between five and twenty-one years residing in a district.”

In 1884, there was a lawsuit to try and admit Chinese American born Mamie Tape to a San Francisco school. Mamie Tape was born in the United States and was therefore a legal citizen of the States. She was barred from the school on grounds of the school district needing to “. . . defend ourselves from this invasion of Mongolian barbarism.”

January 9, 1885, Mamie Tape’s case was settled. She was allowed to attend the school because of protection under the 14th Amendment. The judge also noted that it would be unjust to tax Chinese residents but not allow their children to attend federally-funded schools.

In response to the ruling, California opened segregated schools for Chinese. On April 13, 1885 the Chinese Primary School opened in San Francisco, and was soon followed by other segregated schools. In 1905 this practice ended due to the board of education being forced to let Chinese students attend the city high school.

In Mississippi, Chinese fought against having their children attend black schools. In 1924 a Chinese merchant sued the district because he didn’t want his daughter to attend a “colored” school. The U.S. Circuit court determined that since there wasn’t a Chinese school already in place, the Chinese student was being denied equal education. The school board appealed the court ruling, stating that since “Chinese were not ‘white’ then they must be ‘colored’ and should attend schools for ‘colored’ children.”

In California, children of Asian Indians were forced to attend schools for Mexican American children.

In 1906 the San Francisco Board of Education established a separate school for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean children. Many Japanese protested this treatment and published editorials in Tokyo calling for them to unite and end their oppressive treatment. President Theodore Roosevelt threatened the San Francisco school district if the segregation wouldn’t end. Japanese in other areas didn’t benefit from this action, however.

In Hawaii, language schools set up by the Japanese for the purpose of educating their children about Japanese culture and language were contested. The Territorial Government passed a law in 1923 which hindered the operation of the Japanese language schools. In 1927 the law was repealed by the U.S. Supreme Court.

After WWII, the negative image of the Asian immigrant shifted to a more positive model. Why the change occurred is still being debated by historians, but the fact remains that attitudes became more positive after the second World War.