Anti-Asian Sentiment in Early 20th Century America

In the wake of the Civil War and the major improvements in the lives of African Americans during Reconstruction that followed, America saw its inequitable treatment of minorities shift from African Americans to Asian immigrants. To clarify, African Americans were still subject to much racial terrorism and many civil rights abuses, but they had recently gained major legislative victories with the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and the 14th Amendment in 1868 that had helped to ensure their legal citizenship and equal rights in America. During this same time period, Asian immigration to America had begun to increase. Due to the nativist feelings that still pervaded in post-Civil War America and concerns about the labor market brought about by this new era of great immigration to our nation, Asian immigrants soon found themselves in a similar yet very different situation from the racist environment that had afflicted African Americans for so many years. Through an examination of the immigration policies and laws that applied to Asians during the late 1800s and early 1900s, such as the Chinese Exclusion Act, Asiatic Barred Zone Act, and Immigration Act of 1924, it is apparent that the American public and government were only continuing and reemphasizing previously present prejudices and deep-seated racism. Legislation during this period made Asian Americans into a racial scapegoat in the presence of improved conditions for African Americans as well as a below average domestic economic circumstances. Specifically, the U.S. government put into place laws and policies that blanketed concerns about the effects of mass immigration on the domestic labor market with xenophobic rhetoric and skewed racial justifications.
During the late-19th and early 20th centuries, Asian immigrants were subject to discriminatory, racist immigration policies in the United States of America. Beginning with the passing of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882 and culminating with Congress’s