WALK FOR RECONCILIATION
IN OBSERVANCE OF THE 125TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FORCED EXPULSION OF THE CHINESE RESIDENTS OF TACOMA

Chinese Reconciliation Project Foundation

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2010

The Expulsion. November 3, 2010, is the 125th anniversary of the forced expulsion on November 3, 1885, of all remaining Chinese residents of Tacoma (possibly as many as 200 people). Many Chinese had left earlier that fall because of the hostile atmosphere here in Tacoma. "The Chinese Must Go" campaign was not an official act of the City government, but it was openly instigated and organized by elected officials (including the mayor and members of the City Council) and other leading citizens of civic influence. Soon after the event, the expulsion became known as the "Tacoma Method" in a rising tide of anti-Chinese sentiment and acts of violence in the western United States.

At 9:30 in the morning on that November day, the whistle at the Lister Foundry and those of other factories signaled the coming together of a crowd of what grew to be hundreds of white men. They marched, generally in orderly fashion, to the homes and shops of Chinese on what today are Broadway and Commerce Streets and then down to the waterfront and across the tracks to the Chinese settlement of houses and shops on land leased from the railroad. The buildings were wooden structures, those closest to the water resting partially on pilings and some serving as tenement housing for Chinese laborers.

Shouts and banging on doors ordered the Chinese to gather their belongings and be out of their premises by 1:30 pm. Those who did not leave by that time were routed out by the crowd, and all Chinese were walked to Pacific Avenue, downtown. Later in the afternoon men on horseback and on foot herded the Chinese, including young and old, mostly men but also families with women and children, to the Northern Pacific Railroad depot in Lake View, just south of Tacoma.

The day was cold and rainy, the pathways filled with mud, and the distance to Lake View was about 9 miles. In the dark evening, Chinese who were able to purchase tickets on the passenger train that came through were sent south. In the middle of the night a freight train headed south took away more Chinese, as did a later passenger train. The Chinese who did not get on trains were sent walking south. The next day and the day after, white Tacoma residents burned down Chinese homes and businesses.

The economic crisis of the early 1880s fanned the flames of anti-Chinese hysteria all over the country, especially in the west. Even in such an atmosphere, some white citizens of Tacoma, including one very vocal pastor, made an effort to tone down the white anger and stop the rhetoric of intolerance. On the day of the expulsion some white citizens responded to the immediate needs of the expelled Chinese: They brought their carts and other conveyances and gave rides to women, children, and old people headed for Lake View on that windy and wet day and night and provided some food for the Chinese.

The legal system of the time understood that the mob action against the Chinese was wrong, even if justice never really came in the end. Within days of the event the Federal Marshal in Tacoma issued warrants for the arrest of key leaders of the expulsion and started a sequence of indictments and trials that included lawsuits brought by Lum May and a few other Chinese. Findings did not lead to restitution or compensation, although within a few years the U.S. Congress made payments of over $424,000 to the Chinese government to make amends for the incidents of anti-Chinese violence in Tacoma and other cities in the west. Because the payments went to the Chinese government, those who were the victims of the injustice likely never saw any of the money.

The anniversary event of remembrance and reconciliation. This year on October 30th, just four days before the 125th anniversary of the expulsion, the Tacoma "2010 Group of 27" will lead a contingent of possibly hundreds of participants in a symbolic "Walk for Reconciliation" from the old Union Station (now the Federal Courthouse on Pacific Avenue) to the site of the Tacoma Garden and Reconciliation Park. This park, opening this fall, is an effort to recognize, acknowledge, and move on from the tragic act of injustice in 1885.

Why a 2010 group of 27? Because the 1885 Federal indictments targeted the 27 key leaders of "The Chinese Must Go" campaign and the expulsion. Within days of the event, they were arrested in Tacoma by order of the Federal Marshal and sent by train to appear before a grand jury in Vancouver, Washington. After the indictments of all 27 on charges of insurrection under U.S. law and violation of rights granted to Chinese by treaty, they were taken by train back to Tacoma, where they were welcomed and celebrated as heroes. "Tacoma's Twenty-seven" encompassed almost all of the "Committee of Fifteen" who had been elected at a rally in early October to be at the forefront of the movement to drive out the Chinese. Mayor R. Jacob Weisbach was among the 15 and thus among the 27, as were members of the City Council and the School Board, the Fire Chief, and a probate judge.

The 2010 Group of 27 is composed of people holding positions similar to those of the 1885 group of 27, but the sensibilities of today's group are very different, and the effort of the 125th anniversary event is not exclusion but inclusion. The 2010 event aims not at expulsion but at reconciliation. What became known as the "Tacoma Method" of well-organized expulsion is not to be forgotten but to be succeeded by what could become known as the "Tacoma Model" of reconciliation via the creation of a meaningful public space. The Chinese Garden and Reconciliation Park is located on Ruston Way and close to the area where the waterfront Chinese houses and businesses were in the 1870s and 1880s before being burned after the city drove out the Chinese.

The Walk. Anyone wishing to participate in the walk to the park should gather before 10:00 am in Tollefson Plaza (across the street and one block north of Union Station). After words of welcome and instruction by Board members of the Chinese Reconciliation Project Foundation, the 2010 Group of 27, led by Mayor Marilyn Strickland, will start off at the front of the line of walkers. The walk route goes north along Pacific Avenue, continuing along Schuster Parkway and onto North 30th Street to McCarver, then turning east toward the waterfront and into the parking lot that leads to the park. Walkers are scheduled to arrive at the park by 12:00 noon.

At the park the program will include remarks, performances, and awards in an essay competition and an art competition. The program is scheduled to end before 2:00 pm.

In order to have an estimate of expected attendance, the Chinese Reconciliation Project Foundation (organizer of the anniversary event) asks that people register for the Walk for Reconciliation and/or the program in the park.

Go to the CRPF website at www.crpftacoma.org to register, or go directly to the online registration page at http://crpf.wufoo.com/forms/walk-for-reconciliation-event-registration-form/.

Walkers who do not register are also welcome.