scholarly journals "Chinese Girl Wants Vote"

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Grace Li
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Asian American ◽  
Political History ◽  
Women's Suffrage ◽  
Chinese People ◽  
Chinese Exclusion ◽  
Chinese Girl ◽  
Exclusion Act ◽  
Women’S Suffrage

American suffrage history is dominated by white suffragettes; however, this essay aims to bring to light another vibrant dimension of the American women’s suffrage movement. Mabel Ping-Hua Lee turned tides when she marched horseback at a women’s suffrage parade at the age of sixteen, and further entrenched herself as a prominent Asian-American suffragette as she continued to fight for women’s suffrage throughout her lifetime, although the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 barred her and all Chinese people from voting or obtaining citizenship until the act was repealed in 1943. This article explores many dimensions of Mabel through several of her primary environmental and personal influences, from Guangzhou, China to New York City’s Chinatown, which all shaped her into an admirable, and selfless social justice advocate that claims an unforgettable chapter in American and Asian-American political history.

The Chinese Exclusion Act and Early Asian American Literature

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben Railton
Keyword(s):  
American Literature ◽  
Asian American ◽  
Chinese American ◽  
Early 21St Century ◽  
Chinese Exclusion ◽  
Yellow Peril ◽  
Laws And Policies ◽  
Immigration Station ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
Exclusion Act

The 19th century featured two opposed yet interconnected historical trends: the growth of a multigenerational and deeply rooted Chinese American community; and the development of the cultural prejudices and fears comprised by the Yellow Peril narrative. Those xenophobic fears produced violence, social and political movements, and legal exclusions, culminating in the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act and its many follow-up laws and policies, all designed as much to destroy the existing Chinese American community as to restrict future immigration. But out of that period of exclusion and oppression came some of the first Chinese American literary and cultural works published in both Mandarin/Cantonese and English: the personal and collective poems carved into the walls of the Angel Island Immigration Station by detainees; auto-ethnographic memoirs of Chinese American life and community such as Yung Wing’s My Life in China and America (1909); and the journalistic, autobiographical, and fictional works of Edith Maude Eaton/Sui Sin Far, the first Chinese American professional creative writer. These works both reflect and transcend the realities of the Exclusion era, helping contemporary audiences understand those histories, connect them to later Chinese American writers, and analyze the exclusionary debates and proposals of the early 21st century.

Asian American Religions from Chinese Exclusion to 1965

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne M. Blankenship
Keyword(s):  
Asian Americans ◽  
Asian American ◽  
East Asian ◽  
Asian Immigrants ◽  
Traditional Beliefs ◽  
Religious Minorities ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
Chinese Exclusion ◽  
Asian Religions ◽  
Exclusion Act

This chapter charts the religious lives of South and East Asian Americans during the era of Asian exclusion—from the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 to the implementation of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965—and those of non-Asians who adopted elements of Asian religions to shape new approaches to those traditions. Religious organizations provided immediate social aid and fellowship, leadership opportunities, and a connection to immigrants’ homelands. Religious beliefs provided strength to Asian immigrants by helping them cope with discrimination, while social realities in America reshaped many of those traditional beliefs and practices. White sympathizers reimagined aspects of Asian religions and utilized them in new ways. The chapter follows four major themes: adaptation of religious minorities from Asia, the experiences of Christian Asian immigrants, Asian American religious responses to discrimination, and the ways in which non-Asians were drawn to Asian religions prior to 1965.

A Fundamental Component

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Goodier ◽  
Karen Pastorello
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Black Women ◽  
White Women ◽  
New York State ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Women's Suffrage ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
York State ◽  
Racial Relations ◽  
Women’S Suffrage

This chapter looks at the story of black women in the New York State woman suffrage movement, which is marked by strained racial relations and exclusionary practices. Black women, like white women, saw the vote as a panacea, able to solve their specific problems relating to racial violence, education, employment, and workers' rights. Although white women seldom invited black women to join in their suffrage activities, black women found ways to advance the cause and participate in the movement. Indeed, pervasive racism complicated black women's suffrage activism, but it cannot diminish their contributions to mainstream suffragism. Rarely separating women's political rights from other fundamental rights, black women's suffrage activism showed creativity and ingenuity and did not always mirror white women's activist strategies. Ultimately, black women's influence on black male voters helped secure women's political enfranchisement in New York State.

Suffrage and the New Negro in the Black Public Sphere

2020 ◽  
pp. 98-114
Author(s):  
Jane Rhodes
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
World War I ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Social Transformation ◽  
Equal Opportunity ◽  
Women's Suffrage ◽  
New Negro ◽  
Black Liberation ◽  
Black Public Sphere ◽  
Women’S Suffrage

The era immediately following World War I was tumultuous for African American communities, with its widespread backlash against black American soldiers, urban antiblack violence and riots, and lynching. The black press, which conveyed the communities’ sense of anxiety and grievance, was critical to the formation and maintenance of a radical black counterpublic—a formation that operated outside the mainstream public sphere. While some black publications stayed on the margins of radical politics, this chapter shows that others embraced more militant ideas and strategies. Socialism and the Communist Party held special sway for some African Americans seeking a way out of their social, economic, and political isolation. A. Philip Randolph and Chandler Owen, who founded The Messenger in New York in 1917, supported woman suffrage and promised to help women make the most profitable and desirable use of the ballot. The Messenger’s editors viewed black women’s suffrage as part of a larger political and social transformation that would give the masses a voice and equal opportunity. W. E. B. Du Bois also articulated strong “profeminist” politics in the pages of The Crisis, promoting women’s suffrage as a key element in the quest for black liberation.

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