# Mary Tape

Mary Tape (1857–1934) was an American desegregation activist who fought for Chinese-Americans' access to education, notably in the case Tape v. Hurley in 1885, in which the Supreme Court of California stated that public schools could not exclude her daughter Mamie Tape for being Chinese American.

## Early Life

Mary Tape was born in Shanghai, China, in 1857, on an unknown date. Life in Shanghai in 1857 was vastly different from today, with its lack of infrastructure and population density to be dubbed a metropolis yet, the port city was heavily reliant on trade, and was influenced colonially by external superpowers, including the United States, United Kingdom, and France, following the first Opium War, and as they were undergoing the second one. Mary Tape's birth name is unknown. She lived in China for most of her childhood, until she was moved to San Francisco as an orphan by US missionaries at 11.
California, more specifically San Francisco, was a primary hub for Chinese immigrants, especially immigrant workers who were looking for a new opportunity to start a life in America, with a job they were needed most for. The Gold Rush of 1848-1855 was a huge booming time for the Western US, as thousands of settlers began to settle west in hopes of striking it big. However, most did not have the means to mine and transport large quantities of gold. Despite this, Chinese workers still mined for gold until the Foreign Miner’s Tax became enforced on non-citizen workers to keep foreigners from mining all of the gold. As a result, Chinese workers had to look elsewhere. At the same time, the transcontinental railroad was in construction, and the Central Pacific Railroad (in charge of building the railroad eastward from Sacramento, California) were in desperate need of workers. So, Chinese immigrants were hired to clear pathways, create paths through mountains using TNT, and to lay down the tracks for the railroad. Because of this large increase of Chinese immigrants on the West Coast and in San Francisco, racism increased too, as Chinese residents, who legally were not allowed to become citizens due to the Chinese Exclusion Act, were discriminated against and abused, both literally and systematically. These acts made by the government portrayed the state of Asian American life in the 19th century, especially Mary Tape’s, having to deal with such acts of discrimination since age 11.
When Tape arrived in the United States at first, she was destined for a life of prostitution, a common stereotype that was socially constructed for Chinese women during the 1800s. These stereotypes became so commonplace that the government issued the Page Act of 1875, which prohibited Chinese women from entering the country unless they could specifically prove they were not entering for prostitution. However, before she had to face her saddening reality, she was taken into the Ladies’ Protection and Relief Society, where she resided until the age of 16. The Ladies’ Protection and Relief Society was a charitable not-for-profit organization which was founded in San Francisco on August 4, 1853, by a group of wives working together to provide relief and protection to strangers, take care of the sick and refugees, as they operated a home of sorts, and took good care of those in need of services. During her time at the Ladies’ Protection and Relief Society, Mary Tape learned English and took the name of her caretaker at the organization, Mary McGladery, for the purpose of assimilation.
About 7 years into life in the US, in 1875, Mary McGladery met Chew Diep, an immigrant from Canton, China, leaving China in 1864, aged 17. The family, housing four children, later converted to Presbyterianism, with Chew Diep taking on an anglicized, reversed version of his name Joseph C. Tape (Chew was originally his surname), and Mary matching his last name in marriage. Joseph had worked many jobs during his time in the US, including being a dray man and an interpreter for the Chinese Consulate. Their four children, Mamie, Frank, Emily, and Gertrude, were all born one after the other, with Mamie being the oldest.

## Tape vs. Hurley
### Background on School Segregation in California: Late 1800's

Education in San Francisco was heavily segregated in the 1800’s all the way to the mid 1900’s. One reason for this was the high anti-Chinese sentiment due to fear of Chinese workers taking up the small number of jobs available at the time. Following the Panic of 1873, anti-Chinese sentiment grew in areas such as San Francisco as a reaction to high levels of joblessness. These feelings grew into a larger movement that eventually manifested itself in part as the Chinese Exclusion act.
These societal anti-immigrant and pro-segregation feelings spilled over into all aspects of life, including the emerging public education sector. In 1851, the first public school in San Francisco opened its doors only for white students. Schools for minority children would also open shortly after, with an African American school opening in 1854, and an Asian American school opening in 1859. Education for Chinese Children would not be available for long.
While many areas of the United States had segregated education, California had a high concentration of Asian Americans, particularly Chinese, in specific regions such as San Francisco, presented a unique geographic aspect to the segregation issue. This was especially true when the segregated Chinese school closed in 1870 leaving Chinese students without a way to get an education. In order to understand the community pressure that Mary Tape and others both faces and were able to bring to bare in their pursuit of justice, it is necessary to understand the concentration of the Chinese in the small region of the United States where the Tape’s lived. Just before the Chinese Exclusion act, roughly 0.2% of the United States Population was ethnically Chinese, while the state of California was over 8% Chinese. In fact, Chinese were by far the largest non-white population in California, with the 1880 census indicating more than 10 times as many Chinese as what it categorized as “colored” generally. The Chinese population was so concentrated in a small area in California that 75% of the Chinese in the entire United States were resident in California, with 30% of those being located just in San Francisco. While this concentration exacerbated the impact of the segregationist policies and lack of educational opportunities, it also presented the basis for a groundswell of support from the largest non-white population in the state.
African American students would get their right to attend public schools in 1870, and segregation in schools for Chinese students would be prohibited in Tape v. Hurley in 1885 (although segregation would be reintroduced in 1902).

### Tape Vs. Hurley

When Mamie Tape was old enough to enter the education system in San Francisco, her parents, Mary and Joseph, wanted to send her to the Spring Valley Primary School. However, due to her Chinese heritage, they were turned away by principal Jennie Hurley. Even more unfortunately, the Tape family was not the only one to experience this exclusion by the school as other Chinese American applicants had been turned away as well. Infuriated by this discrimination against Asian Americans, Mary and Joseph took their beliefs to the next step by suing the San Francisco Board of Education and taking their case to the California Supreme Court. This famous court case, Tape vs. Hurley displayed the clear discrimination towards, and segregation of Chinese Americans as well as made progress towards the full and equal rights of Asian Americans in the United States.
The goal of many racist school systems in California was to segregate the students so that the Chinese American children would be separate. “The thinking was that if the city had to provide the Chinese with access to public education, then they will do so in segregated schools.” So, when the Tapes’ took their case to the California Supreme Court, the main question that was being asked was “whether a child “between six and twenty-one years of age, of Chinese parentage, but who was born and has always lived in the city and county of San Francisco," is entitled to admission in the public school of the district in which she resides." Had this case been brought to the supreme court earlier, the Tapes would have likely lost, since the legislation had been changed approximately five years prior to the instance. Before 1880, the legislation only clarified that education of a child was only completely open if the child was white. However, in 1880, the law was changed so that any child could enter the education system regardless of their race, unless they had a serious disease. Furthermore, it was Mamie Tapes 14th Amendment Right that she was treated fairly by the California education system as a part of the equal protection clause that defended Chinese American children. Thus, the court declared that principal Jennie Hurley had unfairly and unlawfully turned away Mary Tapes daughter due to her Chinese Heritage. Specifically, the judges involved in the case said, “The board of education has power "to make, establish, and enforce all necessary and proper rules and regulations not contrary to law," and none other.”
This win for Chinese Americans at the time set a standard in the education system that children of Chinese heritage have equal rights as white children and could not be denied them. Although Mary Tape's success in the defense of Chinese American children was an immense step forward, discrimination did not come to a full stop. Mary Tape again attempted to enroll her daughter into the Spring Valley Primary School after winning the case but was again denied. This time it was due to the overfilled class size and lack of vaccinations. She again fought for her daughter since she believed that the reason Mamie Tape was not permitted to enroll was still because she was Chinese American. She published her letters in newspapers that reached the other side of the country. In one specific letter, she says, “May you Mr. Moulder (superintendent of the Spring Valley Primary School district) never be persecuted like the way you persecuted little Mamie Tape…I will let the world see Sir what justice there is when it is govern(ed) by the race prejudice Men! Just because she is of the Chinese descend, not because she don't dress like you, because she does. Just because she is descended of Chinese parent: I guess she is more of a(n) American than a good many of you that is going to prevent her from being educated.” Mary Tapes writing in these letters and her resilience still inspired other Asian Americans and brought support to the fight against segregation despite the continued discrimination.
It is of importance to note that the government was not fully in support of Chinese American inclusion either, despite supporting Mary Tapes original case. The same year that Mary Tape won her case, “the California State Assembly enacted Bill 268 to establish separate schools for children of “Mongolian or Chinese” descent and once those schools were established, those children would not be admitted into any other schools.” This was a direct loophole to keep Chinese Americans from going to school with white children and to override the rights laid out in the Constitution and in California State law for Chinese Americans. According to the board, they “claimed that these schools provided a way for Chinese American children to receive a public education.” This comment attempted to show the government was creating opportunities for Chinese American students, when really, they were just trying to promote and uphold segregation.
Mary Tape fought for Asian American rights and against the segregation tactics of the California school system and government. She was successful in her original case, Tape vs. Hurley, when her daughter was not permitted to enroll in Spring Valley Primary School on the basis of her Chinese heritage. Even after she won and her daughter was still not allowed to attend the school, she continued to fight. Instead of going to court, she wrote letters to be published in newspapers to bring awareness to the cause. By publishing these letters, she spread the evidence of discrimination across the country which aroused others to fight. Furthermore, she inspired other court cases that followed Tape vs. Hurley. For example, Brown vs. the Board of Education, which permanently outlawed segregation of all schools for all races and nationalities.

### Activism

Mary Tape was a figure who is not well acknowledged when it comes to acts of activism against Asian hate. Mary Tape was most known for how she fought against segregation in schools. Yet this isn't the only act of activism that Mary Tape took part in. For example, in Tape's lifetime she had done a lot to challenge the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. One way that Mary Tape challenged the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was in a letter to the San Francisco School Board. In this letter she highlighted the unfairness of the act and her experience with it. This shows another act of activism completed by Mary Tape because it mentions the unfair treatment that she was receiving due to being a Chinese American and how she challenged the unfair and excluding acts that had been created.
Another goal that Mary Tape had and advocated for was to break the stereotypes that had been created against Chinese women. During this period, it was believed that women weren't very smart, were meant to be housewives, and couldn't put their skills to use or speak up on topics they believed in. This stereotype also applied to Chinese women due to the fact that in the past it was common for them to be taught from a young age to be housewives. Mary Tape went against this stereotype by becoming educated and obtaining in depth skills, which shocked many people. Some examples of Mary Tape’s skills included her ability to use a telegraph machine and communicating back and forth with her husband at work using morse code. When Tape had arrived in America, she had gone to the Ladies Relief Society home where she began to expand her knowledge. This shows how Mary Tape had always been someone who would go against the stereotypes and prove them wrong, as in this case, she went on to go and receive an education.
Another common stereotype about Chinese Women at the time was that they had no say in decisions, such as what would happen in the households and how they were meant to just stay home and complete house chores. Mary Tape went against this stereotype by becoming a natural leader. An example of this is how she had attempted to send her daughter to the Spring Valley Primary School and when she got denied, she held her ground and spoke up about what she believed was an unrighteous act. This is an example of activism because during that time not many women had the courage to go against the stereotypes, let alone speak up about such a big issue that could attract so much negative attention.
Mary Tape didn't let stereotypes or what others had to say change her beliefs and what she thought was wrong. Without Mary Tape completing the actions that she did, the outcome and the society we live in today could be a whole different story. For example, if she had never spoken up against the unrighteous act of there being segregated schools for Chinese kids the level of education available for everyone could be completely different and not as equal or fair.

## Personal Life and Death

After the Tape v. Hurley case, the Tape children still went to a segregated school. However, lots of schools in California were becoming desegregated. As the Tape family moved around to Chinatown, the Tape Children, Mamie and Frank, attended a new Chinese primary school. Eventually the family moved to Berkeley where the children were able to attend a completely desegregated school. Even after the case happened it still caught the attention of news and many journalists.
Mary Tape had other interests and skills she focused on afterwards. In an interview with the Tape family, they shared their interests and talents they had. Mary was a landscape painter and a photographer, but she was most skilled at being a telegrapher. She would often send messages to her husband when he was at work. Mary was a skilled artist and a first-class photographer. One of her children, Emily, was a violinist. Joseph Tape, her husband, was an interpreter for the Imperial Consulate of China in their city. The whole family was very full of skills and talents that many do not know about.
Mary Tape passed away in 1934, 5 months before her husband died. Ultimately, she was successful in getting her children to desegregated schools and left a dent in the fight for desegregating schools. Around 70 years after her death came the Brown v. Board of Education in which racial segregation was finally ended.