page_title: Tacoma riot of 1885
section_title: Growing anti-Chinese sentiment in Tacoma
hierarchical_section_title: Tacoma riot of 1885 / Growing anti-Chinese sentiment in Tacoma
caption_attribution_description: English: A picture of the former Mayor of Tacoma.
context_page_description: The Tacoma riot of 1885, also known as the 1885 Chinese expulsion of Tacoma, involved the forceful expulsion of the Chinese population from Tacoma, Washington Territory, on November 3, 1885. City leaders had earlier proposed a November 1 deadline for the Chinese population to leave the city. On November 3, 1885, a mob that consisted of prominent businessmen, police, and political leaders descended on the Chinese community. The mob marched Chinese residents to a railroad station and forced them to board a train to Portland. In the following days, the structures that remained in the Chinese community were razed. The event was the result of growing anti-Chinese sentiment and violence throughout the American West.
  This organized action became known as the "Tacoma method", and despite national and international outcry, it was used as an example of how to forcibly remove Chinese residents from cities and towns throughout the American West. The anti-Chinese sentiment in Tacoma and Washington Territory more broadly made it so that those involved did not face repercussions for their actions.
  This impacted Chinese immigration to Tacoma for decades.
context_section_description: In February 1885, Tacoma Mayor Jacob Weisbach (a German immigrant) met with a small group of men to discuss the Chinese question. William Christie, who had witnessed the Chinese expulsion that had recently occurred in Eureka, California, was among the attendees. During this meeting, they discussed the actions taken by other localities to expel their Chinese citizens and considered how they might do the same in Tacoma. This was one of the earliest recorded instances of Tacoma citizens meeting to discuss taking direct action to expel Chinese residents.
  On February 21, 1885, Mayor Weisbach called a mass meeting at the Alpha Opera House to discuss methods of expelling the Chinese population of Tacoma. Roughly 900 of Tacoma's 6,936 total citizens came to the meeting. The crowd was mostly male and white, and the crowd represented nearly half of the town's electorate. A former alderman, J. E. Burns, suggested passing sanitation laws to enable the city to evict Chinese residents and burn down Chinese homes. Reverend J. A. Ward suggested that white property owners cease selling and leasing property to the Chinese community. Weisbach roused the crowd with a closing speech, stating: "If the people are in earnest, if they are Free Americans in fact they will not yield up their homes and business to the filthy horde." The crowd adopted a resolution to exclude Chinese people from Tacoma and discourage citizens from employing any Chinese people. The resolution stipulated that any citizen who did not boycott Chinese employment would have their name published.
  Herbert Hunt stated that during 1885, "the discussion of the [Chinese] question was constant and it figured in many business and social affairs." Many groups formed in 1885 in Tacoma with the express goal of expelling the Chinese community. On September 7 of 1885, a Tacoma chapter of the Knights of Labor was formed, which helped to increase hostility against Chinese residents.
  The Tacoma City Council also tried to pursue expulsion through legal means, by making residence in Tacoma more difficult for the Chinese community. The council passed an ordinance at the recommendation of Mayor Weisbach stating that all sleeping rooms needed to have 500 cubic feet of air per individual.
  On September 28, 1885, an "Anti-Chinese Congress" met in Seattle. Tacoma's Mayor Weisbach presided over the congress, which proclaimed that all Chinese people must leave Western Washington by November 1 of that year. The congress planned for "ouster committees" to notify the Chinese residents in the communities assembled of the expulsion date. A meeting was held at the Alpha Opera House in Tacoma on October 3 to elect the Tacoma "ouster committee," which would later become known as the Committee of Fifteen. Following the meeting, members of this committee alerted members of Tacoma's Chinese community that they had to leave the city by November 1. Other anti-Chinese community members put additional pressure on white Tacomans to fire their Chinese employees.
  After this alert, much of the Chinese community left the city, with merchants and some laborers choosing to remain behind. Some members of the Tacoma community gave their assurances to Chinese residents that they would be protected and not forced to leave.
  A series of events occurred in the days leading up to the expulsion. On October 31, the night prior to the deadline for the Chinese residents to leave, a final rally was held. Nearly 700 people came to show support for the expulsion. As the November 1st deadline approached, an additional 150 Chinese people left the city, leaving roughly 200 Chinese people in Tacoma. The following day, November 2, those accused in the Squak Valley massacre were acquitted, leading to a feeling that those involved in anti-Chinese actions could act with relative impunity.
caption: Jacob Weisbach, the mayor of Tacoma during the Chinese expulsion, was a central figure in the anti-Chinese movement in Tacoma.
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image DateTime": "2017:04:16 09:31:12", "Image ExifOffset": "2142", "Image Padding": "[]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "0", "Thumbnail YResolution": "0", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "4316", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5875", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2017:04:16 09:30:27", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2017:04:16 09:30:27", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "00", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "00", "EXIF ImageUniqueID": "975DE39453F041CBB8ACFF4C12A41DC3", "EXIF Padding": "[]"}