“Lighting the Darkness” is on display at the Detention Barracks Museum for Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.
May 1 - 31, 2022
An act to execute certain treaty stipulations relating to the Chinese, May 6, 1882; Enrolled Acts and Resolutions of Congress, 1789-1996; Courtesy of the National Archives
The act barred Chinese laborers from immigrating to the United States and becoming American citizens. Similar laws expanded restrictions to include immigrants from nearly all Asian and Pacific Islander countries in the decades that followed.
The Angel Island Immigration Station opened in 1910 to enforce these exclusionary laws and prevent undesirable immigrants from entering the country.
Although the Magnuson Act repealed the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1943, anti-Asian racism is still evident today. Since 2020, there have been over 10,000 reported acts of anti-Asian violence in the United States. These attitudes reflect the same stereotypes and misrepresentations many immigrants faced 140 years ago.
a time when someone made you feel different or unwelcome
your ancestors who might have been impacted by the Chinese Exclusion Act
someone who recently moved to America and how you can support them
“Lighting the Darkness” is on display at the Detention Barracks Museum for Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.
May 1 - 31, 2022