Analysis Of The Geary Act By The Chinese, The Great Migration

During the mid 19th century and the early 20th century ethnic and racial groups such as Chinese and African Americans suffered through the indignities and laws opposed by white settlers/citizens of America. African Americans given the right of freedom and citizenship during 1865 and 1868, were still being looked down with hatred and anger by whites of the south, and being tolerated by the white people of the North. The immigration wave of the Chinese to the west during the Gold Rush and the building of the railroad only brought fear to the citizens that Chinese population would increase, ending in white citizens looking for ways to diminish Chinese immigration and progression. Even with the lack of physical and political protection towards

Such resistance was shown by the resistance of the Geary Act by the Chinese, The Great Migration, and the resistance of Covenants by the African Americans in the West.

The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was created in order to stop migration of the Chinese to the United States for ten years, however, instead of decreasing migration more Chinese people migrated (Hernandez, 68). This of course infuriated the white settlers, leaving them to find harsher dehumanizing laws to impose. Ten years later, the Geary Act required all Chinese immigrants to register or to be imprisoned for a year before being deported to China (Hernandez, 64). The Geary Act was not accepted by the Chinese as it was a form to oppress, monitor, and gave white settlers, and internal revenue staff a vast amount of power to decide who is eligible for a certificate. With the help and guidance of the Six companies, a Chinese association established in the 1870’s, the Chinese community was getting ready to fight against the Geary Act. In order to successfully resist the Six Companies did two things. First, it reached out to the people in Chinatown's, advising them to not register as the Geary act, “degrades the Chinese and if obeyed will put them lower than the meanest of

Also, because of the restriction of European migration during World War One, this gave African Americans hope to find jobs and start a better life in the North (Lecture, 9/19). For the African Americans in the South, moving up north was the only way to get away from the harsh, cruel, indecent mistreatment they would get from the whites of the South. According to Wilkerson, “ Between 1880 and 1950, an African American was lynched more than once a week for some perceived breach of racial hierarchy” (Wilkerson, p 2). African Americans were the targets of hate crimes from racist white southerners such as the Ku Klux Klan. If African Americans decided to stay in the south, they had higher chances to become victims of racist crimes and end up losing their lives. African Americans living in the South had nothing left to lose. First, in the South they were not allowed to vote unlike the north. Second, a lot of them were sharecropping, and or owed money, and would get indecent pay for their work. The mass movement of African Americans to the North and West became known as the Great Migration where about 1.8 million African Americans moved away from the South (lecture, 9/19). By moving to the North and West, it was a form of African Americans to say enough to the mistreatments and end the cycle of debt that