Finding Aid to the Asiatic Exclusion League Records
Finding aid prepared by Labor Archives and Research Center staff.
Labor Archives and Research Center
1987, revised 2013 and 2020
San Francisco State University
J. Paul Leonard Library, Room 460
1630 Holloway Ave
San Francisco 94132-1722
Business Number: (415) 405-5571
larc@sfsu.edu
Note
Added to OAC, 3/2013; finding aid revised in 2020 by Leah Sylva in accordance with anti-racist archival description protocols.
Title: Asiatic Exclusion League records
Date (inclusive): 1906-1910
Creator:
Asiatic Exclusion League
Extent:
1.25 Cubic Feet
3 boxes
Collection number: larc.ms.0145
Accession number: 1985/003
Repository:
Labor Archives and Research Center
J. Paul Leonard Library, Room 460
San Francisco State University
1630 Holloway Ave
San Francisco, CA 94132-1722
(415) 405-5571
larc@sfsu.edu
Abstract: The bulk of the Asiatic Exclusion League records span the years 1906-1910 and consist of the minutes and proceedings of monthly
meetings and the first convention of the League, which had the explicit goal of discriminating against Asian workers. The
collection also contains the proceedings of the first two conventions of the Anti-Japanese Laundry League founded in 1908;
the transcript of a debate at St. Ignatius College; and a detailed index to its contents. A pamphlet by Samuel Gompers on
Asian workers entitled "Meat vs. Rice: American Manhhod Against Asiatic Coolieism, Which Shall Survive?" contains the term
"coolie," which is considered to be a derogatory racial slur against Chinese workers referring to a form of debt slavery outlawed
in California in 1879. In addition to these items, photocopies of selected articles on Asian exclusion from the
Labor Clarion between 1904-1915 were added to the collection in 2006.
Content warning: This collection contains racist historical materials that resulted in the discrimination, murder, and incarceration
of Asian immigrants in the United States.
Languages: Languages represented in the collection: English.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Asiatic Exclusion League Records, larc.ms.0145, Labor Archives and Research Center, San Francisco
State University.
Availability
Collection is open for research.
Restrictions
Copyright has not been assigned to the Labor Archives and Research Center. All requests for permission to publish or quote
from materials must be submitted in writing to the Director of the Archives. Permission for publication is given on behalf
of the Labor Archives and Research Center as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission
of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the reader.
Acquisition
The records of the Asiatic Exclusion League (originally known as the Japanese and Korean Exclusion League) were donated to
the Labor Archives and Research Center by the San Francisco Labor Council, October 1985, accession number 1985/003.
Related Materials
See Labor Archives Ephemera/Print File materials under
Asian Exclusion and
Japanese Americans; in the book collection, see
A History of the Labor Movement in California, by Ira Cross, and
The Indispensable Enemy: Labor and the Anti-Chinese Movement in California by Alexander Saxton.
Processing Information
The material is printed and was clipped together as a hardcover volume. The cover has been removed and the contents placed
in folders. The collection was processed by Suzanne Forsyth, November 1987; finding aid revised in 2020 in accordance with
anti-oppressive archival description protocols.
Context and History of the Asiatic Exclusion League
During the Gold Rush, men from China were solicited to work as laborers in the United States. However, when the economy entered
into a depression following the Civil War, labor leaders saw the Chinese immigrants as a threat to the white working class.
Driven by economic precarity and racism, many labor groups began producing anti-Asian propaganda and performing hate crimes
against Asian immigrants. Following the first ethnically based immigration law, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, groups
such as the Asiatic Exclusion League (AEL) formed to fight for the "white man's country," actively discriminating and committing
violence against people of Asian descent.
The Asiatic Exclusion League was founded in 1905 in San Francisco, California, as the Japanese and Korean Exclusion League.
In 1908 the organization changed its name to the Asiatic Exclusion League. Participants in the founding convention were mostly
delegates from trade unions and included Andrew Furuseth and Walter Macarthur for the San Francisco Labor Council, and P.H.
McCarthy and Olaf A. Tveitmoe for the San Francisco Building Trades Council. The Cooks' and Waiters' union was also especially
active due to the significant number of Japanese employed in restaurants.
The building trades unions were a dominant force in the League, and Tveitmoe assumed the presidency. Tveitmoe, a Norwegian
immigrant, began as a leader of the Cement Workers' Union in San Francisco and rose to prominence as secretary of the San
Francisco Building Trades Council and editor of its newspaper,
Organized Labor, eventually becoming financial secretary of the California Building Trades Department.
The purpose of the League set forth in its constitution was the exclusion of Asian immigrants through legislation. The League
hoped to "educate" people so as to "create a sentiment which will prove to the Congress of our country the necessity of the
enactment of a law for the preservation of our race." The Preamble to the League's Constitution claimed that "The Caucasian
and Asiatic races are unassimilable. Contact between these races must result, under the conditions of industrial life obtaining
in North America, in injury to the former, proportioned to the extent to which such contact prevails."
The anti-Japanese activists campaigned to abolish Japanese-language schools and segregate the public schools, prohibit Japanese
from commercial fishing, and forbid Japanese land ownership and long-term leasing. In response to the efforts of the AEL,
the State of California increased enforcement of laws prohibiting Asian people from owning property. The Asiatic Exclusion
League and similar groups successfully lobbied for laws restricting immigration from Asian countries such as the Immigration
Act of 1917 and the Quota Act of 1921.
The League was financed by the voluntary contributions of affiliating organizations, which numbered about 200. Over half
of these organizations were labor unions, although the League also received money from fraternal and community organizations,
businesses, and individuals.
Scope and Contents
The bulk of the Asiatic Exclusion League records span the years 1906-1910 and consist of the minutes and proceedings of monthly
meetings and the first convention of the League, which had the explicit goal of discriminating against Asian workers. The
collection also contains the proceedings of the first two conventions of the Anti-Japanese Laundry League founded in 1908;
the transcript of a debate at St. Ignatius College; and a detailed index to its contents. A pamphlet by Samuel Gompers on
Asian workers entitled "Meat vs. Rice: American Manhood Against Asiatic Coolieism, Which Shall Survive?" contains the term
"coolie," which is considered to be a derogatory racial slur against Chinese workers referring to a form of debt slavery outlawed
in California in 1879. In addition to these items, photocopies of selected articles on Asian exclusion from the
Labor Clarion between 1904-1915 were added to the collection in 2006.
Content warning: This collection contains racist historical materials that resulted in the discrimination, murder, and incarceration
of Asian immigrants in the United States.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Chinese -- California -- San Francisco -- History.
Japanese -- California -- San Francisco -- History.
Japanese Americans -- Employment -- History.
Asian Americans -- Employment -- History.
California -- Race relations -- History -- 20th century.
Foreign workers, Chinese -- United States -- History.
Foreign workers, Asian -- United States -- History.
Foreign workers, Korean -- United States -- History.
Foreign workers, Japanese -- United States -- History.
Racism.
Segregation.
Racial discrimination.
Hate groups -- United States -- 20th century.
White supremacy movements -- United States.
Japanese and Korean Exclusion League
Anti-Japanese Laundry League
box 1, folder 1
Minutes and Proceedings, Japanese and Korean Exclusion League (incomplete)
1906-1908
box 1, folder 2
Proceedings, Asiatic Exclusion League
1909-1910
box 1, folder 3
Proceedings, First International Convention, AEL
1908
box 1, folder 4
Debate transcript, Junior Philhistorian Debating Society, St. Ignatius College
1908
box 1, folder 5
Japanese Immigration, U.S. Government Reports and Report of the California Bureau of Labor Statistics
1907
box 1, folder 6
"Meat v. Rice" by Samuel Gompers
1908
box 1, folder 7
"Comparative Tables" of Japanese population growth published by the Japanese and Korean Exclusion League
1907
box 1, folder 8
Convention Proceedings, Anti-Japanese Laundry League
circa 1908
box 1, folder 9
Convention Proceedings, Second Convention, Anti-Japanese Laundry League
1909
box 1, folder 10
"Oriental Immigration on the Pacific Coast"
undated
box 1, folder 11
"Chinese and Japanese, Their Number and Condition"
1906
Labor Clarion (photocopies)
box 1, folder 13
1904 February 26-1905 February 17
box 1, folder 14
1906 February 23-1907 February 15
box 1, folder 15
1907 February 22-1908 February 14
box 1, folder 16
1911 February 17-1912 February 9
box 2, folder 1
1912 February 16-1913 February 7
box 2, folder 2
1913 February 14-1914 February 6
box 2, folder 3
1914 February 13-1915 February 5
