The Chinese Exclusion Act
For the first century of its existence, the United States had no legal restrictions on immigration. This all changed in the latter part of the 1800s, when anti-Chinese agitation by politicians, industrialists, laborers, and media led to federal laws targeting Chinese abroad and those already in the country. But THE CHINESE EXCLUSION ACT goes far beyond the legislation of its title with a sweeping chronicle of the entire exclusion era: the survival and growth of Chinese American communities in the face of prejudice and outright violence; the “paper” sons and daughters who emigrated despite the seemingly impassable barriers; and the legal challenges that produced some of the most momentous decisions in Supreme Court history.