Jim Crow Laws: California
This list contains Jim Crow laws, as well as anti-Jim Crow laws. Note how California discriminated against a growing Asian population. (Please note the source of this list in the footnotes below.)
1866: Voting [Statute]
The 1866 California registry act required electors to complete voter registration three months before a general election. Naturalized citizens were required to present original court-sealed naturalization papers.
An 1878 act applying to San Francisco required each voter to register in person before every general election. Voters had to register in their own elector precinct. Because precincts were very small, if a voter moved he was required to re-register.
In 1894, California passed a constitutional amendment that disfranchised any "person who shall not be able to read the constitution in the English language and write his name." An advisory referendum indicated that nearly 80% of voters supported an educational requirement. A similar amendment was again passed in 1911.
From 1879 to 1926, California's constitution stated that "no native of China" shall ever exercise the privileges of an elector in the state." Similar provisions appeared in the constitutions of Oregon and Idaho.
1866: Voter rights [Statute]
Required electors to complete voter registration three months before a general election. Naturalized citizens were required to present original court-sealed naturalization papers.
1866-1947: Segregation, voting [Statute]
Enacted 17 Jim Crow laws between 1866 and 1947 in the areas of miscegenation (6) and education (2), employment (1) and a residential ordinance passed by the city of San Francisco that required all Chinese inhabitants to live in one area of the city. Four voting restriction laws were passed that targeted foreign born inhabitants, particularly the Chinese. Although school segregation was banned by 1880, this law was overturned in 1902, and included Asian children as candidates for separate schools. Similarly, a miscegenation law passed in 1901 broadened an 1850 law, adding that it was unlawful for white persons to marry "Mongolians." The legislation reflects the dominant society's growing anxiety over the steady numbers of Asians immigrating to California by the early twentieth century. An 1893 statute barred public accommodation segregation, with seven additional civil rights laws passed by 1955.
1870: Education [Statute]
African and Indian children must attend separate schools. A separate school would be established upon the written request by the parents of ten such children. "A less number may be provided for in separate schools in any other manner."
1872: Alcohol sales [Statute]
Prohibited the sale of liquor to Indians. The act remained legal until its repeal in 1920.
1878: Voter rights [City Ordinance]
The city of San Francisco required each voter to register in person before each general election in their own elector precinct. Because precincts were very small, if a voter moved he was required to reregister.
1879: Voter rights [Constitution]
"No native of China" would ever have the right to vote in the state of California. Repealed in 1926.
1879: Employment [Constitution]
Prohibited public bodies from employing Chinese and called upon the legislature to protect "the state…from the burdens and evils arising from" their presence. A statewide anti-Chinese referendum was passed by 99.4 percent of voters in 1879.
1880: Barred school segregation [Statute]
Children of any race or nationality, from six to twenty-one years of age, entitled to admission to public schools.
1880: Miscegenation [Statute]
Made it illegal for white persons to marry a "Negro, mulatto, or Mongolian."
1890: Residential [City Ordinance]
The city of San Francisco ordered all Chinese inhabitants to move into a certain area of the city within six months or face imprisonment. The Bingham Ordinance was later found to be unconstitutional by a federal court.
1891: Residential [Statute]
Required all Chinese to carry with them at all times a "certificate of residence." Without it, a Chinese immigrant could be arrested and jailed.
1893: Barred public accommodation segregation [Statute]
Unlawful to refuse admission to anyone with the price of admission to opera houses, theaters, museums, circuses, etc. Penalty: Injured person could recover actual damages and $100.
1894: Voter rights [Constitution]
Any person who could not read the Constitution in English or write his name would be disfranchised. An advisory referendum indicated that nearly 80 percent of voters supported an educational requirement.
1901: Miscegenation [Statute]
The 1850 law prohibiting marriage between white persons and Negroes or mulattoes was amended, adding "Mongolian."
1902: Education [Statute]
Repealed earlier law barring school segregation passed in 1880. In addition to black children, Chinese and Japanese youngsters were also prohibited from attending schools designated for white children.
1909: Miscegenation [Statute]
Persons of Japanese descent were added to the list of undesirable marriage partners of white Californians as noted in the earlier 1880 statute.
1913: Property [Statute]
Known as the "Alien Land Laws," Asian immigrants were prohibited from owning or leasing property. The constitutionality of the land laws were upheld by the United State Supreme Court in 1923 and 1925. The laws were justified as a means of protecting white farmers. The California Supreme Court struck down the Alien Land Laws in 1952.
1925: Barred school antidefamation [Statute]
No textbooks or other instructional materials used by public schools could reflect upon U.S. citizens because of their race, color, or creed.
1929: Barred school segregation [School Code]
Repealed discriminatory sections of earlier codes and provided that all children, regardless of race, should be admitted to all schools.
1931: Civil rights protection [State Code]
Outlawed racial discrimination.
1931: Miscegenation [State Code]
Prohibited marriages between persons of the Caucasian and Asian races.
1933: Miscegenation [Statute]
Broadened earlier miscegenation statute to also prohibit marriages between whites and Malays.
1945: Miscegenation [Statute]
Prohibited marriage between whites and "Negroes, mulattos, Mongolians and Malays."
1947: Miscegenation [Statute]
Subjected U.S. servicemen and Japanese women who wanted to marry to rigorous background checks. Barred the marriage of Japanese women to white servicemen if they were employed in undesirable occupations.
1947: Barred school segregation [Statute]
Repealed 1866 segregation law that required separate schools for children of Chinese, Japanese and Mongolian parentage.
1948: Barred miscegenation segregation [Statute]
Repealed miscegenation laws. Prior to repeal interracial marriages were prohibited, but no penalties were attached to such marriages, or to interracial co-habitation, or to migration into California by interracial couples legally wed out of state.
1954: Barred public accommodation segregation [State Code]
All citizens given right to full and equal accommodations in public places.
1955: Barred National Guard segregation [State Code]
Segregation and discrimination of state National Guard prohibited.
1955: Barred public accommodation segregation [State Code]
Misdemeanor for innkeeper or common carriers to refuse service to anyone without just cause.
FOOTNOTES:
"The History of Jim Crow," n.d., <http://jimcrowhistory.org> (27 November 2009).