About Me

After a career of over 40 years as an academic psychologist, I started a new career as a public historian of Chinese American history that led to five Yin & Yang Press books and over 100 book talks about the lives of early Chinese immigrants and their families operating laundries, restaurants, and grocery stores. This blog contains more research of interest to supplement my books.

7/5/18

"Chinaman Tires of White Wife"


In 1909, a Chinese laundryman in Meridian, Mississippi, Lum Jack,* married a young white girl even though mixed marriages between races were illegal in Mississippi and most states.  Apparently, the officiant of the wedding did not know prior to the ceremony that Lum Jack was a "Chinaman," and when he discovered this fact, he annulled the marriage, and there was even talk of a grand jury indictment. However, the young couple was determined to resist public opinion and the Mississippi law against mixed-race marriages.


Before legal action was taken against them, the couple fled town and got remarried in Livingston, Alabama, where Lum Jack opened another laundry. Interestingly, he kept his laundry in Meridian and returned every Saturday to attend to his customers there.


A bit later, the couple moved to Birmingham, opening a laundry there, but matrimonial woes soon beset them.  Apparently, Mrs. Lum attracted the attention of a Greek described in the paper as an "Apollo" sporting two mustaches, leading to the couple fighting and getting arrested, with a fine of $5. 


The laundryman filed for an annulment of the one year old marriage. The Vickburg Herald newspaper headline on January 29, 1910 gloated, Another Vindication of the Color Line Law.



*His name was probably Jack Lum, but the white reporter reversed it. He was born in the U.S. to a Chinese father and white mother so a mixed race marriage was not new to Lum Jack.

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