Were Colored People Allowed to Testify For Residence of Chinese in 1893?

The Geary Act of 1892, the first of several 10-year renewals of the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, added onerous conditions such as the requirement that Chinese had to carry Certificates of Residence with them or risk arrest and deportation.

If a Chinese claimed to have lost his certificate or was late in applying, a white witness could vouch for his residency but a Chinese could not because it was felt they could not be trusted to give honest testimony. But a question arose as to whether the original wording in the act, specifically that a witness be white, excluded the acceptability of testimony from a colored person.

It was admitted that in their haste to exclude Chinese as witnesses, the legislators choose the term, "white," and there was no intention to exclude colored persons from acting as witnesses for Chinese. The lawmakers agreed that colored persons could testify on behalf of Chinese, but one wonders what percentage of witnesses were white vs. colored.