Yick Wo was a laundryman in San Francisco for 22 years in the late 19th century. A law passed in 1880 banned Chinese laundries in wood buildings, unless they had a permit. The law was proposed as a public safety measure as laundries in wood buildings had high risks of starting fires. Yick Wo defied this law and continued operating his laundry. He was fined and jailed for his failure to comply with the ban. His case, Yick Wo v. Hopkins 1886, went to the US Supreme Court.
Of about 200 Chinese laundrymen, only one was granted a permit, yet almost all white-owned laundries, which were also in wood structures, received a permit. The Supreme Court ruled in Yick Wo's favor, not because there was no fire risk, but because its discriminatory enforcement would close all Chinese laundries, and thus violate the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Gong Lum operated a grocery store in Rosedale, Mississippi. The School Board ruled in 1924 that his two daughters, Martha and Berda (3rd and 4th from the left bottom row in the class photograph) could not attend a white school in Mississippi on the grounds that they were not Caucasians and should attend a school for colored children. Gong Lum obtained legal assistance to take his case to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled against him, Gong Lum v. Rice, 1927, upholding school segregation. Gong Lum lost the fight and responded by moving his family across the Mississippi River to Arkansas.
These cases illustrate some of the discriminatory barriers the Chinese faced, and how they fought back with legal action. Even though they did not always get favorable rulings, their cases became significant historic legal decisions in American history.
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