To Enjoy & Defend Our American Citizenship:
Fighting for Civil Rights in the
Shadow of the Chinese Exclusion Act

April 3-April 30, 2009
9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. daily
Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site
1515 SE Monroe • Topeka, Kansas

Free and open to public
For more information contact the Brown Foundation
(785) 235-3939 or brownfound@juno.com

This important exhibit acknowledges the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 that had a dramatic effect on immigrant populations for decades afterwards. On May 6, 1882, the United States Congress passed the nation's first immigration legislation, a law to prevent people of Chinese descent from entering the country. The law would tear apart families and cut the nation’s Chinese American population in half while removing their right to become U.S. citizens.

This exhibit commemorates the Exclusion Act by exploring the historical debate from its origins through its full repeal in 1968, the civil rights struggle of Chinese Americans and their allies, andthe historic importance of habeas corpus in the Chinese American community.

"It is impossible to preserve the integrity of a government like ours if we deny any class in our communitiy the equal protection of the laws." —
Ng Poon Chew and Patrick Healy, 1905
"A Statement of Non-Exclusion"

Presented by the Brown Foundation for Educational Equity, Excellence and Research and the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site as part of the 2008-2009 program series, Race and the American Creed. Download the 2008-2009 program brochure (1.8 MB PDF).

All Rights Reserved.
Created: September 6, 2008.
URL: http://brownvboard.org/programs/200904chinese.htm.