HERB: Resources for Teachers

Anti-Chinese Prejudice and the "Six Companies" (with text supports)

The Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association of San Francisco (commonly known as "the Six Companies") was an organization of regional- and family-based self-help societies in Chinatown. They helped to get new immigrants housing, food, and jobs. In 1876, its leaders petitioned President Ulysses S. Grant and challenged the growing political…

Tags: Chinese Immigration, Immigration and Migration, Reading Supports
Item Type: Pamphlet
Date: 1898

A Chinese American Describes Going to School in Chinatown (with text supports)

San Francisco's first public school for Chinese immigrants, known first as the Chinese School and then as the Oriental School, began operating in 1859. The school was designed to segregate (separate) Chinese children from white children in the city's public schools. In 1924, after years of protest by Chinese residents who found the name "Oriental…

Tags: Chinese Immigration, Immigration and Migration, Reading Supports
Item Type: Oral History
Date: 1993

Table of the Asian/Pacific Islander Population as Percentage of Total U.S. Population, 1850-1990

Despite the near-hysterical rhetoric about an "invasion" of Chinese in California and other parts of the West in the late nineteenth century, the actual numbers of Chinese and other Asians remained a tiny fraction of the total population.

Tags: Chinese Immigration, Race and Ethnicity
Item Type: Quantitative Data
Date: 2008

The Poetry of Chinese Immigration worksheet

This worksheet helps student analyze poems by Chinese immigrants.

Tags: Chinese Immigration, Immigration and Migration
Item Type: Worksheet
Date: 2010

Tables Show Chinese Labor Distribution and Wage Discrepancies in Late 19th Century San Francisco

This chart shows the numbers of Chinese immigrants employed in various occupations in San Francisco from 1860-1880. Although the data is incomplete, the chart shows that the vast majority of Chinese worked in menial jobs as laundry workers, servants, laborers, cigar-makers, and other unskilled positions. Meanwhile, wages for Chinese workers…

Tags: Chinese Immigration, Immigration and Migration, Work
Item Type: Quantitative Data
Date: 1984

The United States Bars Chinese Immigrants (with text supports)

The Chinese Exclusion Act, passed on May 6, 1882, was the first major restriction placed on immigration in the U.S., and the only immigration law that explicitly barred a specific group from entering the country. The Exclusion Act forbade Chinese "skilled and unskilled laborers" from entering the U.S. for a period of ten years, required Chinese who…

Tags: Chinese Exclusion Act, Chinese Immigration, Constitution and Government, Immigration and Migration, Reading Supports
Item Type: Laws/Court Cases
Date: 1882

San Francisco and California Pass Anti-Chinese Laws, 1858-1913

The playing field in the U.S. was not level for all immigrant groups. Chinese immigrants in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries faced a host of laws that restricted their freedom to emigrate, earn a living, and follow their native cultural practices. Individuals and organizations challenged these laws through the court system, with…

Tags: Chinese Immigration, Immigration and Migration
Item Type: Laws/Court Cases
Date: 1858

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