Victims of the 1871 Chinese massacre in Los Angeles. From Security Pacific National Bank Collection at Los Angeles Public Library.
One of the darkest episodes in Los Angeles history was the 1871 Chinese Massacre. The event was preceded by simmering anti-Chinese bigotry and, within Chinatown itself (where Union Station is presently located), conflict between two competing tongs (gangs). On the evening of October 24, two white constables entered Chinatown to break up an argument between members of the tongs. Shots rang out between the feuding parties and the constables found themselves in the middle of a shootout. Robert Thompson, a local white saloon owner and farmer, joined several other civilians to assist the lawmen. Firing several shots himself in the direction of the shooters, he ended up being shot in return, dying from his wounds a few hours later. Word of the Chinatown shootout and death of a white man spread quickly. Rumors flew that the Chinese were killing whites wholesale. Soon, a mob of 500 non-Asian Angelenos (approximately eight percent of L.A.'s population at the time) descended upon Chinatown, hunting down and assaulting every Chinese male they could find, regardless of whether they had been involved in the shooting incident. After five hours, the mob had hanged or shot to death at least 17 men and a teenage boy. Only one of the victims might actually have been connected to the earlier shootout. Chinese homes and businesses were looted. Every Chinese resident was robbed. A posse of eleven white men, including Sheriff James Burns and prominent Angeleno Robert Widney, attempted to stop the mob violence and managed to save a number of Chinese residents. They were, however, outnumbered and overwhelmed. The mob even shot and killed a white man, Johnny Burrow, who tried to protect the Chinese.
After the incident, the local newspaper of the time (Los Angeles Daily Star) decried the lawlessness and violence of the mob. It painted L.A.'s Chinese community, however, as if all Chinese residents behaved badly and drew the attack upon themselves. National newspaper attention was negative, portraying Los Angeles as barbaric.
The Chicago Tribune newspaper wrote of the massacre in their November 8, 1971 edition:
"The Los Angeles mob not only killed the Chinamen, but they resorted to the most depraved brutality. They mutilated some of their victims alive and upon the dead bodies of others perpetrated the most disgusting outrages. They added robbery to murder. Knowing that the Chinese convert their money into coin, the attack was doubtless to some extent inspired by a hope to plunder. The local papers estimate the amount of coin actually carried off at from $10,000 to $15,000, and this must be added eighteen men killed and a dozen others wounded."
A grand jury investigation was held in Los Angeles. Eight men were indicted and convicted for their role in the riots. None, however, served time in prison, due to their convictions being overturned on appeal, because of a legal technicality.
View of Calle de Los Negros, looking north, in Los Angeles, Circa 1882. From California Historical Society Collection at USC Library.
Victims of the Massacre:
Source of victim names: Chinese Los Angeles in 1870-1871: The Makings of a Massacre, by Scott Zesch, Southern California Quarterly (Summer 2008), University of California Press
The location in which the initial shooting incident occurred that sparked the 1871 massacre, was at the Coronel Adobe, about 400 feet south of the Old Plaza at Los Angeles and Arcadia Streets. The adobe and adjacent block of structures were demolished in 1888 in order to extend Los Angeles Street to the Old Plaza. The location is today in the middle of Los Angeles Street, just south of the old Garnier Building and just north of where the 101 freeway runs today, at the intersection of Los Angeles and Arcadia Streets.
L.A. VIDEO: The Chinese Massacre: One of Los Angeles' Worst Atrocities
