鈥楩ocused on healing鈥�: Denver apologizes for anti-Chinese race riot
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Sarah Matusek Staff writer
| Denver and Parker, Colo.
What causes a town to disappear without a trace?
In the case of a vanished Chinatown: hate.
On Saturday, Denver Mayor Michael Hancock apologized to descendants of early Chinese immigrants for the Colorado capital鈥檚 complicity in 鈥渘early a century of violence and discrimination.鈥� That included the dissolution of the city鈥檚 Chinatown, a decadeslong vanishing act after an anti-Chinese race riot.
Why We Wrote This
The American West owes part of its expansion to early Chinese immigrants. A Denver apology seeks to revive and revere the memory of a long-lost Chinatown.
Following similar contrition in at least four other cities in California,聽the apology comes amid raised awareness of pandemic-related aggression聽against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. It also affirms the work of local advocates seeking to correct the record on an overlooked history.
鈥淟et鈥檚 reconcile and let鈥檚 move forward. ... Let鈥檚 tell our story, and let鈥檚 make sure that it鈥檚 preserved for future generations,鈥� Linda Lung tells the Monitor. Honored this past weekend with a commemorative coin, she鈥檚 a descendant of Chinese business owners who settled in Colorado in the early 1900s, after fleeing anti-Chinese violence in other Western states.
鈥淲hile the city cannot erase past injustices鈥� against Chinese immigrants聽and Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, said Mayor Hancock, 鈥渢he city owes them a long-overdue apology.鈥�
That鈥檚 142 years overdue, for those counting back to the day a laundry worker was killed.聽
鈥淗op Alley鈥�
Early Chinese immigration can be traced along the tracks of the transcontinental railroad, which was built by thousands of Chinese workers in the 1860s. Many had originally arrived in California to cash in on the gold rush and send remittances home.
As former Colorado state historian William Wei notes, the westward expansion era tolerated Chinese more as menial laborers than as settlers. Long before COVID-19-era Sinophobia, Chinese in the American West were considered bearers of disease 鈥撀燽oth literal and societal 鈥� by white counterparts who were often immigrants themselves.
In the 1870s, one of over 200 Chinatowns in the American West flourished in Denver. Today, this downtown area on and around Wazee Street is lined with offices, sleek cafes, and parking meters; back then it offered rest and recreation for a working-class ethnic enclave,聽bustling with laundries, Chinese eateries, and herbal medicine shops.
The Oct. 31, 1880, anti-Chinese riot likely began as a saloon altercation between Chinese and white laborers. An estimated 3,000 to 5,000 locals swarmed Chinatown, damaging structures, assaulting residents, and killing one laundry worker, Look Young. An estimated $53,000 or more in damages to Chinese businesses and homes 鈥撀爎oughly $1.5 million in today鈥檚 dollars聽鈥� was never compensated.
鈥淣evertheless, most people remained to rebuild the community, because it was their home,鈥� says Dr. Wei, professor of history at the University of Colorado Boulder. However, discrimination and marginalization into menial jobs made it difficult to make a living. Some residents left for larger Chinatowns on the East and West coasts, where there was more work.聽
Two years after the violence, the of 1882 banned the immigration of Chinese laborers. By World War II, the Chinatown population had dwindled; then the area underwent urban renewal. In 2020, Mayor Hancock declared Oct. 31 Denver鈥檚 Chinatown Commemoration Day.
There鈥檚 no trace of Chinatown now, besides a small plaque near the Coors Field baseball stadium that refers to the 鈥淗op Alley/Chinese Riot of 1880鈥� 鈥撀犫�渉op鈥� being a slang reference to opium. Dr. Wei and others have contested the plaque as offensive and misleading, arguing the public should understand it as an anti-Chinese riot. He鈥檚 joined advocates involved in trying to develop alternative historical markers, The Colorado Sun has .
Beyond apology to action
Linda Jew is the great-granddaughter of Chinese pioneer Chin Lin Sou, a noted railroad foreman who later turned to mining. Ms. Jew recalls slurs hurled at her while growing up in the 1950s, and how she鈥檇 avoid playing in the front yard because other children would throw rocks at her.
鈥淓very day we walked home from school, they would wait for us to harass us,鈥� she says at her home in Parker, Colorado. During an interview, her petite white dog, Orion, checks up on her, his tags tinkling as he approaches.聽
Even as an adult, the dental hygienist, a proud American and fourth-generation Coloradan, says she鈥檚 been unnerved by the question 鈥淲hat are you?鈥� She hopes the Denver apology will raise awareness of anti-Chinese discrimination.
Colorado Asian Pacific United, a local advocacy coalition, pushed for the apology and helped draft the language with the office of the mayor, which will continue to partner with the group. (Dr. Wei, a founding member, serves on the CAPU board of directors, and Ms. Lung is on a family history committee.) CAPU counts four cities in California 鈥撀燗ntioch, San Jose, Los Angeles, and San Francisco 鈥撀爐hat have apologized for the treatment and massacre of early Chinese immigrants.聽
The census estimates the Asian of majority-white Denver at around 4%. Following five years of no recorded incidents, Denver Police Department data shows three bias-motivated cases categorized as anti-Asian in 2020, followed by five in 2021. Several cities across the United States have reported upticks in anti-Asian hate crimes during the pandemic.
The Denver government has pledged that actions will follow words. At the livestreamed event held at the University of Colorado Denver, the mayor announced his administration鈥檚 support for the development of an Asian Pacific historic district, sponsorship of public murals, creation of a public education program on Asian Pacific Coloradans, and establishment of an Asian Pacific American community museum, which would be 鈥渢he first of its kind in the Rocky Mountain region,鈥� he said to applause.聽
鈥淭here is a racial reckoning that is going on across the country, which is long overdue. And this is a part of that,鈥� says Derek Okubo, executive director of the Agency for Human Rights & Community Partnerships within the mayor鈥檚 office.
鈥�We are focused on healing,鈥� says Mr. Okubo, whose own family survived Japanese American detention during World War II. 鈥淚n order to heal as a community ... you have to acknowledge the past.鈥澛�
