Los Angeles Chinese massacre of 1871

"Chinatown War" redirects here. For the video game, see Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars. For other conflicts in Chinatowns across the United States, see Tong Wars.

Los Angeles Chinese massacre of 1871
Chinese immigrants who were murdered during the massacre
Los Angeles Chinese massacre of 1871 is located in Los Angeles
Los Angeles Chinese massacre of 1871
Los Angeles Chinese massacre of 1871 (Los Angeles)
LocationLos Angeles, California, US
Coordinates34°03′24″N 118°14′16″W / 34.056583°N 118.237806°W / 34.056583; -118.237806
DateOctober 24, 1871
TargetChinese immigrants
Attack type
Massacre, Pogrom, Ethnic cleansing
Deaths19
PerpetratorsMob of around 500 non-Chinese men
MotiveRacially motivated, revenge for the accidental killing of Robert Thompson, a local rancher
Robert Maclay Widney, c. 1885

The Los Angeles Chinese massacre of 1871 was a racial massacre targeting Chinese immigrants in Los Angeles, California, United States that occurred on October 24, 1871. Approximately 500 white and Latino Americans attacked, harassed, robbed, and murdered the ethnic Chinese residents in what is today referred to as the old Chinatown neighborhood.[1][2] The massacre took place on Calle de los Negros, also referred to as "Negro Alley". The mob gathered after hearing that a policeman and a rancher had been killed as a result of a conflict between rival tongs, the Nin Yung, and Hong Chow. As news of their death spread across the city, fueling rumors that the Chinese community "were killing whites wholesale", more men gathered around the boundaries of Negro Alley.

A few 21st-century sources have described what followed as the largest mass lynching in American history.[2][3] Nineteen Chinese immigrants were killed, fifteen of whom were hanged by the mob in the course of the riot.[4] At least one was mutilated when a member of the mob cut off a finger to obtain the victim's diamond ring.[4] Those killed represented over 10% of the small Chinese population of Los Angeles at the time, which numbered 172 prior to the massacre. Ten men of the mob were prosecuted and eight were convicted of manslaughter in these deaths. The convictions were overturned on appeal due to technicalities.

  1. ^ Hart, James (1987). A Companion to California. University of California Press. pp. 94–99. ISBN 9780520055438.
  2. ^ a b Johnson, John (March 10, 2011). "How Los Angeles Covered Up the Massacre of 17 Chinese". LA Weekly. Archived from the original on September 2, 2020. Retrieved August 1, 2016.
  3. ^ Erika Lee, "Review of The Chinatown War: Chinese Los Angeles and the Massacre of 1871 (2012), by Scott Zesch", Journal of American History, vol. 100, no. 1 (June 2013), p. 217.
  4. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Grad was invoked but never defined (see the help page).