Episode 3: Transcript

Early Race Wars in the City of Angels

Last time on: The Story Los Angeles

California becomes a state, the discovery of Gold spurs the mass migration of hundreds of thousands, and law and order is brought to Los Angeles with a city Map and the newly formed general city council.

Opening

Los Angeles, a symbol of dreams, sunshine, and endless possibility. But under the glitz and glamor lies a long history of simmering racial tensions woven into the very fabric of the city. From the early massacre of Chinese to the Zoot Suit, Watts, and Rodney King Riots, it's a history that often remains hidden, whispered about, but seldom confronted head-on.

Today, we're stepping behind the facade and peeling back the layers of time to examine racial tensions that shaped the early days of Los Angeles in the 1800s when tensions between the Pobladores and Anglos, Chinese and Irish came to a head - setting the stage for a tumultuous cycle of racial conflict in the city.

This is The Story: Los Angeles.
Episode 3: Early Race Wars in the City of Angels

Part 1: the background

From the original indigenous inhabitants, the Tongva people, to successive waves of Spanish colonizers, Mexican settlers, and eventually, a global melting pot of immigrants – Los Angeles has always been a city of incredible diversity. However, that diversity hasn't always meant equality or harmony.

As noted in episode one, some of the first markers of racial tension can be traced back to the Spanish conquest and the establishment of the mission system. The subjugation of Native American Tongvas and the forced imposition of European culture were early sources of inequality and tension.

As the state grew in population, the Spanish-Speaking inhabitants were quickly outnumbered and their culture slowly Americanized. Baseball replaced bullfights, public institutions like schools and jails were constructed, and banks and protestant churches found their footing. But this wasn’t to say Los Angeles was at all civil.

The cities continued to growth in the wake of the California Gold Rush, meant intense competition for resources. Chinese and Irish immigrants arrived in search of a better life, only to find prejudice and resentment, especially in the labor market.

Interview Clip (if possible): A historian recounts anecdotes of how immigrants were ostracized and denied certain jobs during this period.

In addition, Stockton and Fremonts army that captured Los Angeles for America were made up largely of volunteers from New York’s Bowery and Five Points neighborhoods, at the time the most dangerous communities in the nation with violence often following racial lines. Many of those army members stayed and contributed to extreme violence in a new neighborhood in Los Angeles: Calle de los Negros or street of the blacks named for the dark-skinned mexican Pobladores who lived there.

With the invention of the six-shot revolver by Samuel Colt, shootings and violence in the city skyrocketed. Prominent lawyers and one of the cities mayors were even involved in shootings and lynchings with little to no impact on their societal standing.

The city was in shambles. Amid the violence, stray dogs took over the streets, the “mother ditch” irrigation channel had become a laundry station and public toilet, and unpaved roads were pure dust in the dry season and impassable when the rains created mud.

The late 19th and early 20th centuries were times of both massive expansion and deep societal fracture for Los Angeles.

Part 2: Vigilante Rule

By 1860 while the city now had a map, a city plan thanks to Lieutenant Edward Ord’s Survey, and rudimentary legal codes, enforcement and public safety was lacking. The city had only 6 police officers for an estimated 5,000 residents and untold visitors passing through on their way to find their prosperity in the Golden State.

With a lack of police, rogue organizations soon formed to create their own laws. The Los Angeles Rangers were a band of 23 white armed men on horseback who exerted their own justice where police could not, focusing their sights on Latinos and Native Tongvas. Latinos responded by creating their own bandidos, roaming groups of thieves who regularly burglarized homes, businesses, and banks. Shifting alliances between Latinos, Tongvas, and Anglos created bloody clashes between the groups, at one point resulting in the slaughter of the Sheriff and six of his deputies.

But there was one commonality between the Natives, the Anglos, and the Latinos: these communities' uniformly rejected Chinese immigrants. This xenophobia fueled resentment towards their unfamiliar cultural practices which were misunderstood and used to justify discrimination.

Within their own ranks Chinese immigrants, lured by the promise of gold and opportunity, found themselves trapped in a bloody battle for power, money, and survival within their own community. Known today as the Tong wars, differing factions within the Chinese community created a power struggle throughout California.

Following the California Gold Rush, thousands of Chinese men arrived, fueled by hopes of building a better life. But dreams quickly soured. Racist and Anti-Chinese legislation restricted their endeavors, relegating them to menial labor and overcrowded conditions within the growing Chinatown district of Los Angeles.

These marginalized communities gave rise to Tongs – social organizations initially forged for mutual support and cultural preservation. Yet, in the harsh realities of LA's underbelly, some Tongs succumbed to vice and criminal activity. And soon, what began as a network of brotherhood turned into a battleground for dominance.

Tongs established a stranglehold on gambling dens, opium trade, and prostitution rackets. Clashes over territory and women were common, fueled by deep-seated rivalries and lucrative, illicit trades.

It is important to note that anytime a group of people are rejected from society, often their only means for survival are illegal activities. If rejected groups cannot participate in day to day life of the community they must, for survival, turn elsewhere to make ends meet putting pressure on the community itself requiring its own enforcement mechanisms.

And so… extortion of Chinese-owned businesses became rampant. Protection money exchanged hands, sometimes under the guise of legitimate membership dues. Those who resisted suffered consequences – beatings, arsons, or even a deadly visit from the 'boo how doy', the Tongs' feared community enforcers.

Part 3: The Massacre

In 1860, All Chinese were unified into one society. But as opportunities dwindled due to anti-chinese legislation and rampant racism the community began to divide itself in an attempt to protect their own interests. With limited economic opportunities the Chinese community, primarily composed of men, often turned to illicit activities to fund their life in the New World.

Tensions reached a fever pitch in 1871 during an explosive shootout on Calle de los Negros, known then as "Black Alley." The infamous Chinese Massacre – ignited by a feud over a woman – led to a mob storming Chinatown, indiscriminately murdering 19 residents.

Men often brought younger chinese women to the state, married them for legal purposes, but ultimately utilized them for prostitution.

The events leading up to the deadly 1871 shooting involved a young woman named Yut Ho who was married to an older Chinese man from the Nin Yung faction, using her for prostitution. But she was in love with a younger man from the Hong Chow faction in San Francisco who she also married.

In Court, a judge ruled she was to remain with her younger lover from Hong Chow and upheld their marriage certificate nullifying the older Nin Yung mans claim.

With no other legal recourse, the factions went to war. Professional hitman from the Hong Chow faction arrived in Los Angeles by steamboat from San Francisco.

LA’s Chinese community was well aware of the risk and in the days leading up to their arrival had purchased over 50 handguns in anticipation of a pending conflict.

The local Nin Yung faction in Los Angeles shot first at an encounter on Black Alley, killing one of the San Francisco hitman and resulting in a shootout between the factions. Hearing the gunshots, police soon arrived but one officer and a saloonkeeper who ran to his aide, both white men, were shot and killed on the scene. At that moment, racial tensions exploded.

Anglos, hearing the gunfire and seeing the officer and saloonkeeper dead at the hands of the Chinese became enraged and formed a mob of almost 500

All the whites saw was Chinese killing a white police officer and business owner. They were not aware of the nuances of the rivaling factions and despite most of the Hong Chow escaping back to San Francisco the angry mob indiscriminately attacked all Chinese in the city.

Even respected doctor Chee Long Tong who begged for his life was lynched. Chinese businesses were looted and in the end 19 Chinese (10% of the chinese population at the time) were dead.

The next day, the city awoke somber and disgraced to the remains of the slaughter, blood on the streets, nooses strewn about. The massacre became a global news story tarnishing the name of Los Angeles and raising calls for the city to be placed under martial law.

This was the first race riot in the cities history. One of many to come as the city grew and became a melting pot of cultures and ethnicities.

While public outrage over the Massacre briefly quelled the violence, the roots of the Tong Wars continued to fester.

It took the devastating 1906 San Francisco Earthquake – which destroyed much of Chinatown, including Tong centers – and persistent efforts from reformers, to diminish overt Tong violence. Many of them gradually rebranded, moving towards legitimate businesses and focusing on community support.

However, echoes of the Tongs reverberate in the underworld of organized crime even today, a ghostly reminder of the darker aspects of LA's immigrant history.

The story of LA's Tong Wars is more than just violence and underworld intrigues. It's a story of immigrant struggle, discrimination, and the constant fight for a foothold in a society that sought to push them out. Through understanding this tumultuous period, we can hopefully avoid repeating its lessons in our own time.