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. 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. Nineteen Chinese immigrants were killed, fifteen of whom were hanged by the mob in the course of the riot. At least one, Dr. Chee Long "Gene" Tong was mutilated when a member of the mob cut off a finger to obtain the victim's diamond ring. 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.
The Los Angeles Chinese massacre of 1871 was an act of mob brutality that resulted in the murder of eighteen Chinese residents. The massacre's immediate cause emanates from a conflict between rival Huiguan, the Nin Yung, and Hong Chow.
The day before the massacre, Won Choy attempted to kill Yo Hing for the abduction of his sister, Yut Ho. The following day, another skirmish occurred, and this time, Won Choy received a fatal gunshot wound to the neck. Officer Jesus Bilderain responded to the scene and was shot inside the Coronel building while attempting to arrest one of the gunmen. Several civilians assisted the police, including a farmer named Robert Thompson who was shot in the chest. Soon after, the Sheriff arrived and deputized a group of men with instructions to guard the Coronel building and prevent any occupants from escaping. Thompson was taken to an apothecary on Main Street where he died two hours later. Following the news of Thompson's death, residents of Los Angeles started to congregate around the Coronel Adobe. Members of the crowd shot at the doors and windows of the building. At nine o'clock p.m., a door was battered down, and the occupants were dragged outside and towards makeshift gallows. According to reports, some in the crowd tried to calm the group and preclude the slayings, including Robert M. Widney, who would go on to become the district judge presiding over the subsequent trials. The massacre ended around 9:30 pm, when the Sheriff "called for twenty-five armed volunteers on the side of law and order to preserve the peace and guard the building until this morning."
The Coroner's inquest resulted in forty-nine indictments, containing the names of one hundred and fifty individuals. Seven men were convicted of manslaughter and received sentences ranging from two to six years in prison. However, an appeal to the California Supreme Court reversed the convictions and remitted the cases back to Widney's court. District Attorney Cameron E. Thom decided against retrying the cases and freed the accused in the spring of 1873.
In 1854, the California Supreme Court established that Chinese Americans and Chinese immigrants had no rights to testify against white citizens, making them vulnerable to abuse and injustice. In 1868 the United States had signed the Burlingame Treaty with the Chinese Empire, setting conditions for immigration. In this period, most Chinese workers who immigrated to the United States were men, intending to stay only temporarily. The small Chinese community in Los Angeles numbered fewer than 200, and 80% were men.
Another factor was the rough frontier nature of Los Angeles, which in the 1850s had a disproportionately high number of lynchings for its size, and an attachment to "popular justice" (this was also a period of violence across the country). It attracted transients from across the country, and alcohol use was high among the predominately male population.
In Los Angeles in the few days preceding the riot, two Chinese Tong factions, known as the Hong Chow and Nin Yung companies, had started a confrontation from a feud over the alleged abduction of a Chinese woman named Yut Ho (also documented as Ya Hit), who was announced in the paper as having married. Due to a lack of women in the Chinese community, most women in the community served as prostitutes and had essentially been sold into sexual slavery. Previously the police department had assisted the Tongs in keeping their confrontations over the women internal to the community, and sometimes capturing and returning women who had escaped, in exchange for payment by the Tongs, but in this case, things got out of hand. Two Chinese men were arrested for shooting at each other, and were released on bail, but the police kept watch on the Old Chinatown neighborhood. It had developed along Calle de los Negros, which was named in the colonial period.
Calle de los Negros was situated immediately northeast of Los Angeles's principal business district, running 500 feet (150 m) from the intersection of Arcadia Street to the plaza. The unpaved street was named by Spanish colonists for Californios (pre-annexation, Spanish-speaking Californians) of darker complexion (most likely of multiracial ancestry: Spanish, Native American, and African) who had originally lived there. The neighborhood had deteriorated into a slum by the time the first Chinatown of Los Angeles developed there in the 1860s.
Early 20th-century Los Angeles merchant Harris Newmark recalled in his memoir that Calle de los Negros was "as tough a neighborhood, in fact, as could be found anywhere." Los Angeles historian Morrow Mayo described it in 1933 as:
a dreadful thoroughfare, forty feet wide, running one whole block, filled entirely with saloons, gambling-houses, dance-halls, and cribs. It was crowded night and day with people of many races, male and female, all rushing and crowding along from one joint to another, from bar to bar, from table to table. There was a band in every joint, with harps, guitars, and other stringed instruments predominating.
Sing Yu's abduction, torture, and legal battles
On October 14, 1870, a Chinese prostitute named Sing Yu was abducted from Los Angeles. Her owner, Sing Lee, of the See Yup company, posted a reward of $100 for her return. (This was the second time Sing Lee offered a reward for Sing Yu. She had been abducted previously on August 25, and recovered the same day.) Both the City Marshal, William C. Warren, and Constable Joseph G. Dye ascertained Sing Yu had been taken to San Buenaventura. Marshal Warren pursued Sing Yu to San Buenaventura. However, before Warren arrived, the Marshal of San Buenaventura arrested Sing Yu on information telegraphed by Officer Dye. Marshal Warren took possession of Sing Yu in Ventura, and returned her to Los Angeles on the morning of October 31. Warren and Dye both claimed to be entitled to the reward for Sing Yu. That afternoon, both Warren and Dye attended a hearing in Justice Trafford's Court. Following the hearing, Dye confronted Warren in the street and accused him of stealing the reward. Warren, anticipating a conflict, had a Derringer concealed behind his back, in his left hand. While arguing with Dye, Warren threw forward his left hand and fired his pistol at Dye's head. Warren's shot was ineffective, and both men then drew revolvers and started firing at one another. Warren was shot in the groin, and died the following day.
During this period, the See Yup Company divided into three; Hong Chow Company, headed by Yo Hing, the Nin Yung Company, headed by Sam Yuen, and the Hop Wo Company.