Race-Based Exclusion 

Page Act of 1875

March 5, 1875 

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The Page Act of 1875 prohibits the importation of "unfree" laborers and women brought to the U.S. for “immoral purposes” but is enforced primarily against Chinese immigrants.  It is a product of many political factors, including concerns over involuntary servitude, declining wages in the labor market, prostitution, and popular racist stereotypes about people of Asian descent.

The Act establishes a triumvirate of primary goals; specifically, it:

1) authorizes the use of federal agents at immigration ports to search and question “any subject of China, Japan, or any Oriental country” to determine if that person had come “without their free and voluntary consent, for the purpose of holding them to a term of service."  If agents suspect that the person has come involuntarily to engage in “lewd and immoral purposes” while in the U.S., they can be expelled. 

2) effectively bans the immigration of Chinese women by portraying most of them as arriving in the U.S. solely to work as prostitutes.  Chinese women attempting to enter the country at Angel Island Immigration Station outside San Francisco are subjected to invasive and humiliating interrogations by U.S. immigration officials.  (Preventing women from immigrating alongside their partners means male laborers are unable to create families and set down roots in America.)

3) bans people convicted of felonies in their home country from immigrating to the U.S.

Ultimately, the Act represents an early effort to restrict Asian immigration without categorically restricting Asian immigration on the basis of race while restricting select categories of persons whose labor is perceived as immoral or coerced.

Gentlemen's Agreement

1907 - 1908

On April 18, 1906, the San Francisco Board of Education segregate all students of Japanese descent to "The Oriental Public School for Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans."  Japanese-Americans are outraged at what they believe to be a breach of the treaty of 1894 that had guaranteed them the right to immigrate.  (Interestingly, this edict by the San Francisco Board of Education came 11 months before President Theodore Roosevelt issues Executive Order 589 on March 14, 1907, ordering "Japanese or Korean laborers, skilled and unskilled, who have received passports to go to Mexico, Canada or Hawaii, and come therefrom, be refused permission to enter the continental territory of the United States.")

As the problem escalates, the Japanese and U.S. governments intervene to preserve diplomatic peace.  Between late 1907 and early 1908, the Japanese and U.S. governments exchange a series of notes, known collectively as the Gentlemen’s Agreement:  the U.S. government agrees to pressure the San Francisco authorities to withdraw the measure, and the Japanese government promises to restrict the immigration of laborers to the U.S.  

President Theodore Roosevelt "forces" San Francisco to repeal its Japanese-American school segregation order in exchange for Japan agreeing to deny emigration passports to Japanese laborers, while still allowing wives, children and parents of current immigrants to enter the U.S. 

The goal of the Gentlemen's Agreement is to reduce tensions between the U.S. and Japan such as those that followed the Pacific Coast race riots of 1907 and the segregation of Japanese students in public schools.  The agreement is not a treaty and is never voted on by the U.S. Congress.  It is superseded by the Immigration Act of 1924.  

Immigration Act of 1924

May 26, 1924

An Act of May 26, 1924, Public Law 68-139, 43 STAT 153, to Limit Immigration of Aliens into the United States for Other Purposes 

General Records of the U.S. Government; National Archives & Records Administration

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Following the success of the Emergency Quota Act of 1921, Congress hastens to implement a permanent quota system; a coalition of restrictionists lobby for the quota system, intent upon restoring the ethnic makeup of the country’s white population to that of the early 19th century (away from the "new" immigration of the late 19th century from southern and eastern Europe).  

The  Immigration Act of 1924, also known as the "Johnson-Reed Act," establishes a permanent race-based quote system for immigration to America:  2 percent of resident populations counted in the 1890 census, capping overall immigration at 150,000 per year; this represents an 80% reduction of the yearly average before 1914.  The act temporarily reduces the annual quota of any nationality from 3% of their 1910 population, per the Emergency Quota Act of 1921, to 2% as recorded in the 1890 census.  With a few exemptions, such as specialized employment, education, or tourism, it bars altogether “aliens ineligible for citizenship" (i.e., Asian immigrants).  

Eastern and southern Europeans are most severely affected by reductions in legal immigration.  The “national origins” quotas are enforced by a system of “remote control.”  Prospective immigrants are required to apply for visas at the U.S. consulate or embassy closest to their homes; they are interviewwd and their applications are evaluated, accepted or rejected far away from the U.S.  Not surprisingly, immigration numbers fall immediately and dramatically, and particularly from targeted areas of eastern and southern Europe.  In addition, the Act authorizes the creation of the country's first formal border control service, the U.S. Border Patrol.

The “national origins” quota system will remain the primary principle determining admissibility to the U.S. until passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965.  

Executive Order 9066

February 19, 1942

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President Franklin Delano Roosevelt issues Executive Order 9066 authorizing the forced removal of all persons deemed a threat to national security from the West Coast to "relocation centers" further inland, resulting in the incarceration of Japanese Americans.  The West Coast is divided into military zones; military commanders are authorized to exclude civilians from military areas.  Although the language of the order does not specify any ethnic group, Lieutenant General John L. DeWitt of the Western Defense Command announces curfews that include only Japanese Americans.

Specifically, General DeWitt first encourages voluntary evacuation by Japanese Americans from a limited number of areas.  About seven percent of the total Japanese American population in these areas comply.  Specific decrees, dates, and actions stemming from Executive Order 9066 follow: 

• March 21, 1942 Congress passes Public Law 503, which makes violation of Executive Order 9066 a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in prison and a $5,000 fine.   

• March 27, 1942  Under the authority of Roosevelt's executive order, DeWitt issues Public Proclamation No. 4, which begins the forced evacuation and detention of Japanese American West Coast residents on a 48-hour notice. 

• May 17, 1942  The U.S. military issues Civilian Exclusion Order 82, forcing all individuals of Japanese ancestry living within a designated "Military Area" on the West Coast to evacuate their homes and relocate to internment camps.