The John Crow Project
Documenting the history of anti-Chinese lynchings, riots, and massacres
in the American West (1850 – 1915)
What Is the John Crow Project?
Between the California Gold Rush and the First World War, Chinese immigrants were subjected to a coordinated regime of racial terror—lynchings, riots, expulsions, and legal exclusion. This project calls that Western system “John Crow”: a structure aimed at expulsion rather than subordination.
Drawing on a newly compiled dataset of documented lynchings, digitized newspaper archives, and spatial analysis, this site reconstructs how violence spread—across towns, along rivers and railroads, and through national print networks.
The interactive maps, timelines, and charts presented here translate the quantitative and spatial arguments of the dissertation into web-based form. Where possible, visualizations correspond directly to analytical figures developed in A Murder of Crows.
Quick Start
Browse lynching records by date, place, and event details.
Read article images, transcriptions, and source citations.
Open charts, maps, timelines, and comparative views.
Access structured data used across the archive.
Ask questions and trace evidence across records.
New to the site? Take the guided tour.
Featured Record
The Hells Canyon Massacre of at Least 34 Chinese Miners
1887-07-00Hells Canyon on Snake River, Oregon • Massacre
In May 1887, in Hells Canyon on the Oregon–Idaho border, one of the worst mass murders of Chinese immigrants occurred. A gang of horse thieves ambushed a remote camp of Chinese gold miners, killing at least 34 men and stealing their gold. News of the atrocity spread slowly. The horrific massacre was reported as far away as North Carolina and Pennsylvania. The Lebanon Express (Oregon) speculated that “More than likely it was the whites who look with an evil eye upon Chinese intrusion in American mines” (June 30, 1887). Despite the magnitude of the massacre, the perpetrators evaded meaningful justice. The Hells Canyon massacre stands as a stark example of the extreme violence faced by Chinese in the West. It should be noted that this occurred during the bloodiest decade of John Crow.
Read full record →