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
Chinaman Shot and Killed Resisting Tax Collector
1855-02-09Jacksonville, California • Lynching
On February 9, 1855, in Jacksonville (Tuolumne County), a California tax collector shot and killed a Chinese man for allegedly resisting the enforcement of the Foreign Miners’ Tax. This burdensome mining tax was imposed on foreign miners, particularly Chinese miners. Sources note that the deputy collector shot him on the spot when he resisted paying the tax. This execution by a state agent illustrates the connection between anti-Chinese policy and violence. A California paper would claim a few years later that a tax collector who shot and killed another Chinese miner had acted appropriately, writing that shooting "a dozen of them" would serve as a "severe lesson" for the Chinese. The Jacksonville lynching again demonstrates the lethal consequences of institutionalized Sinophobia during the Gold Rush, where discriminatory laws were enforced with deadly brutality and Chinese lives were expendable.
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