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
Large Mob Massacred 18 or 19 Chinese Men
1871-10-24Los Angeles, California • Mass lynching
The Los Angeles Chinatown Massacre took place on October 24, 1871. It stands as one of the deadliest acts of anti-Chinese violence in US history. At least 18 Chinese immigrants were killed when a mob of around 500 white men attacked the community in Los Angeles, California. This massacre was widely reported. For example, The Beatrice Weekly Express (Beatrice, NE) reported on November 18, 1871, that: “The crowd [estimated at 3,000 Angelenos] surged on. They burned buildings and sacked shops. Some of them, it is stated, were stripped and left naked. A Chinese boy was shot, cocked and placed against the wall. One of the excited mob endeavored to plunge his knife into the Chinaman’s back, striking the captor’s hand in its stead.” Survivors of the massacre were left deeply traumatized. The LA massacre foreshadowed similar massacres and riots in the 1880s. A monument to this massacre was erected in downtown Los Angeles in 2001.
Read full record →