Anti-Chinese Riots Burned Chinese Property and Killed Residents

On July 23, 1877, anti-Chinese rioters in San Francisco attacked Chinese neighborhoods, looted wash-houses, and set buildings on fire. The San Francisco Examiner said hoodlum gangs committed “wanton and atrocious deeds of violence, incendiarism—if not also of murder,” and reported that “the bodies of two Chinamen were found” in one burned structure. The San Francisco Chronicle described a broader “reign of riot” in which more than twenty Chinese wash-houses were sacked and burned; contemporary reports differ on the death toll, but the violence clearly left Chinese residents dead, wounded, and dispossessed. The same article stated that an Anti-Coolie meeting was “held at half-past 8 o’clock in Hamilton Hall, where inflammatory speeches were delivered. Banners read “White Labor Must Rule,” and shouts of “Down with the Coolies!” followed.