Anti-Chinese Riot Produced a Reported Lynching

Narrative

In March 1889, anti-Chinese violence in Milwaukee escalated from courtroom threats to citywide attacks on Chinese laundries and residents. The Pittsburg Post and The Great Falls Leader described crowds shouting “Kill them” and officers barely preventing the lynching of Chinese laundrymen. The Ashland Weekly News later claimed that “early this morning a Chinaman was hanged by a mob at Twenty-Seventh and Chesnut streets.” Because the surviving newspaper accounts conflict between attempted and completed lynching, this remains a possible lynching in the archive.

Related Newspaper Article(s)

Their Knees Knocked

The Pittsburgh Post (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)

March 9, 1889 (Page 9)

In Milwaukee, 350 townspeople jeer and threaten laundrymen Hah Ding and Sam Yip Ja, charged with luring and abusing several young girls; cries of “Kill them” echo but police escort the terrified prisoners safely to jail for a postponed hearing.

Down with the Chinese!

The Great Falls Leader (Great Falls, Montana)

March 10, 1889 (Page 1)

Milwaukee crowd of thousands threatens to lynch Sam Yip Ya & Hop Ding on child-luring charges; heavy guard escorts them to jail.

Lynched a Chinaman

Ashland Weekly News (Ashland, Wisconsin)

March 13, 1889 (Page 5)

Milwaukee riots: mobs smash laundries city-wide; at dawn a crowd hangs one Chinese man at 27th and Chestnut. Police scramble to shelter remaining “Celestial heathens” in stations amid rising fury.