Marking 100th Anniversary of U.S. 'Anti-Hindu Riots'

[Guest guest]

Bellingham, Wash. (September 4, 2007): Most people of Indian origin in

America are blissfully unaware of what this day means in their history.

 

On this day in Bellingham, nicknamed " City of Subdued Excitement, " and

located midway between Vancouver (British Columbia) and Seattle

(Washington), all Indians were ordered to leave their jobs, their

possessions and go elsewhere, anywhere. That was exactly 100 years ago.

 

Thus, American history marks today as the 100-year anniversary of

Bellingham's " Hindu " riots, when a white mob rounded up the city's 235

Indian mill workers and ordered them out of town. That's why today,

Bellingham City and Whatcom County officials will mark the anniversary

of the 1907 race riots with a joint proclamation calling for a " Day of

Healing and Reconciliation. "

 

Organizers hope the noon event today at the Whatcom County Courthouse

Rotunda will give people a chance to think about what healing and

justice really mean, and what people can do to ensure past acts of

discrimination aren't repeated, said Barbara Rofkar, chairwoman of the

Whatcom Human Rights Taskforce.

 

" To me, that would be the use of history, instead of just repeating

it, " Rofkar said. " If it doesn't become our wisdom, it just becomes

repeated patterns. " Rofkar is part of the Human Rights Commemoration

Project, formed to make sure people don't forget the anniversary.

 

THE SEPT 4, 1907 ANTI- " HINDU " RIOTS

 

It began as an attack on two Indian workers on C Street and turned

into a rock-throwing lynching, to " scare them so badly that they will

not crowd white labour out of the mills. " The next day about 300

Indians fled Bellingham in fear. Though the press, some civic leaders

and churches denounced the riots, nothing was done to stop it.

 

The white rioters broke into the Indians' houses and workplaces, stole

and destroyed their valuables, and threatened and beat them until they

were forcibly expelled from the city. In the course of one night, an

entire community was driven from the town – in the approving words of

a local paper, " wiped off the map. "

 

The police said the mob took bank books, cash and several hundred

dollars' worth of gold jewelry. A mill owner said one of his East

Indian workmen lost $200 in photography equipment. " The places were

also turned topsy-turvy, " the Herald reported, " and much valuable

clothing and articles owned by the Orientals was destroyed that was

not carried off. "

 

This is what the Bellingham Herald reported on the day following the

riots:

 

" Cowering, frightened Hindus to the number of 135, or approximately

half the Indian colony, left Bellingham yesterday, and it is probable

that by tonight there will not be a singly one of the Orientals left

here. All those who can speak English state that they are staying over

the one extra day in deadly fear of their lives and that they would

have gone yesterday if they had been able to draw their pay and get

their checks cashed. "

 

One newspaper, The American, ran a drawing on the front page the day

after the riots, depicting two big-nosed, almond-eyed men in beards

and turbans. A smaller drawing showed a robed man playing a flute,

apparently charming a snake. " This is the type of man driven from this

city as a result of last night's demonstration, " read the caption.

(http://www.sikhpioneers.org/images/riot.gif)

 

By the end of the night, about 200 men were crowded into the basement

of City Hall.

 

" Finding the police unable to cope with the situation, " the Bellingham

Herald reported, " the mob ran amuck. With whoops of glee they gathered

together the Hindus of old town and escorted them to the station where

Judge Williams' old courtroom was turned over for their use and there

the men from India were herded like so many cattle. "

 

Bellingham's mill owners may have insisted they would rather have

hired white men, but Indian laborers developed a good reputation, said

John Wunder, a history professor at the University of Nebraska at

Lincoln who has studied the anti-Asian movement in the American West.

 

" The Indians were in good demand because they were known for their

work excellence, " he said. " They were bright and they were coming from

India — many of them could speak English. "

 

Newspapers of the time reported that many Bellingham residents

lingered at the train station, gawking at the Indians leaving on

trains toward Vancouver, B.C., or Oakland, Calif.

 

" The crowd at the station offered no violence, " reported the

Bellingham Herald the day after the riot, " and aside from jeering and

the cries of 'good' and 'don't come back,' that followed the train,

there was no show of feeling. "

 

According to another newspaper report, this is what happened.

 

An angry mob of over 500 racist men kicked open the doors to the

waterfront barracks. Some of them grabbed all the " hindoos' "

belongings and threw them onto the street. If they found any money or

jewelry they pocketed it. The others went after the " rag-heads "

themselves. They dragged the Indians from their beds and punched and

kicked them. The ones that jumped out of the buildings to escape

injured themselves in the process or were caught and beaten outside.

Other rioters attacked a tenement on Forest Street. Once they were

done beating the " hindoos " they burnt the bunkhouses.

 

The police did nothing. Well actually that's not quite accurate. They

watched! In fact, the police chief turned over City Hall to the mob so

the mob could collect the Indians and hold them there. He claimed it

was to protect the Indians! Earlier, at the insistence of the mob, his

policemen had released two youths who had been caught stoning Indians.

They didn't interfere with the mob's rampage after that.

 

Earlier in the evening of that same day, racist Europeans who wanted

to " drive out the hindoos " had chased and beaten two Indians walking

on C Street. In the days preceding the major riots Indians had been

beaten in defense of " white womanhood " , windows in two Indian houses

had been smashed and numerous other hate crimes were committed.

 

The Indians lost their belongings and savings. They had nowhere to

live anymore. They were beaten and injured. They had no hope of any

protection from the city authorities. They didn't have any jobs

because the lumber yard owners who had employed them had been

intimidated by the racist mob to fire them. And last but not the

least, they faced death threats and continued violence if they stayed

in Bellingham. Bewildered by the intensity of the hatred they left to

find work elsewhere.

 

The Bellingham riots triggered similar riots and " expulsions "

throughout the Pacific northwest. Some of the Indians who were driven

from Bellingham went to Everett, another town in Washington state

sixty miles south of Bellingham. On November 5th, 1907, in Everett,

Washington, over five hundred armed men attacked and beat the Indians

and robbed and destroyed their belongings. The result was the same as

in Bellingham.

 

Most newspapers editorials in the west including the San Francisco

Chronicle condemned the violence but proclaimed that they understood

and supported the intentions of the mobs for a " white west coast " .

 

Although assured of protection by special police officers at the mills

of the B. B. L. Company, the E. K. Wood Lumber Company and the

Morrison Mill Company, the Hindu crews at these places quit, refused

to work and declared that they were afraid of more rioters. Hallama,

an employee at the B. B. L. Company, came to the police station last

night and asked to be allowed to stay there so that he would be safe.

He is an Americanized Hindu who wears ordinary clothes and speaks

fairly good English, and he declared that he voiced the sentiment of

the entire colony when he declared that they would leave today, as

soon as they could draw their pay, and that no Hindus would ever come

to Bellingham again.

 

He said that he and his brethren were certain that the mob would kill

them if they remained here. The police, he said, would do the best

they could, according to the belief of the Hindus, but the sons of

India feared that they would be caught in dark streets some night when

the police were not present and would be either badly slugged or

killed outright. He said Bellingham was " no good place for Hindu, " and

that none of them would ever return to the city again.

 

An English-speaking Hindu who worked at one of the other mills said

that he and the others would not stay for $5 a day now, as they were

convinced that they would certainly be murdered if they presumed to

remain after the warning given them by the rioters.

 

The Bellingham Reveille editorialized on Sept. 6, 1907: " From every

standpoint it is most undesirable that these Asians should be

permitted to remain in the United States. They are repulsive in

appearance and disgusting in manners. They are said to be without

shame, and while no charges of immorality are brought against them,

their actions and customs are so different from ours that there can

never be tolerance of them. They contribute nothing to the growth and

upbuilding of the city as a result of their labors. They work for

small wages and do not put their money into circulation. "

 

The newspaper went on to comment: " The Hindu is not a good citizen. It

would require centuries to assimilate him, and this country need not

take the trouble. Our racial burdens are already heavy enough to bear.

.... Our cloak of brotherly love is not large enough to include him as

a member of the body politic. "

 

100-YEAR COMMEMORATION

 

Now, 100 years later, it is heartening that the local newspapers – The

Bellingham Herald and Lynden Tribune – have articles examining the

riots, its context, its aftermath and comparisons to racism today,

including a multimedia presentation available here:

 

http://tinyurl.com/yqhmk8

 

And Paul Englesberg, who develops curriculum about Asian Americans for

area school teachers, is putting together visual displays about the

riots for the Bellingham Public Library and Wilson Library at Western

Washington University.

 

Anniversaries are useful times to learn about events such as the 1907

riot, said historian Joan Jensen, who wrote a book about Indian

immigration (Passage from India). When people are calm and reflective,

they can learn more about the event, she said, and learn to recognize

warning signs before situations are repeated.

 

David Cahn, an organizer with Community to Community Development who

wrote a thesis studying the connection between the 1907 riot and

anti-immigration legislation, sees echoes of 1907 in today's

anti-immigration rhetoric.

 

" The way anti-immigration people are now obsessed with the U.S.-Mexico

border, 100 years ago they were obsessed with the Pacific Coast, " Cahn

said. " All these Asian immigrants were coming in, they thought it was

a threat to the state of the nation at the time. "

 

Inder Singh president of the Global Organization of People of Indian

Origin, GOPIO, observes:

 

" The race riots had a devastating impact on the Indian community in

the Pacific Coast. Indians had come in search of a chance for a better

life for themselves and their families and worked even at menial

laboring jobs. They could never have anticipated that America –

considered the best among civil societies – had people full of

meanness, malice and ill-will against different looking people.

Indians did not attempt to take away jobs from the unskilled white

workers; they simply filled a portion of the deficit in human

resources. The white laborers, excited by the labor unions,

perpetrated unparalleled, heinous crimes against innocent and law

abiding Hindus who had come from a distant land with a dream of a

better life, but unfortunately, Bellingham became the burial place for

their dreams. "

 

Inder Singh adds: " On the 100th anniversary of the Hindu Race Riots,

the Indian American community remembers the pioneers who patiently

suffered physically, psychologically and economically but stayed calm

under provocation, remained law abiding under lawlessness and observed

non-violence under threat of violence, practicing what Gandhiji was

preaching in South Africa at that time. "

 

Indian American leader Satpal Sidhu of Bellingham says that the

community would like to raise money to establish some sort of marker

so the community doesn't forget about the riot again. Perhaps it can

be incorporated into the waterfront development, or at the new city

library, he said. When Satpal Sidhu moved to Bellingham from Canada

with his family in the mid-'80s, he thought the dozen or so East

Indian families already here were among the first to settle in Whatcom

County. He was surprised to learn there were about 200 East Indian

lumber mill workers in Bellingham around the turn of the century —

until they were run out of town in the 1907 race riot.

 

Which is why, just over the border, in Canada, where some Indian

families have lived since the early 1900s, some older residents " have

this kind of memory — don't go to America, just stay in Canada, " said

Sidhu.

 

Newspaper sources also reveal that many of the old-timers were afraid

of the Indians. " We thought they were terrible coming with their

turbans, " said Mrs. Spencer. " We were afraid of them at first. But my

dad said, " They have to make a living as the rest of us. We are

foreigners, too. "

 

Other events scheduled to mark the riot anniversary include:

 

* Open House at Guru Nanak Gursikh Temple, 176 E. Pole Road, Sept. 13

from 6 to 8 p.m.

 

* Displays at the Bellingham Public Library and Wilson Library at

Western Washington University.

 

* Workshop: " History of Immigration 101, " developed by the National

Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, Sept. 18 from 6 to 8 p.m.,

at the office of Community to Community Development, 203 W. Holly St.,

Suite 318. Information: 738-0893.

 

* " The Curse of Bellingham, " a documentary about how the events of

1907 echo in the treatment of immigrants today, to be shown Tuesday at

6 p.m. at Community to Community Development, 203 W. Holly St., Suite

318 .

 

SOURCE: Indolink: Diaspora

URL: http://www.indolink.com/displayArticleS.php?id=090407095107

MULTIMEDIA PRESENTATION: http://tinyurl.com/yqhmk8