- “It’s appropriate that every generation, we do this,” Mayor Sam Liccardo said. “That we remember this. Because tragically, these lessons are lost from one generation to another. And even more tragically, history does repeat itself.”
- According to ABC News, the resolution states: “The City must acknowledge and take responsibility for the legacy of discrimination against early Chinese immigrants as part of our collective consciousness that helps contribute to the current surge in anti-Asian and Pacific Islander hate.”
- A special ceremony will be held on Wednesday at the Circle of Palms Plaza in Downtown San Jose, where Gerrye Wong of the Chinese Historical and Cultural Project and other prominent members of the community are expected to attend to acknowledge and accept the city’s apology.
- “The apology recognizes the hardships and struggles of our ancestors by the Chinese Exclusion Act which deprived Chinese naturalization to U.S. citizenship, inciting cities to drive out the Chinese by outlaw violence or legal methods,” Connie Young Yu, the author of “Chinatown, San Jose, USA,” told ABC News.
- “We need to also recognize that accountability helps to heal these wounds,” Evan Low, the youngest Asian American legislator ever elected to the California State Assembly in 2014, said.
- Fairmont Hotel sits on top of the Second Market Street Chinatown that burned down in 1887, KQED reported. Although there were no recorded casualties from the attack, many members of the Chinese community were displaced.
- “In addition to federal legislation such as the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, City policies, resolutions, and other actions of the City of San José and the City Council directly contributed to the xenophobic discrimination and racial violence faced by Chinese immigrants,” the memo read in part.
- San Jose had five Chinatowns, including the first Market Street Chinatown (1866-1870), the Vine Street Chinatown (1870-1872), the Second Market Street Chinatown (1872-1887), the Woolen Mills Chinatown (1887-1902) and Heinlenville (1887-1931).
- Antioch, Calif., also offered an official apology to the Chinese community in May for the city’s racist and xenophobic past, which once saw an angry mob of white residents driving out Chinese immigrants from the city.