Angry white mobs burned down the China town in Antioch, apology came after 145 years

Acknowledging the mistreatment of its Chinese residents decades ago, Antioch formally apologized to the late immigrants and their descendants this week and committed to rectifying past misdeeds.

By Edward Era Barbacena

The Joaquin Murietta Chapter 15 of the E Clampus Vitus installed a plaque remembering the Chinese contributions and the old tunnels that once ran underground in Antioch in 2006. The plaque has since disappeared.

The Joaquin Murietta Chapter 15 of the E Clampus Vitus installed a plaque remembering the Chinese contributions and the old tunnels that once ran underground in Antioch in 2006. The plaque has since disappeared.

The Antioch City Council has become the first city to apologize formally for wrongs done to Chinese residents in its early days when Chinese, who helped build the levees and railroads, were not allowed to walk on city streets at sundown. The city has agreed to establish a historic Chinese district and a display honoring the Chinese immigrants in the city.

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Acknowledging the mistreatment of its Chinese residents decades ago, Antioch formally apologized to the late immigrants and their descendants this week and committed to rectifying past misdeeds.

Mayor Lamar Thorpe, right, and Andrew Li, president of the Contra Costa community college board, holding a proclamation apologizing for the city of Antioch’s early treatment of its Chinese residents

Mayor Lamar Thorpe advanced the idea of a formal apology to the Chinese — something he said no other city has ever done — during a news conference last month as he stood in Waldie Plaza, the former site of a Chinatown that was torched by an angry mob in 1876.

“I think we will be the first city, not only in the Bay Area, in California, but throughout the United States, to officially apologize for the misdeeds and mistreatment of the Chinese,” Thorpe said. “And so this is, this is no small thing that we’re doing here today. This is a big deal.”

Chinese immigrants came to California during the Gold Rush and after, working in mines and on farms, building railroads and levees, but they encountered racism and became scapegoats, particularly between 1850 and 1870.

Despite this, it took 70 years for the state to formally apologize, which it did in 2009 under legislation co-sponsored by Assemblymen Paul Fong, D-Cupertino, and Kevin de Leon, D-Los Angeles.

But Antioch had never acknowledged its past as a sundown town where Chinese were banned from walking the streets after dark, the mayor said. Remnants of tunnels the immigrants had built connecting to businesses and their homes can still be seen in some spots downtown from I Street to the waterfront.

The city made headlines in 1876, Thorpe noted, when an angry White mob drove the Chinese out of town, giving them only a few hours to pack their belongings and leave. After they left, someone torched their homes and businesses.

Councilwoman Tamisha Torres-Walker said she was excited to support the resolution.

When the Palace Hotel was torn down in 1926, workers found secret tunnels underground that Chinese residents use to commute after sunset. Chinese residents were not allowed to be on the street after dark. (Antioch Historical Society & Museum) 

“I think the only way to get to reconciling is acknowledging a harm,” Torres-Walker said. “You can’t reconcile and bring people together until harm is acknowledged. And so given a long history of Antioch, it just makes sense that this happens, and then we move forward as a community.”

Several residents also applauded the council for trying to do something to rectify past wrongs. In addition to the apology, the council agreed to designate a Chinese historic district downtown and work with the Antioch Historical Society and others on an exhibit or mural to recognize the Chinese immigrants’ early contributions.

“This is not a history I was aware of,” Nancy Drago said. “ This history has had an effect on the entire region and deserves to be told. By shining a light on these misdeeds, it proves the commitment of the current mayor and city council to fight Asian hate wherever they see it, even if it is in their own city’s past; the future now looks brighter in Antioch.”

“Immigrant families whose homes were burned to the ground deserve to have their stories told,” another resident said. “Regardless of how it makes those who disagree feel, immigrants, indigenous and enslaved, have had to dismiss their history to make White people feel better, and they are just tired of being OK with being dismissed.

“It’s time for history to be complete. And this is the first step to ensure that the brave and resilient Chinese immigrants of Antioch and its surrounding communities be honored and respected.”

Mayor Thorpe said he also wants to honor the Chinese with a permanent exhibit, display or mural, which the Antioch Historical Society has already started to research.

The council unanimously agreed to work with the historical society and fund the planning and design phase for a potential exhibit or mural.