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Chinese Exclusion Act
This act was passed by congress and signed by President A. Arthur in 1882. This act denied citizenship to people born in CHina and prohibited the immigration of Chinese Laborers. The act also placed new requirements on Chinese people who already entered the country, and if they left the United States they would have to obtain certifications to re-enter. This led to a lot of hardships on Chinese immigrants trying to move to America. -
Ellis Island
Some of the very first immigrants were from Europe and in 1892, several Europeans saw the statue of liberty for the first time and thsi inspired many more to take the leap to America because it was seen as a lnad with so much opportunity. -
Geary Act
After the exclusion act expired, congress extended it for 10 years in the form of the Geary Act, and finally made it permanent in 1902. This act added restrictions by requiring each Chinese resident to register and obtain a certificate of residence. Without one, they would face deportation. This act regulated Chinese immigration until the 1920s. -
Immigration Restriction League and President Grover Cleveland
The immigrantion restriction league was created and it forced immigrants to take a literacy test to get into the United States but President Cleveland decided against it because he beieved it was illiberal, narrow, and unamerican. By cancelling this tes, this made access to the States that much easier for immigrants that were trying to move there. -
The Great Migration Begins
The great migration began in 1915 and lasted until about 1960. This was the migration of southern blacks to the north and west. The first large movement of blacks occurred during World War I, when 454,000 black sountherners moved north. Inthe 1920s, another 800,000 blacks left the south, followed by 398,000 blacks left the south for northern and western cities. Many blacks moved to Chicago, Detroit, Pittsburg, New York, LA, Oakland, San Francisco, California, POrtland, and Seattle. -
Strikes in 1918
Nearly 4500 strikes involving more than a million workers occurred in 1912 alone. Workers were dissatisfied with their current working conditions so over the course of the war, the working conditions got better. -
World War I
When World War one occurred, it created a huge demand for workers in the northern factories, compelling several black immigrants to move north especially to find work and leave the bad economy in the South. -
Second largest movement of Black immigrants
800,000 black migrated north and west from the South. This increased the number of black immigrants greatly from the first movement that occurred during world war one. In this movement, several people were just trying to escape the hate they got in the south, but many still left for economic opportunities -
Congress repeals all exclusion acts
By 1943, a lot of the anti-Chinese agitation had calmed down quite a bit, so Congress repealed all the exclusion acts. This left a yearly limit of 105 chinese and gave foreign-born Chinese the right to seek naturalization. This continued until Congress later passed the Immigration Act of 1965. -
Immigration Act of 1965
This act became effection July 1st, 1968. This act limited 170,000 immigrants from outside the Western hemisphere that were allowed in immigrate into the United States with a maximum of 20,000 from any one country. -
Chinese Exclusion act expired
The Chinese exclusion act ended in 1982, however congress extended in in the form of the Geary Act for 10 more years. It was still difficult for Chinese immigrants to make the move to America.