Primary Source Documents
Chinese Exclusion Act
The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was the first law restricting immigration into the United States. Congress passed the exclusion act to satisfy worker demands and stop concerns about maintaining racial purity. The statute of 1882 suspended Chinese immigration for ten years and declared the Chinese as ineligible for naturalization. The act was renewed in 1892 for another ten years, and in 1902 Chinese immigration was made permanently illegal. The legislation proved very effective, and the Chinese population in the United States sharply declined. American experience with Chinese exclusion spurred later movements for immigration restriction against other undesirable groups like Middle Easterners, Hindu and East Indians, and the Japanese. The Chinese themselves remained ineligible for citizenship until 1943.
Women Suffrage
"Digital History." Digital History. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Dec. 2015.
"Chinese Exclusion Act." N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Dec. 2015. |
Susan B. Anthony was one of the driving forces of the women’s suffrage movement, an equal rights advocate, and social activist. She devoted her life to not only fighting for women’s equality but for the equality of all people. She spent much of her adult life traveling the country, speaking about equal rights, circulating petitions, and helping to organize local women’s rights and labor organizations. Following the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868, Anthony argued that it gave women the constitutional right to vote in federal elections and planned on voting in the 1872 presidential election.
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