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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 1: Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class, a

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Speaker 1: show that shines a light on the ups and downs

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Speaker 1: of everyday history. I'm Gabe Bluesier, and in this episode

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Speaker 1: we're talking about the hateful origins and tragic outcomes of

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Speaker 1: California's Alien Land Law. The day was May third, nineteen thirteen.

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Speaker 1: The California Senate passed a law restricting the property ownership

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Speaker 1: rights of Asian immigrants. The bill, known as the California

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Speaker 1: Alien Land Law, was co authored by Attorney Francis J.

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Speaker 1: Haney and California State Attorney General Ulysses S Webb. Written

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Speaker 1: at the behest of Republican Governor Hirum Johnson, it effectively

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Speaker 1: bought guard Asian immigrants from owning farmland in California. The

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Speaker 1: law was implicitly directed at Japanese immigrants or es, but

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Speaker 1: in practice it affected Chinese, Korean, and South Asian immigrant

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Speaker 1: farmers as well. Despite the objections of California State Secretary

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Speaker 1: William Jennings Bryan not to mention the nation of Japan,

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Speaker 1: the bill passed thirty five to two in the state

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Speaker 1: Senate and seventy two to three in the State Assembly,

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Speaker 1: then two weeks later Governor Johnson signed it into law.

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Speaker 1: California's alien land law was an expression of the anti

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Speaker 1: Asian sentiment that had been festering in America since at

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Speaker 1: least the mid nineteenth century. This animus among white populations

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Speaker 1: in the Western States, in particular, was initially directed at

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Speaker 1: Chinese immigrants, culminating in the Chinese Exclusion Act of eighteen

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Speaker 1: eighty two. Then at the turn of the twentieth century,

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Speaker 1: j Japanese immigrants became the new favorite target. The shift

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Speaker 1: in focus was largely due to the annexation of Hawaii

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Speaker 1: in eighteen ninety eight. Much of the island's Japanese population

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Speaker 1: immigrated to the US mainland in nineteen hundred. The majority

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Speaker 1: of families settled in California, but they didn't stay long

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Speaker 1: in the unwelcoming cities where they landed. Instead, many of

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Speaker 1: the essay moved to the rural areas where they wouldn't

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Speaker 1: be accused of corrupting white communities or stealing their jobs.

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Speaker 1: They turned to agriculture as both a way of life

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Speaker 1: and a means of income, and while most started as

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Speaker 1: laborers on white owned farms, many were later able to

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Speaker 1: establish their own Those successes helped foster a sense of

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Speaker 1: belonging among a group of people who at the time

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Speaker 1: had no hope of becoming naturalized US citizens. Owning farmland

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Speaker 1: allowed them to support their families, prove their productivity, and

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Speaker 1: take an active role in American society. But in the

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Speaker 1: eyes of xenophobic white landowners, it just made them a threat.

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Speaker 1: By nineteen eleven, anti Japanese politicians and agriculturists had begun

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Speaker 1: to lobby for restrictions on Japanese landownership in California. Their

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Speaker 1: efforts bore fruit on May third, nineteen thirteen, when California

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Speaker 1: became the first state to enact a so called alien

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Speaker 1: land law. The law effectively prohibited Asian immigrants from owning

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Speaker 1: agricultural property or leasing it for longer than three years,

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Speaker 1: but the authors of the legislation were careful to avoid

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Speaker 1: using the words Asian or Japanese, as that would have

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Speaker 1: clearly violated the equal Protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Instead,

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Speaker 1: they used a more neutral sounding term aliens ineligible to

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Speaker 1: citizenship wording aside, The understood goal of the law was

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Speaker 1: to discourage Japanese and other Asian peoples from settling in California.

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Speaker 1: State Attorney General Webb even admitted as much himself, saying, quote,

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Speaker 1: the fundamental basis of all legislation upon this subject, state

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Speaker 1: and federal has been, and is race undesirability. It seeks

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Speaker 1: to limit their presence by curtailing their privileges which they

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Speaker 1: may enjoy here, for they will not come in large

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Speaker 1: numbers and long abide with us if they may not

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Speaker 1: acquire land. To be clear, the law did not take

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Speaker 1: away farmland from those who already owned it, nor did

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Speaker 1: it prohibit Asian immigrants from owning residential or commercial property

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Speaker 1: in California. However, it did block the path to agricultural

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Speaker 1: ownership for future non white immigrants, ensuring that the economic

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Speaker 1: power of Japanese immigrant farmers couldn't be made permanent. That said,

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Speaker 1: some Japanese landowners found ways to circumvent the Alien Land Act.

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Speaker 1: Some placed their land in trusts for their American born children,

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Speaker 1: while others transferred ownership to corporations run by Asian immigrants. Unfortunately,

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Speaker 1: the California legislature eventually found out about those loopholes, and

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Speaker 1: in the early nineteen twenties, they tightened restrictions to close them.

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Speaker 1: This meant that Japanese American children now had no way

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Speaker 1: to inherit the businesses that their immigrant parents had built.

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Speaker 1: As a result, many were forced to relinquish their family

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Speaker 1: farms to the state and move elsewhere after their parents passing.

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Speaker 1: By that time, California had also adopted many other anti

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Speaker 1: Asian policies, including school segregation, unequal law enforcement, a ban

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Speaker 1: on marriage with white people, and the denial of voting rights.

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Speaker 1: But California was far from the own state to engage

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Speaker 1: in such blatant discrimination. More than a dozen others followed

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Speaker 1: California's lead by passing their own versions of the Alien

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Speaker 1: Land Law, and while many of those laws were challenged

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Speaker 1: in the U. S. Supreme Court in the nineteen twenties,

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Speaker 1: every one of them was upheld. The court's ruling helped

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Speaker 1: normalize discrimination against Asian communities, stoking the fires of xenophobia

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Speaker 1: and paving the way for the mass incarceration of Japanese

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Speaker 1: Americans during World War II. But after the war, California

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Speaker 1: seemed to recognize the role it had played in making

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Speaker 1: internment legally, politically and socially permissible. The state legislature reversed

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Speaker 1: its previous policies and even voted to pay reparations to

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Speaker 1: people whose land had been seized after the death of

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Speaker 1: their parents. The U. S. Supreme Court also changed its tune,

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Speaker 1: and by nineteen fifty two, most of the alien land

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Speaker 1: laws in other states were struck down as well well. Well,

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Speaker 1: of course, that doesn't mean that discriminatory land laws are

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Speaker 1: gone completely or that anti Asian sentiment doesn't still exist

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Speaker 1: in America today. Both of those societal ills are sadly

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Speaker 1: still with us, but neither is as entrenched as it

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Speaker 1: once was. Remembering past struggles like this helps us see

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Speaker 1: how far we've come as a country and reminds us

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Speaker 1: that it's up to each new generation to keep the

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Speaker 1: progress going. I'm Gabe blues Yay, and hopefully you now

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Speaker 1: know a little more about history today than you did yesterday.

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Speaker 1: If you'd like to keep up with the show, you

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Speaker 1: can follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at TDI

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Speaker 1: HC Show, and if you have any comments or suggestions,

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Speaker 1: feel free to send them my way by writing to

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Speaker 1: this Day at iHeartMedia dot com. Thanks to Kasby Bias

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Speaker 1: for producing the show, and thanks to you for listening.

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Speaker 1: See you back here again. Tomorrow for another day in

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Speaker 1: history class,