The United States Congress banned all Chinese from becoming U.S. citizens from 1882 through 1943, and stopped most Chinese from even entering the country starting in 1882. ["Forbidden Citizens"](http://www.thecapitol.net/Publications/ForbiddenCitizens.html), a book by Martin Gold, recounts this long and shameful legislative history. Congress passed restrictive legislation between 1879 and 1904. The most notorious was the [Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Exclusion_Act), described as "one of the most vulgar forms of barbarism," by Rep. John Kasson (R-IA) in 1882.;xNLx;;xNLx;These laws targeted not only immigration, they banned citizenship, even for legal immigrants who had arrived before the gate was closed in 1882. Barred from becoming voters, the Chinese had no political recourse against repeated discrimination.;xNLx;;xNLx;Because their appearance and lifestyle were so different, it was easy to tyrannize the Chinese. Insisting that the Chinese could not assimilate into American culture, lawmakers actively blocked them from doing so. Democrats and Republicans alike found the Chinese easy prey.;xNLx;;xNLx;Martin Gold assembles the complete legislative history of Congress's Chinese exclusion laws into his book. By reviewing the old so that we can learn about the new, this timeline visualization is based an outline of his book and related documents to compose these small stories from the background to the present.;xNLx;There is also a version of [this timeline in Chinese](https://www.tiki-toki.com/timeline/entry/80102/-/).
Early commerce between China under the Qing Dynasty and the United States under the Canton System.
The Pallas, a China trade vessel from Canton, dropped anchor in Baltimore in 1785. Three Chinese in her crew were reported to be the first recorded Chinese arrivals on US soil.
allowed only “free white person[s]” to become American citizens.
between the United Kingdom and China
Gold was found in California in 1848.
A widespread civil war in China.
First U.S. Census counting the number of Chinese as "Asiatic" in the state of California in 1860.
Slavery was abolished after the war
Also known as the Pacific Railroad or Overland Route
It was ratified on July 9, 1868, and granted citizenship to “all persons born or naturalized in the United States,” which included former slaves recently freed.
The Burlingame Treaty of 1868 established formal friendly relations between the U.S. and China, with China receiving most favored nation status.
Senator Charles Sumner unsuccessfully sponsored an amendment that would have allowed legal immigrants to become American citizens
Prejudice against Chinese sometimes culminated in violence.
Congress attempted in 1879 to restrict Chinese immigration by limiting the number of Chinese passengers permitted on any ship coming to the U.S. to 15.
Revision to the Burlingame Treaty allowing the U.S. to regulate, limit, or suspend immigration of Chinese laborers to the U.S.
Congress attempted to suspend the immigration of skilled and unskilled Chinese laborers for 20 years, and expressly prohibited state and federal courts from naturalizing Chinese persons.
This was the first federal law excluding a single group of people from the U.S. on the basis of race or ethnicity alone.
Only 2 years after the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act took effect, Congress amended the law to tighten its restrictions.
Supreme Court upholds the right of a Chinese immigrant who did not possess a return certificate to the United States
Congress prohibited all Chinese laborers who left the United States, or who in the future would choose to leave, from reentering.
Congress extended all previous Chinese Exclusion Laws by ten years.
China and the U.S. ratified the treaty to repeal the Scott Act.
A United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that virtually everyone born in the United States is a U.S. citizen.
A Chinese rebellion against foreign influence that occurred in China.
Congress indefinitely extended all Chinese Exclusion Laws that are consistent with treaty obligations
Congress made permanent all Chinese Exclusion Laws, without regard to treaty obligations
An immigration station sometimes known as "The Ellis Island of the West".
An act to limit the annual immigration of aliens into the U.S.
China became an ally of the United States during World War II.
Congress repealed all laws “relating to the exclusion and deportation of the Chinese” in 1943
The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 abolished the National Origins Formula that had been in place in the United States since the Immigration Act of 1924.
Vincent Chin, a 27 year old Chinese American, was beaten to death in Detroit, Michigan. He was mistaken to be Japanese by two white men and blamed for Japan's successful auto industry. The killing catalyzed political activities among Asian Americans - whose numbers had steadily increased since the 1965 overhaul of immigration laws but who then represented only about 1.5 percent of the population - as never before. In his death, Vincent Chin was immortalized as a symbol of the Asian American struggle for inclusion.
Census figures showed that the Chinese American population reached 4 million in 2010.
A nonpartisan, grassroots effort focused on educating lawmakers and the public the Chinese Exclusion Laws and the impact such legislation had on our history.
Resolutions were submitted to express regret for the passage of discriminatory laws against the Chinese in the U.S.
The U.S. Senate passed Resolution 201 on October 6, 2011
The U.S. House of Representatives passed Resolution 683 on June 18, 2012
A book by Martin Gold on the legislative history of Chinese Exclusion and the U.S. Congress
The SECURE CAMPUS bill was introduced in the Senate and the House to bar Chinese nationals from receiving student or research visas to the United States for graduate or postgraduate studies in science, technology, engineering or mathematics fields.
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