1907 Bellingham race riot

Article from the 16 September 1906 Puget Sound American newspaper incorrectly describing turbaned Sikhs as "Hindu" and their unfavorable immigration to Bellingham

The Bellingham riots occurred on September 4, 1907, in Bellingham, Washington, United States. A mob of 400–500 white men, predominantly members of the Asiatic Exclusion League, with intentions to exclude Indian immigrants from the work force of the local lumber mills, attacked the homes of the South Asian Indians. The Indians were mostly Sikhs but were labelled as Hindus by much of the media of the day.

Events

The mob threw the East Indian workers into the streets, beat them, and pocketed their valuables. The authorities co-operated with the mob by corralling the beaten Indian immigrants into the City Hall, ostensibly for their safety. "By the next day 125 South Asians had been driven out of town and were on their way to British Columbia". According to one report, disputed by local leaders and newspapers, six East Indians were hospitalized; no one was killed. About 100 were held overnight in the Bellingham jail, reportedly under "protective custody". Although five men were arrested, they were later released and none of the participants in the mob violence were prosecuted.

Some victims of the riots migrated to Everett, Washington where two months later, they received similar treatment. Similar riots occurred during this period in Vancouver, BC and California.

Legacy

To acknowledge and atone for the riots, Whatcom County Executive Pete Kremen and Bellingham Mayor Tim Douglas jointly proclaimed the 100th anniversary of the riots, Sept. 4, 2007, a "Day of Healing and Reconciliation." A granite monument, the Arch of Healing and Reconciliation, was erected in downtown Bellingham and dedicated in 2018 in memory of the three groups of Asian immigrants who were expelled from the region: the Chinese in 1885, the Indians in 1907, and the Japanese in 1942.

See also

• Anti-Oriental Riots (Vancouver) – Riots against Canadians of Asian descent in VancouverPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets, that followed those in Bellingham
• List of incidents of civil unrest in the United States
• Pacific Coast race riots of 1907 – Race riots on the American Pacific coast in 1907

Further reading

• Englesberg, Paul (March 1, 2013). "The 1907 Bellingham Riot and Anti-Asian Hostilities in the Pacific Northwest" (PDF). Canadian Sikh Centre. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 4, 2016.
• Hallberg, Gerald N. (1973). "Bellingham, Washington's Anti-Hindu Riot". Journal of the West. 12: 163–175. ISSN 0022-5169. OCLC 1783221.
• Jensen, Joan M. (1988). Passage from India: Asian Indian immigrants in North America. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-03846-0. OCLC 1342141898 – via Internet Archive.
• Lee, Erika (2007). "Hemispheric Orientalism and the 1907 Pacific Coast Race Riots". Amerasia Journal. 33 (2): 19–48. doi:10.17953/amer.33.2.y263745731125524. ISSN 0044-7471. OCLC 1259572954.
• McMahon, Suzanne (2001). Echoes of freedom: South Asian pioneers in California, 1899-1965. Berkeley, CA, US: Center for South Asian Studies, University of California. ISBN 978-0-944613-41-2. OCLC 1341891513 – via Internet Archive.

External links

• "Bellingham Riot materials". South Asian American Digital Archive (SAADA). This includes a video documentary and archival print materials.
• Koritala, Srirajasekhar Bobby (December 13, 2016). "A historical perspective of Americans of Asian Indian origin". infinityfoundation.com. Retrieved January 10, 2024.
• "The Racial Politics of Empire: South Asian Revolutionaries on the Pacific Coast". Sixth European Social Science History Conference. December 17, 2005. Archived from the original on December 17, 2005.