What act was passed in the late 1800s to exclude an entire ethnic group?
1 Answer
The act that was passed in the late 1800s to exclude an entire ethnic group would be the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 passed by then President Chester A. Arthur.
Explanation:
The act was passed in response to the huge concentration of Chinese workers arriving on the US west coast. In California by 1870, almost one in every 10 people in California were Chinese. At the time, Chinese workers represented 25% of the workforce in the state.
The Chinese Exclusion Act was the first to be passed in America that banned an entire ethnic group. While it was originally enacted to expire in ten years, the act was extended on its termination, and was not repealed until 1943.
The act originally was written to counter the threat of the Chinese worker influx that would endanger the good order of certain localities within the US territories.
There is more on the subject here:
http://www.lehigh.edu/~ineng/VirtualAmericana/chineseimmigrationact.html
