Chinese Laundrymen Won Equal Protections for All. San Francisco Wants to Tell Their Story

For many, the lot on the corner of Third and Harrison streets in San Francisco is just a place to park before heading to a Giants game or an event downtown.

On Monday, around 50 people gathered at the unremarkable concrete patch in the South of Market neighborhood for a different reason: to commemorate the 140th anniversary of Yick Wo v. Hopkins, a late 19th-century landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision.

The crowd included longtime Asian American activists, Chinatown organizers, San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu and Supervisors Connie Chan, Chyanne Chen, Matt Dorsey, Rafael Mandelman and Danny Sauter.

“So often, we think about the times that San Francisco has done something … that has changed the country and the world,” said Dorsey, who represents the district where the lot is located. “We always think about 20th-century [contributions], but the reality is that it started in the 19th century with the Chinese American community in San Francisco.”

The site was once home to Yick Wo, a laundry business that was owned and operated by a Chinese immigrant named Lee Yick from 1864 to 1886. It was one of over 200 Chinese-owned laundries scattered across San Francisco, but this one holds particular significance: it was at the center of a consequential ruling that established that the 14th Amendment’s due process and equal protection clauses apply to all — even noncitizens.

David Lei, a local Chinese American community historian, said he has always believed the lot deserved substantial recognition. He tried to champion that effort over the past 15 years by speaking about Yick Wo’s history, but it was last year’s spotlight on the case from KQED, as the Trump administration ramped up its massive deportation campaign — often without regard to immigrants’ rights to a fair hearing — that the history began to resonate.

“I kind of [read] between the lines and it seemed like David was saying, ‘Oh, a little help here, please!’” said Karen Kai, a lawyer and board member of San Francisco Heritage, a nonprofit organization that helps preserve landmarks in the city. She helped kickstart an effort, along with other groups, including the Chinese Historical Society of America, to launch a campaign to establish a permanent marker at the site.

Doing so, they said, would help educate the public about a historical case that most people have never heard of outside of the legal community or people who study Asian American history. But this could soon change.

The Supreme Court decision arrived while an intense anti-Chinese crackdown was taking place in San Francisco during the late 1800s. Chinese immigrants were routinely subjected to mob violence, their homes and businesses were often destroyed, and they faced legal discrimination by city officials, which made it difficult for them to earn their livelihoods.

Though Chinese immigrants were initially welcomed during the Gold Rush, they eventually became reviled as their population numbers grew, and their roles in the industrial workforce expanded. In addition to working as miners and railroad laborers, Chinese immigrants quickly met a demand that others were not eager to fill: laundry service. They eventually dominated the industry throughout the rest of the 19th century — much to the dismay of city residents and leaders.

Discriminatory city ordinances were often passed to make operating businesses, like laundries, difficult for Chinese immigrants. One notorious law in particular was passed in 1880, which required permits for wooden laundries. It was a move that targeted most Chinese-owned businesses; though they met other regulations, almost every Chinese laundry owner was denied a permit, while white owners were approved.

In an extraordinary act of defiance, Yick, the laundry’s owner, continued operating his business anyway. He refused to pay the fine and was arrested. He and another fellow Chinese laundryman, Wo Lee, sued the city.

With the financial support of an influential community coalition called the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, also known as the Chinese Six Companies, as well as other powerful groups in San Francisco Chinatown, they hired top white lawyers to fight their case. Eventually, it made its way to the Supreme Court.

In a unanimous 1886 ruling in favor of the Chinese laundrymen, the court declared that even if a law appears to be race-neutral, “if it is applied and administered by public authority with an evil eye and an unequal hand,” then it violates the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.

And critically, the ruling said its protections “extend to all persons within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States, without regard to differences of race, of color, or of nationality.”

Legal experts have said that Yick Wo v. Hopkins has been cited in “countless” ways, and provided the foundation for subsequent civil rights challenges that have shaped the modern-day legal system, including interracial marriage, school desegregation, voting rights and disability discrimination.

Chiu said he remembers reading the case as a law student and told the crowd that he’s parked at the lot each year to attend the Chinese New Year parade, without any idea that it was the site of Yick Wo.

He reminded attendees that the case was just one of many brought forward by early Chinese immigrants — including Wong Kim Ark, whose case established birthright citizenship in the U.S.

The Trump administration is currently looking to overturn it, and Chiu’s office is helping to fight that effort at the Supreme Court.

Chiu said placing a permanent marker at the parking lot is not just about preserving important American history.

“This is a moment in time where we will remember, and we will continue to fight for our constitutional rights.”

For Lei, this galvanizing moment has been a long time in the making. He said he hopes to see a mural at the lot.

“I think people walk by plaques, but if you put in art with messaging, very impactful art … then it’ll bring a lot more attention.”

Until that decision is made, SF Heritage and other partner advocates will start gathering community input to narrow down options to present to the city. It will be a process that requires fundraising, political will, and, certainly, red tape.

Kai said she felt energized by the intergenerational gathering and the growing momentum to recognize how early Chinese immigrants shaped constitutional protections that now benefit everyone in the country.

She said the commemoration honored their courage — and underscored the power of collective action: “We’re going to go for it. We’re just going to run with it now.”