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The Tacoma Method
13 Plays7 days ago
In 1885, the city of Tacoma carried out one of the most organized expulsions in Pacific Northwest history when hundreds of Chinese residents were forced from their homes by city leaders, businessmen, and armed mobs in what became known as “The Tacoma Method.” This week on Beneath the Evergreens, we uncover how racism, labor tensions, and the Chinese Exclusion Act fueled a campaign of intimidation that erased Tacoma’s Chinatown and changed the city forever. We also explore the long road to reconciliation and why this dark chapter of Washington history still matters today.
⚠️ Content Warning: This episode includes references to abuse, trauma, and death. Listener discretion is advised.
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Beneath the Evergreens'
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to Beneath the Evergreens, where murder, mysteries, and mayhem lurk in the shadows of the Pacific Northwest. I'm Jess. And I'm Anna. From haunted forests and unsolved disappearances. To true crime cases buried deep in the moss and the mist. We're digging into the dark secrets hiding under the evergreens.
00:00:18
Speaker
Each episode will explore real cases, eerie encounters, and the legends that keep the Pacific Northwest up at night. So grab your flashlight, lock your doors, and join us beneath the evergreen.
00:00:53
Speaker
Hello, hello, everyone. Hello, welcome back to Beneath the Evergreens. eye I so happy it's Friday. Oh my goodness. I imagine I am ah coming off a week off of vacation. So I am just living my best life over here.
00:01:09
Speaker
Living
Jess's Iceland Vacation Highlights
00:01:10
Speaker
the life of luxury. um Anything you want to tell us about this lovely vacation you went on? Yes. So I just got back from Iceland, actually, which for all of our listeners, highly recommend visiting. We had so much fun. it is such a beautiful country. The people are really nice. I thought the food was really good. I always heard that like Icelandic food wasn't very good, but it like it's actually delicious. Lots of fish. So I so i guess if you don't like fish, you wouldn't like it. But yeah, um yeah it was delicious.
00:01:39
Speaker
The landscape is one of the most incredible things. Honestly, it reminded me a lot of the Pacific Northwest, just like less populated and a little bit smaller.
00:01:50
Speaker
I feel like the more you tell me about this, the more I'm like, yeah, I think I need to live there. It's like a a solid 50 degrees right now. That's like my style.
00:02:02
Speaker
Only downside is the never-ending daylight right now. that That was a tough one. Do they have like national dish? um I don't know about a national dish, but the things that we saw the most often was like a lamb shank, um which was good. But my favorite, um it was kind of this fish stew.
00:02:26
Speaker
i I know the Icelandic name, but i my Icelandic pronunciation is really horrible. So I'm not even going to try to pronounce it. um But it's essentially this like... you like a white fish so like a cod or maybe a tilapia you mix with like some potatoes and then kind of a cream sauce and then you either leave it there or you put some cheese on top of it and then bake it and oh my gosh it's rich it's delicious it's hearty and like if you can put a little bit of spice in it sometimes oh my it was so good and it served with this really good rye bread and it's not like the rye bread that you would think of like
00:03:02
Speaker
I When I think of rye bread, think of like a Reuben, you know? Yeah. Yeah. but This is like almost like a softer rye bread, like kind of like a banana bread consistency. interesting. And it served with this really fresh butter, like Icelandic butter, which Icelandic dairy products in general are just like the best things i've ever had.
00:03:19
Speaker
So that was probably my favorite dish. think I had it We were there for like six days. I had it four days. Like I kept going back for more. so good. That sounds delicious. Yeah.
00:03:30
Speaker
Yeah, so now I'm trying to make it here. So I'd be inviting you over for dinner to try out my creation. Yes, please. I'll sign me up. I'm there. I am there. Well, i didn't go on a cool vacation, so I have a little bit of like FOMO. Maybe it's not FOMO, but like jealousy for sure.
00:03:47
Speaker
No, but I've been holding down Washington State. Nothing new to report here other than. Other than nothing.
00:03:59
Speaker
Absolutely nothing. Absolutely nothing.
Tacoma's Pollution History
00:04:01
Speaker
um Okay, so I have a pretty crazy story for you today. o i can't I cannot wait to hear it.
00:04:10
Speaker
Yeah, it's called the Tacoma Method. Have you ever heard of this? The Tacoma Method? The Tacoma Method. No, I have not. I think I've only heard of the Tacoma Aroma.
00:04:21
Speaker
The Aroma of Tacoma. Yes. i heard So actually, I heard a rumor that the only reason why Tacoma didn't take off and why Seattle became kind of like the port of choice was because Tacoma did smell so bad.
00:04:35
Speaker
So hot take, but I don't think I've ever really smelled anything in Tacoma, like nothing horribly unnatural. It used to be really bad, but I went to UW Tacoma, like the the university there, or like the satellite campus. And they had an ecology department there, and they were doing a lot of work on the pollution that was going into the the sound.
00:05:02
Speaker
Oh. And I think because of all of the work that they did there, or have been doing for for the past like 30 years is why you don't have that smell anymore. But I vividly remember as a kid driving through Tacoma and there was a rank smell.
00:05:21
Speaker
but it was It was like bottom of the ocean smell. Like not there. Well, actually that whole Ruston Way Park, you've been over there, right?
00:05:33
Speaker
Yeah. That's all like a super pack site. A what? Super packs. They're like um sites that have so much... Radiation is not the word that I'm looking for. It has essentially... it is a site location where a whole bunch of...
00:05:52
Speaker
debris, chemicals, like really, really not good things were at. So over there used to be a smelter plant and they used to just offload like a lot of their chemicals and stuff oh on the hill and it would run down the hill into the sound.
00:06:09
Speaker
Well, all of that is still contaminated. And so how they fix it is they consider it like a super packed site. And essentially they just bury everything and then build stuff on top of it.
00:06:21
Speaker
What? Like parks and all of this other kind of stuff. You've never heard of this? Super packs? No. Oh my God. Oh yeah. They're ruining Rustin for me now. So thank you so much. You're welcome.
00:06:35
Speaker
You're welcome. I'm here for you. But it's supposed to be like, it's supposed to quote unquote help. And like, but yes, essentially it was like a talk, like all of Tacoma Rustin way used to be just toxic sludge and they've now built it up to be what it is now.
00:06:51
Speaker
Whoa. Yeah. Well, that's interesting. Horrifying, but interesting. Thank you. You're welcome. You're welcome. Well, actually what i'm going to talk to you about today, the Tacoma method actually takes place all along Russ and way and then up into like Tacoma. So okay pretty relevant actually.
00:07:08
Speaker
I'm just going to introduce this with a kind of dramatic opening. So you kind of get the context of
The Tacoma Method and Anti-Chinese Sentiment
00:07:15
Speaker
where we're going to, because I don't want to set your expectations as like, Tacoma method is great because it's definitely not interesting. Okay.
00:07:24
Speaker
Events. There are events in history that are, are really disturbing, super deliberate, and they feel more like something out of maybe a dystopian novel rather than a real place with real people. When I heard about the Tacoma method, I thought this was more something that you would see in like Germany in world war ii and not something that us in Tacoma, would have ever participated in.
00:07:50
Speaker
oh But sometimes the darkest stories are truly the ones that are happening in your backyard. And so today going to talk about Tacoma, Washington, the Tacoma Method, a city that is today known for glass museum, the waterfront views, Rustin Way, breweries, the beautiful views of Mount Rainier marinas.
00:08:14
Speaker
But in 1885, Tacoma was known for something a little darker. Oh, imagine waking up on one rainy November morning to the sound of bells ringing throughout the city. Something historically kind of usually like a happy sound. Maybe it's like a church bell, bells celebrating some sort of celebration or signaling some sort of celebration. yeah But unfortunately, these bells were calling out hundreds of people into the streets. Yeah.
00:08:45
Speaker
What? Yes. We're talking about calling people out, business owners, politicians, police officers, neighbors, men carrying clubs, some armed with pistols, others carrying others carrying ropes.
00:08:59
Speaker
And what did all of these individuals have in common?
00:09:05
Speaker
They were white. and they're but here What was again? Okay. I first you said and was very very concerned okay if it was eighteen eighty nineteen eighty five i would be even more mortified like i'm mortified but like i would be in a casket yeah okay 1885 1885 all of these men carrying clubs armed with pistols carrying ropes all white and their purpose on that morning to drive every chinese resident out of tacoma oh my god they went house by house business by business family by family
00:09:48
Speaker
physically removing hundreds of people from their homes that they had built in a city that they helped create from the ground up. And perhaps the most disturbing of it all, this wasn't a riot fueled by a sudden anger. This was an organized, planned, and openly public plan supported by city leadership encouraged by the mayor of Tacoma. What?
00:10:16
Speaker
And almost nobody faced consequences. Are you kidding me? I'm dead serious. Oh my God. This event later became known as the Tacoma Method, a phrase that would later spread across the American West as a blueprint for how to remove an entire ethnic community from This, unfortunately, is going to be a story of racism disguised as civic duty, economic fear turned into violence, in a city that spent decades trying to forget what happened.
00:10:48
Speaker
This is the story of Tacoma's Chinese expulsion. And trust me, the deeper you dig into this history, the darker it gets. This also, i brought this to everyone today because a lot of the things that I'm going to talk about in this story moving forward really has some connection points with where we are today as far as like ICE and then immigrant policies that are being talked about. I don't want to make this a political thing, but I think it is important to maybe talk about this stuff because a lot of the things that I'm hearing throughout the story that I was researching, I was like, wow, I think I actually heard someone talking about this last week and they were talking about exposing people. And so I think...
00:11:34
Speaker
It's interesting how history sometimes repeats itself. Yeah. So to understand what happened to in Tacoma in 1885, we first need to understand the world Chinese immigrants stepped into when they arrived in America. Because this isn't just a story about Tacoma. It begins thousands of miles away across the Pacific Ocean in southern China.
00:11:57
Speaker
Throughout the mid-1800s, China was facing enormous instability. We're talking famine, political unrest, economic hardship, tons of violence. An entire region was struggling under the pressure of war, poverty, limited opportunity.
00:12:11
Speaker
And many immigrants came specifically from the, I'm going to butcher this, the Guangdong, G-U-A-N-G-D-O-N-G province in southern China.
00:12:23
Speaker
And what happens when you know ah an entire country is split apart by war, there's famine, there's political unrest, families are trying to find a way out. They need to survive, they need to they need to be able to eat and support their family. And so word in Southern China really began to spread about opportunities that were going on in America, particularly in the West for Chinese individuals.
00:12:52
Speaker
In fact, the word got out so much that the Chinese people started calling America Gold Mountain. oh And the reason for this was this is still like 1885 is still when this is when America still like in that manifest destiny situation. Also, at us this is like peak gold rush time. Right. Yeah.
00:13:14
Speaker
So, I mean, you come over here, you're gonna like, as long as you work hard enough, you'll you'll really just change your life. It sounded like possibility, a chance to earn money.
00:13:24
Speaker
You know, you can even make enough money to to support your family back home. You can send that. And it's a way of building a new life and a better life for your family and your children. Beginning in 1849, thousands of Chinese immigrants started arriving.
00:13:37
Speaker
during the California gold rush. At first, many Americans welcome them. um The Western United States really needed labor, like really bad. We were building railroads. We had a whole bunch of mines. Farms needed farmhands. There was also a lot of timber harvesting happening.
00:13:55
Speaker
Ports were expanding at a crazy rate. so were' china So were the cities. And Chinese immigrants became essential to the growth of the American West. They were the the labor that was working in mines. They were working in logging camps, farms, salmon canneries, laundries, restaurants, and perhaps most famously, the railroads.
00:14:15
Speaker
By the 1860s, Chinese workers helped were helping construct the Central Pacific Railroad, taking on some of the most dangerous work imaginable. They're using explosives, they're blasting mountains, they're causing avalanches, they're doing the back-breaking physical work, often for a lot less pay than white workers workers because they had no other choice.
00:14:35
Speaker
of I hate that. I really, really hate hearing that. They're doing the same work, not getting compensated the same. That's ridiculous. And often taking the jobs that the white community would not be willing to do and taking those jobs that they're not willing to do and doing it at a far less rate.
00:14:54
Speaker
Yeah. Than would be expected. So by the time the railroad begins pushing its way into the Pacific Northwest, Chinese laborers have already established communities throughout Western Washington and its territories. Yeah. Places like Seattle, Port Townsend, mining communities, railroad camps, and eventually a tiny town that you may know of, Tacoma.
00:15:15
Speaker
Now at this time, it's the 1870s, early 1880s. Tacoma wasn't really known for what it is today. it is today it was very young, but Tacoma was very ambitious. It was a little rough around the edges, but despite that, leaders wanted to grow Tacoma into something big They aggressively marketed the city as the future economic epicenter of the Pacific Northwest. Oh, wow.
00:15:42
Speaker
Yeah, as previous, like at at the top, like to the leaders that came to Tacoma wanted it to be Seattle on steroids. They wanted it to be the hub where, you know, Tacoma has going on.
00:15:55
Speaker
Yeah. And they aggressively marketed this even more because of the train connection that came to Tacoma around the 1880s. This allowed the city to promote itself as one of the most modern areas in the Pacific Northwest. It also catered to the industrial district saying that, it hey, we're full of opportunity.
00:16:18
Speaker
And because of this railroad connection, jobs exploded quickly. in this area for the, so the railroad connection, you know, really lended itself to the and industry industrial complex and business owners moved in with business owners come more jobs, people, people flock.
00:16:37
Speaker
Yeah. So as laborers are pouring into the city, more and more Chinese immigrants are coming in as well. These Chinese and immigrants really settled near Tacoma's waterfront front, which is now essentially Rustin Way. And close to the railroad districts, which right now would be like downtown Tacoma, essentially.
00:16:57
Speaker
Gotcha. Over time, a small Chinatown emerged. In fact, did you know that ah the market Iwo Jima in Seattle? Awajimaya? Awajimaya. It actually originated in Tacoma.
00:17:10
Speaker
No way. hu Oh my gosh. I love Awajimaya. Yes, it actually is coming back. It's like a whole... It's a whole thing because people are like, it closed down because of the anti-Chinese movement in Tacoma. And now that it's coming back, it's like pretty symbolic. Nice.
00:17:27
Speaker
Yes. And so over time, a small Chinatown emerged and it wasn't as large as San Francisco, but it was important. It was alive and it was growing. Chinese residents opened laundries, restaurants, boarding houses, small stores, gardens, labor contracting businesses. They cooked your meals. They washed your clothes. They were building the infrastructure of what Tacoma was.
00:17:51
Speaker
Most importantly, they were working the jobs that many white residents refused to do. and in many ways, Tacoma's Chinese community helped build the city itself. And yet, despite all those contributions, they were never fully accepted because while Tacoma was growing economically, fear was growing too.
Legal Discrimination and The Chinese Exclusion Act
00:18:12
Speaker
And that fear has a way of turning your neighbor into an enemy. So in the late 1870s and eighteen eighty s anti-Chinese racism was starting to spread really rapidly across the Western United States.
00:18:26
Speaker
This is specifically related to money okay When things get tight in a country, especially a capitalistic society like America, we are not going to blame widespread unemployment on businesses. The first people we're going to turn are those that we think are taking away our jobs.
00:18:51
Speaker
And during this time, the Pacific Northwest was experiencing a pretty significant economic downturn. There was widespread unemployment, wages were dropping, competition for jobs severely intensified, and instead of blaming business owners or labor exploitation, many white workers turned their anger Why? Because employers often paid Chinese laborers low wages, not because Chinese workers somehow caused economic hardship, but because discrimination, discrimination rather, left them with fewer choices. Many employers exploited that using Chinese workers to reduce costs, also using Chinese workers to undercut unions, which is, it is not their fault, but it is a way to piss off a community real quick.
00:19:41
Speaker
Yeah. Businesses were also electing to choose Chinese workers over white counterparts because they were willing to do jobs for cheaper because they just had to to survive.
00:19:53
Speaker
And again, rather than focusing anger on employers, Chinese immigrants became the scapegoats. In fact, newspapers in during this time painted them as dangerous. Politicians called them threats. Labor leaders accused them of, quote, stealing jobs.
00:20:12
Speaker
Anti-Chinese stereotypes started spreading everywhere. Chinese communities were described as dirty, foreign, immoral, un-American, and worst of all, permanently unassimilatable. I don't know if that's a word. I just pulled it out of my hat. But essentially, if you were Chinese, there is no way that you could ever become American. No matter how many generations you've been here for, you would never truly be an an American. oh my God. Which is kind of just disgusting. Yeah.
00:20:44
Speaker
And so this fear, when this economic downturn happened, this fear turned to anger. And then this anger turned into something particularly dangerous for immigrant communities in America.
00:20:56
Speaker
And that anger turned into resentment. And resentment really turned into organized hatred. Because you know what? I'm just going to the first one to say it Us white people, we love to organize around hate and it's disgusting and it's diabolical and it's gross. And eventually this organized hatred turned into a policy because in 1882, the United States passed something that changed everything, the Chinese Expulsion Act.
00:21:25
Speaker
And this law cannot be separated from what happened in Tacoma because it helped make the violence feel justified. The Chinese Expulsion Act became the first major federal um law.
00:21:37
Speaker
Sorry. The Chinese Expulsion Act became the first major federal immigration law union in the United States to ban immigration based specifically on your race and nationality.
00:21:48
Speaker
That is fucked up. Think about that for a second. So an entire ethnic group... specifically based on your race and nationality, was legally singled out, meaning that Chinese labor immigration was suspended, citizenship became nearly impossible, and suddenly all of these anti-Chinese activists had something dangerous.
00:22:10
Speaker
They had the validation and federal approval for their hatred. Oh my God, that's disgusting. It is disgusting. The law truly sent a message And the message was Chinese immigrants are unwanted. Well, what do you think all of the local communities who are struggling to find work and have Chinese immigrants that are picking up the jobs that they don't want to do?
00:22:40
Speaker
Well, those local communities are going to become very dangerous and they're going to want to push out all of these individuals for taking their quote unquote jobs.
00:22:51
Speaker
So this dangerous logic spread very quickly, especially in Washington state. And well, at this time it was a territory, but same, same kind of. And Tacoma became one of its loudest supporters.
Organizing the Expulsion
00:23:07
Speaker
By the early 1880s, anti-Chinese meetings became a commonplace, like a weekly occurrence. Public gatherings openly discussed what organizers called, and I quote from a newspaper, the Chinese question.
00:23:23
Speaker
And yes, that phrase is as disturbing as it sounds. People debated whether or not Chinese residents should be forced out entirely. Oh my good God.
00:23:35
Speaker
Labor groups. Yeah. Yeah. It's disgusting. Labor groups, including the Knights Labor, which we should do a deep dive on. I feel like it has ties to the KKK, but I cannot confirm or deny. Allegedly, I feel like that is the case. But anyways, the Knights of Labor has demanded removal. Speakers blame Chinese workers for economic struggles Then this started catching like wildfire. Politicians started joining in. Business owners joined in. And city leadership, instead of calming tensions, many of them helped inflame them.
00:24:15
Speaker
In fact, one key figure that was one of the loudest supporters about the quote, Chinese question was Tacoma Mayor Jacob Weisbach.
00:24:28
Speaker
Not only did he fail to protect his Chinese residents, um, Historical accounts suggest that he actively supported their removal efforts. Then came a very major turning point.
00:24:41
Speaker
In February of 1885, roughly 900 Tacoma citizens reportedly attended a public anti-Chinese meeting. That is 900 people in a town of May. I don't know the exact population of Tacoma at that point, but it can't be much more than a couple thousand.
00:25:05
Speaker
That's a lot of people. Yeah, that's not a fringe movement. That's, that's, that's like mainstream at that point. speakerly Speakers openly discussed forcing Chinese residents out by force, getting them out of their city. And the message became clear. Tacoma's future, they argued, depended on becoming a, oh my and I quote from a newspaper, white man's city. Yeah.
00:25:31
Speaker
And soon those ideas turned into action. Committees formed, plans developed, and a powerful organization emerged. A group of historians now call them the Committee of 15. This Committee of 15 were prominent businessmen, community leaders leaders, public figures. Essentially all of the people with influence in the city, the like the top 1% of Tacoma, yeah were part of this Committee of 15. Oh my God.
00:25:57
Speaker
Which is gross. Could you imagine being a Chinese immigrant at this time, by the way? Oh, my God. You're just so scared all of the time. so's like So scared all the time. Stick to your stomach. And then I can only imagine the hate they must deal with on a daily basis. Just like the name they got called.
00:26:13
Speaker
I'd be scared to let my kid outside. oh my God. Yeah. Just... It's awful. Yeah. Yeah. So this committee of 15, these were all people that were majorly respected in the community. The people with the biggest influence and people who would soon help organize one of the most disturbing acts of racial explosion in Pacific Northwest history.
00:26:34
Speaker
And while all of this was happening, tacona Tacoma's Chinese residents knew something bad was coming because anti-Chinese violent wasn't something new. Across the American West, more and more Chinese communities have been reporting that random beatings, robberies, arsons, lynchings, force removals, and major massacres of entire towns.
00:27:00
Speaker
We're talking at the scale of an entire China, channel like quote unquote Chinatown being attacked, burned and destroyed. And Tacoma's residents were watching all of these things, like entire Chinatowns being massacred, forced removals, lynching, and they were on board. They understood that, or the Tacoma residents were on board with these lynchings, but the Tacoma immigration immigrant community was understanding that this danger that they're seeing elsewhere was right in their backyard.
00:27:29
Speaker
And the question was, would someone in Tacoma protect them or would the city become part of the violence? And unfortunately, we all know where this is going.
The Expulsion Day
00:27:40
Speaker
Yeah. The Committee of 15 truly swayed no the to and the rest of the Tacoma population to choose violence. By the fall of 1885, Tacoma's anti-Chinese movement had transformed from an angry rhetoric into something far more dangerous.
00:27:59
Speaker
The Committee of 15 had developed a plan because what makes the story uniquely disturbing is that this violence that happened to this Chinese community didn't happen with an angry mob or so like ah like a spark went off, something happened to cause this huge riot, no There was a plan in place.
00:28:19
Speaker
Violence had erupted against the Chinese community throughout the American way West, but Tacoma wasn't an eruption. It was organized, it was publicly put out, and it was methodically executed.
00:28:33
Speaker
It truly operated like a civic project. Like, oh we're going to build a town hall. That is how this played out. The committee of 15 put essentially a project plan in place and like Kanban style evicted oh my god the Chinese.
00:28:52
Speaker
God, that's so horrible. Isn't it fucking gross? It's fucking nasty. By late September, anti-Chinese leaders were no longer asking chinese Chinese residents to leave. They were actually issuing Chinese immigrants ultimatums. And let's stop calling them and immigrants. I don't know why i keep saying that. Residents of the community were being issued ultimatums because of the way they looked and the color of their skins.
00:29:16
Speaker
And on april twenty September 28th, 1885, Tacoma's anti-Chinese organizers reportedly held another major public meeting. And during this meeting, a deadline was established.
00:29:31
Speaker
Chinese residents had until November 1st to leave Tacoma.
00:29:39
Speaker
Signs went up all over the community. Messages went out. People were stopped on the street saying, hey, you, you don't look like me. You have till November 1st or else. What?
00:29:51
Speaker
a very unmistakable message. Either you leave willingly or we will remove you by force.
00:30:00
Speaker
All righty. So Chinese residents were ordered to leave Tacoma by November first The message was unmistakable, leave willingly or you're gonna be removed by force. There was no ambiguity, no pretending.
00:30:13
Speaker
chinese Chinese residents were openly told that if they remained after the deadline, they would be driven out. And my thing is like, can you imagine that? So a lot of these individuals have built this transcontinental railroad for, in gross conditions, bra backbreaking work for like little to no money.
00:30:33
Speaker
They have probably escaped a country that is like war-torn, has famine. They're coming here. They're setting up shop. They probably don't have a lot of money because they're they're taking all of the jobs that nobody else wants to do.
00:30:47
Speaker
yeah And then some people just decide that you're the problem. You're part of the community. Even though the jobs I am taking are the jobs that you don't want. Yeah. Yeah. And now you're coming up to me and just saying, hey, you I don't care if you've you know built your business here. I don't care if you have a house here. Get out.
00:31:08
Speaker
it' like That's what you said earlier, right? like We're seeing the same cycles continue on to this day. It's just gross. So... Yeah, I just can't imagine building a life, working, paying rent, like doing all of of these things and then just someone saying, oh, I don't like the way you look, so you got to get out. So yeah for many people at this time were, many Chinese at this time were looking around at the kind of what's going on in the West as a whole.
00:31:35
Speaker
And they, like the majority of the community said, you know what? I am just going to leave because lynchings, people's houses going on fire. Like, I don't want to be a part of that. So a lot of Chinese residents did flee and they left the majority of their things behind, which is also fucking awful because they just like, they had to get out.
00:31:57
Speaker
I mean, they're told at the end of September, you have till November 1st. That's not a lot of time. No. Oh my God. And so, yeah, some Chinese residents left immediately. And how can you blame them? Like, if especially if i had kids, I'm not trying to do yeah let' fuck around and find out with that.
00:32:14
Speaker
Yeah. Did they go to like one place in particular? Did they all just kind of scatter? Just kind of scattered. Seattle seemed to be kind of the nearest place. Gotcha. a lot A lot went there, but it it really was just like everywhere.
00:32:27
Speaker
So, and the reason why they did this is because they were they were literally watching and hearing in newspapers what was happening elsewhere, where Communities were being burned. Businesses were being looted. Violence was escalating overnight. Like people were dying because they were getting beat to death.
00:32:45
Speaker
So this was like a very real threat. and um But not everyone left. People were like, well, let me just stay here and see what happens. Which I also can understand.
00:32:57
Speaker
ah Roughly 300 individuals stayed within this Chinatown that was in the Ruston Way area. Okay. Most were holding out hope that someone would step in and stop them. But in reality, what they faced was pretty terrifying because in Tacoma, the people expected to protect them had already chosen sides. And by October, the intimidation was intensifying. And by late October, threats were coming in. I mean, like threats of like people coming into businesses saying, I can't wait to own this.
00:33:26
Speaker
If you're still here, like you're not going to be here. and Like just threats to essentially kill them and just take over everything. And then November 1st came. This is the deadline. Yeah.
00:33:37
Speaker
The deadline passes. And like I said, 300 Chinese men, women, and children still remained in Tacoma. They were kind of waiting. They were watching. The end of the first comes and they're like, okay, no one's like coming to my door, kicking me out.
00:33:52
Speaker
The second comes. and no one is walking down the city blocks. there's no There's nothing necessarily happening. So they're thinking maybe cooler heads have prevailed, like a lot of people left. Maybe you know now that we're staying behind closed doors, we're not exaggerate or we're not coming out into the community. People aren't like, okay, with us being here.
00:34:13
Speaker
But then November 3rd came, which is probably one of the darkest days in Tacoma's history. November 3rd, 1885, ta coma
00:34:25
Speaker
wakes up and it's about 9 30 in the morning. All of a sudden these bells start ringing throughout the city. They're not church bells. They're not fire alarms.
00:34:37
Speaker
That's what people thought they were at first. They thought it was like something awful was happening. We needed to gather. But no, these were essentially like the bat signal, a call to come together, a summons.
00:34:50
Speaker
And people responded. Hundreds and hundreds of white residents poured into the streets. These are business owners, labor organizers, politicians, police officers are part of this, ordinary citizens.
00:35:05
Speaker
According to some estimates, 500 people came. 500 people came and it wasn't chaos. It wasn't like we're ringing bells and we're gonna just like mass loot everything.
00:35:16
Speaker
This was organized. Like I'm talking like a protest walking down the streets. And the witnesses that that saw this this thought like described this as very structured, very coordinated, there was leaders guiding people to specific segments of this Chinatown.
00:35:34
Speaker
People had clubs, people had pistols, some people carried knives, some people even made homemade weapons to celebrate the occasion. What? They all head down to Tacoma's Chinatown. The crowd marches towards the Chinese neighborhoods near the waterfront and the other railroad districts.
00:35:51
Speaker
And then could you just imagine just like pausing for a second? You're like looking out your window and you're just seeing mass amounts of people coming towards you. With like yeah pitchforks and fire.
00:36:02
Speaker
It's like that scene in Beauty and the Beast when they're trying to storm the castle. I'd be freaking terrified. but Okay, so everyone's angry. They're yelling, they're shouting. Well, they're not angry, but they're yelling and they're shouting and they're like very coordinated and they're heading directly towards these people's homes.
00:36:17
Speaker
The Chinese suddenly become... terrified. The crowd enters Chinatown and things escalate very fast. Witnesses later describe white vigilantes breaking into homes, smashing through people's doors, forcing their way into businesses, and physically dragging people by their hair out of their residence outside into the streets.
00:36:42
Speaker
All of the Chinese residents were sequestered into the streets. Some were only given moments to gather belongings. Some didn't have shoes on, some didn't even have coats. Historical accounts describe people desperately stuffing possessions into sacks and baskets into their pockets like they're trying to just grab clothing, food, money, anything that they could just like carry as they're being dragged out by their hair.
00:37:07
Speaker
Eyewitness Taknam later described the terror of that day, saying that the mob intended to, quote, drive them like so many hogs. Another resident, LeMay, recalled armed men entering the building that she was in while terrified families were scrambling to gather belongings together.
00:37:24
Speaker
And she was actually with some children at the same time. So she's like watching these families trying to like desperately put stuff together. She's trying to get her family together. And like she's having to make she's she's talking about how she's having to make the decision of what do I grab?
00:37:43
Speaker
And I know like people make a joke of like, hey, if your house was on fire today, name three things that you would grab. Yeah. These people are like actually having to live that, which is just like, I know I'm like banging on about this, but like, it's just, it makes my stomach hurt.
00:37:58
Speaker
Yeah. People could, yeah. Yeah. So I guess I just ask our evidence to say, like, if you look around you and you're being forced out of your home, what could you grab that would fit in your hand and would like support you as your life is collapsing around you and help you for a better life? Like, it's impossible. Like, there's nothing that's going to fit in my hand that's going to like help me.
00:38:22
Speaker
I'm just like paperwork and stuff, right? Like you have like documentation, like marriage certificates, and like things that you don't have handy that you're going to need at some point in time.
00:38:32
Speaker
Like, oh my God. Yeah. And then meanwhile, while you're trying to figure this all out, you're getting grabbed by your hair and pulled out into the streets. It's just, it's like very surreal. Roughly 300 Chinese residents had been arrested, men, women, and children, elderly residents, workers, families, just everyone's gathered together. And then they were forced to march.
00:38:53
Speaker
So they're in the cold, soaked rain at this point because it's raining. It's really cloudy. Some don't have jackets. Most don't have shoes. And they're being forced to march out of town. And they're escorted by men with clubs, pitchforks, pistols.
00:39:09
Speaker
And in fact, these people were marched seven miles towards a railroad station at Lakeview. So seven miles in November, carrying heavy bags. The pace also was reportedly so fast that people were struggling to keep pace. And if someone fell behind, they would force, like, they would be forced with, like, public community humiliation.
00:39:30
Speaker
They're getting hit with things. They're getting yelled at, screamed at, things thrown at them. Like, it's just... Essentially, a forced parade meant to demean you. Eyewitnesses later recall Chinese residents trudging through the rain, carrying everything they had left
Aftermath and Reconciliation Efforts
00:39:43
Speaker
in the world. For some, their entire lives had been reduced to whatever they could physically carry. And then after hours in miserable weather, they reached the railroad tracks. And you'd think that this is finally where some relief would come. But of course not.
00:39:55
Speaker
Because once the Chinese residents arrived, many were expected to pay for their own trade tickets out of town. What's So not only were they forced out of homes, barely able to grab the things that they could grab, but then they got to the train tracks and they were forced to pay for their own tickets.
00:40:14
Speaker
If they couldn't afford it, whatever they did have in their hand was considered as payment for this ride. Many boarded trains traveling to Portland, Oregon. Others traveled towards Seattle. Some scattered elsewhere, like I said.
00:40:28
Speaker
But most had nowhere to go at all, so they were just hoping that the place that they would end up would... be somewhat safe for chinese for For the Tacoma Chinese residents, the nightmare had only begun. And back in Tacoma, things were about to get even worse because forcing people out wasn't enough.
00:40:44
Speaker
The city he wanted to erase evidence all of the as evidence that the Chinese ever existed there at all. So now we come to the evening of November 3rd, 1885. So after a long day of forcing people to walk seven miles, forcing them to pay for their own plane tickets to expel themselves out of the city, the crowd is now cheering and they're heading back towards Chinatown.
00:41:05
Speaker
The streets of China dr had grown quiet at this point. Obviously, homes stood abandoned, businesses had been shuttered, laundry lights swayed in the wind. And for the men who had organized the expulsion, this quiet wasn't enough.
00:41:19
Speaker
Because just removing the Chinese community wasn't simply about forcing people to leave. It was about making a statement and making sure no one would come back. So in the following days, the erasure really truly began.
00:41:32
Speaker
Chinese owned businesses became targets. Homes, boarding houses, restaurants, laundries, shops, everything that the Chinese had built so hard to build became looted. First of all, everything was stolen.
00:41:46
Speaker
All of the windows became shattered. Doors were broken in. Belongings were stolen. Historical accounts describe vandalism spreading through Tacoma's former china Chinatown district, particularly near the waterfront areas along Pacific Avenue, where many Chinese businesses once stood.
00:42:02
Speaker
And then the fires started. Structures were intentionally burned based on how prominent that business was in the city. So the most prominent burned first, and then it just the destruction was systematic from there.
00:42:18
Speaker
specifically designed to wipe away any visible reminders of Chinese families that had ever lived there. And what makes this even harder to process is of like how public it was. Many of Tacoma's most powerful citizens either openly supported the violence or were participating in a very open and public way.
00:42:38
Speaker
Again, these are business leaders, city officials, police officers, community elites. The mayor was doing this, which is, It's just fucking nasty. um Some news newspapers praised the expulsion. Anti-Chinese activists described the society city as finally being purified. And one newspaper going as far to say, we're finally back to our purified state, a quote, white man's city. Oh, God.
00:43:06
Speaker
Tacoma had achieved something that many Western communities openly talked about but hadn't fully excluded executed, the removal of an entire ethnic community. And soon, people elsewhere took notice.
00:43:18
Speaker
The phrase, the quote, quote, the Tacoma method began circulating. A chilling term used to describe organized ethnic ethnic expulsion through intimidation, mob violence, and destruction of property.
00:43:33
Speaker
In other words, Tacoma had become a blueprint, a model, and in an example. And sadly, other cities followed suit very closely after this happened.
00:43:45
Speaker
News of the Tacoma's explosion spread quickly. As I said, newspapers across the story across the country picked up the story. Headlines described the forced removal of Chinese residents as a positive thing. Federal officials took notice. even international um And then international criticism started to to to come into place, though. And as the international criticism came into play, federal office officials started to slightly change their opinion, but not really.
00:44:12
Speaker
It was like to the world we were saying one thing, but in inwardly we were saying something else. Chinese diplomats started expressing outrage. Questions emerged about whether the United States government had failed to protect the Chinese and immigrants under treaty agreements.
00:44:27
Speaker
Because here is something important to remember. Chinese immigrants living in the United States at the time still had legal protections under the treaties between the US and China. i got Yeah, so at least on paper,
00:44:41
Speaker
these Chinese residents had protection from from the US government under this treaty. And what, essentially Tacoma completely violated it.
00:44:54
Speaker
They did something really illegal and eventually a federal authorities had to step in, or at least they tried to step in. A group of men connected to the expulsion were arrested. So that community of 15 that I told you about earlier and a couple others were arrested, 27 people in total were arrested in Tacoma.
00:45:12
Speaker
um One of those people were was the mayor. um But essentially the newspapers framed them as like anti-heroes. They were just doing what was best. And they also got a nickname of the Tacoma 27.
00:45:28
Speaker
And what's striking about these Tacoma 27, it's really hard to figure out who these 27 were because they were protected under anonymity. Like the the the newspapers didn't want to out these people because they were like the business leaders, politician, influence, influential citizens. And they were the people that quote, like purified the city. So the newspapers were actually trying to protect them, which is gross.
00:45:57
Speaker
So some historians know that even mayor Jacob Weisbach was associated with a movement that pushed the Chinese removal, though accountability remained murky. Federal prosecutors charged members of the Tacoma 27 with conspiracy and involvement in the expulsion. It looked like it possibly looked like Tacoma might actually face consequences. Maybe justice would happen. Maybe the government would send a message message that ethnic cleansing is not okay.
00:46:23
Speaker
um
00:46:27
Speaker
But political as political pressure mounted, nobody faced ultimately nobody faced serious punishment. There were no major convictions. There was no meaningful accountability, no justice for the families forced into exile. The men who organized Tacoma's expulsion walked free. There was no consequences.
00:46:44
Speaker
um Even though they... they publicly organized racial violence, forcing hundreds of people from their home, destroying an entire community, destroying not even just a community, destroying half of Tacoma.
00:46:56
Speaker
There was no consequences. So what was stopping other cities from doing the same thing? Tacoma was supposed to be like the example. um But unfortunately, nothing happened. And Tacoma method continued to proliferate throughout Washington state.
00:47:11
Speaker
Anyway, so that is essentially my story about the Tacoma Method. There is ah a, there's this reconciliation piece that starts happening in the nineteen eighty s So about a hundred years later, David Murdoch moved to Tacoma in the, in 1980s and became disturbed by how little recognition um of the anti-Chinese violence happened in 1885. Like, so essentially after this happened, Tacoma erased it from its history.
00:47:39
Speaker
Like not, hardly anyone knows that this happened.
00:47:44
Speaker
And so when Dr. Mado came, came to Tacoma, he was very confused why like no one was talking about this. And so he made a public effort to make Tacoma like, look at this.
00:47:58
Speaker
Like, don't hide from it. We're not softening it. You need to acknowledge what happened. And in 1991, he proposed creating a memorial and reconciliation effort honoring ta com Tacoma's expelled Chinese community.
00:48:11
Speaker
And slowly the conversation began changing. community Community leaders, historians, and activists pushed for public recognition of the city's role in expulsion. the ah ah The effort eventually led to a major movement, um sorry,
00:48:24
Speaker
The effort eventually led to a major moment. In 1993, the Tacoma City Council formally apologized for the expulsion of Chinese residents. So more than a century later, the City Council described the event as um a most reprehensible occurrence.
00:48:41
Speaker
And while an apology cannot undo terror or restore stolen homes or erase generational trauma, it mattered. Tacoma also supported the development of what is now known as the Chinese Reconciliation Park along the waterfront. So if you go to Ruston Way, like kind of at the end when you go over the bridge to go on to Ruston Way, there's this like little park with its Chinese monument.
00:49:03
Speaker
It's got like architecture that's Chinese ah inspired. It's ah got walking paths, gardens, introspective historicals. displays essentially it's a place for memorial anyways I think the the reason why this story still matters is because yes 1885 feels very distant feels like another century it feels like another Tacoma another America but history just doesn't disappear because time passes because of that moment in time we have impacted generations of Chinese immigrants that were in Tacoma and then not only that but like we're still having some of the same rhetoric today
00:49:40
Speaker
And it's just, i don't know, it's sad. Anyways, that is my story. That is the Tacoma Method. And I hope we all learn something interesting and move forward with like love in our hearts instead of hate.
00:49:52
Speaker
Well, that's it for today's dive into the dark corners of the Pacific Northwest. If you love the stories or shivered a little, be sure to subscribe and follow so you don't miss what's looking beneath the evergreens next time.
00:50:04
Speaker
Thanks for joining us on Beneath the Evergreens. We appreciate you diving into the mysteries with us. Until next time, keep your eyes open and your doors locked.
00:59:36
Speaker
Well, that's it for today's dive into the dark corners of the Pacific Northwest.
00:59:48
Speaker
Thanks for joining us on Beneath the Evergrande. Yeah. No, agreed. Until next time, keep your eyes open. Good to turn.
01:00:01
Speaker
If you love the stories or shivered a little, be sure to subscribe and follow so you don't miss what's looking beneath the evergreens next time.
01:00:10
Speaker
We appreciate you diving into the mysteries with us.
01:00:16
Speaker
And your door is locked.
01:00:20
Speaker
That was such a good story!