The Chinese community in Los Angeles commemorated the 145th anniversary of a massacre by a white mob, dubbed as the U.S.’s worst mass lynching ever.
Monday marks 145 years since the largest mass lynching in the United States took place on the streets of Los Angeles. The targeted group was Chinese immigrants, who were set upon by a mob of about 500 white men who systematically tortured and then massacred almost 20 migrants. Their motivation was pure racism and xenophobia.
The Chinese American Museum in the city held events in commemoration of the massacre, with several community leaders delivering speeches on the events of Oct. 24, 1871.
The carnage, according to the museum’s account, took place after white resident Robert Thompson was shot and killed, most probably by a stray bullet, when he came to Chinatown with a policeman to break up a gunfight between members of rival Chinese gangs.
After the news of his death had become public, a mob of 500 white men entered the area and attacked any Chinese person they encountered as they sought racially-based revenge.
“Chinese homes and businesses were also looted,” a press release by the museum said of what the white men did. “After five hours, the vigilantes had tortured, shot and hanged 17 Chinese men and 1 boy.”
The massacre gained national attention and prompted a grand jury investigation which led to the conviction of just eight of the 500 attackers. However, a further disturbing aspect was that all these convictions were overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court just a year later and all killers were released.
The massacre’s anniversary comes just a few weeks before the presidential elections in the U.S. – which have given momentum to, and ignited, white supremacist and racist attacks as a result of the candidacy of Republican Donald Trump.
Several publically-known neo-Nazis and former Ku Klux Klan leaders have endorsed the real estate billionaire as he bashes Mexican immigrants, calls for bans on Muslims and labels refugees “terrorists.”
— source telesurtv.net