1913-Alien Land Law

This law was enacted in California at a time where the Anti-Japanese movement was going strong.  The Alien Land Law made it illegal for immigrants to be citizens and own land or property.  However, this law permits three-year leases which creates limitations for Asian Americans.  Asian Americans worked hard to work around this racially constructed law.

 

At first, the Asian workers were welcomed into California as they provided agricultural labor for cheap.   But some Japanese workers had the idea to buy their own land and start farming, taking profit and business from white farmers in California.  And as they continued to be successful and displayed a different entrepreneurial plan, Californians acted out.  This California Alien Land Law was in response to the voter’s strong Anti-Asian sentiments, especially toward Japanese laborers and Chinese agricultural workers.  Anti-Asian Protestors were unhappy with the success of Japanese farmers in the 1900’s and they were jealous of their economic gains.  So they took a political stand to try and get this initiative approved in order to eliminate this supplementary competitive force.  This law was another way to put Asians down and make them feel inferior or remind them that they are the minority. 

 

The result of the law was a decrease in Japanese acerage and farming.  Soon after California passed this law, other states were impacted by it and decided to adopt similar laws.  Arizona enacted an Alien Land Law 4 years later, and Washington Louisiana, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and Kansas followed suit.  This law relied on the racial prerequisite to naturalization.  A person had to be free and white in order to own land.  Later down the road, a case was brought up about the constitutionality of these laws and the issue of racism and discrimination.  In Terrace vs. Thompson, a Supreme Court case in 1923, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Alien Land Law and did not think it was racist.   There are other cases similar to this one such as Oyama v. California.  This law made Asian Americans even more foreign and alienated from others.  It wasn’t until 1952 when Asians could own land.  The Supreme Court finally ruled this restriction to be unconstitutional forty years later, which displays how long racism has existed for immigrants. 

Despite the Land Laws that placed heavy limitations on Japanese farmers, Asian Americans still played a large part in agriculture in California.  Asian farmers made verbal agreements to those willing to sell land, and the law was difficult to fully enforce so Asian workers found ways to work around the Alien Land Laws.  

Andi Long