Chinese residents are expelled from Bellingham in a campaign led by a local newspaper.

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In 1884, the Whatcom Reveille newspaper launched a boycott  pressuring citizens not to hire, rent to, or patronize the business of, the Chinese people in town. The boycott was widely supported. 

This boycott was part of a broader campaign to expel Chinese from cities and towns throughout the region. This campaign became violent in some cities, though not in Bellingham.

The boycott culminated with a threat that all Chinese must leave the city by November 1, 1885. They did. On November 6, a gathering was held to celebrate the “exit of Mongolian serfs and coolies” with a torchlight parade, a speech by the mayor, and a performance by the glee club.

See also:

Remembering Washington’s Chinese expulsion 125 years later

Bellingham Herald article – 125 years later

Chinese Historical Society of the Pacific Northwest (1983) The Annals of the Chinese Historical Society of the Pacific Northwest. Seattle, WA, The Society.

Margaret Willson, (1982), An Ethnohistorical study of the Dominant Community Reaction to the Chinese and Japanese Immigrant Communities in Bellingham, Washington (WWU master’s thesis).

Margaret Willson & Jeffrey MacDonald (1983). Racial tension at Port Townsend and Bellingham Bay, 1870-1886. Annals of the Chinese Historical Society of the Pacific Northwest, 1-15.