- When I was approached to think about the Chinese massacre,
I was like, I know it happened,
I know it was bad, but that's kind of it.
(melancholy guitar music)
- I only learn about this event
literally less than a year ago.
- If you don't know the history of your own people,
you're kind of left without this context.
- I really want to learn about it
and I'm excited to do so,
but also a little bit nervous and scared
as to how my perspectives may change
based on what I learn today.
- People forget that there was a struggle
and that there still is a struggle going on today.
(melancholy guitar music)
- We are standing right on Los Angeles Street.
This is where the Chinese massacre started.
It would have been right there.
What we have now is this plaque
which memorializes what occurred 145 years ago.
(melancholy guitar music)
The Chinese have been easily identified.
They were not well liked.
They were looked upon as being a threat
to the economy, the jobs.
(melancholy guitar music) (mob yells)
Right now we're standing above the Los Angeles Mall.
This is where the Goller Wagon store was.
Four of the folks were taken right here.
And you know those wagons,
it was like a repair shop.
And so the wagons were tilted up on one end
and then that was used as an area to
drop the rope and lynch the person.
So it's sort of ironic that right across the street
from the Federal Office Building is the location
where a number of folks got lynched.
(glass breaks)
(gun bangs)
- I keep thinking about my parents
and how they immigrated here in a different time
but if they had been here 145 years back,
it just could have been their fate.
- We literally just saw on the news recently
that someone wrote an article
that they were still being yelled at to go back to China.
- The fact that you can kind of just erase
such an event like that is kind of
ridiculous. - [Chris] You can curse.
- [Jess] It's kind of fucking upsetting
that you can just forget that this happened
and put a federal building on it.
(melancholy violin music)
- We are now where the Tomlinson's corral was.
The balance of the hangings occurred right here.
Ironically, we're standing
at the entry to the Hall of Justice.
- I didn't know it was that bad.
(melancholy violin music)
- I think Chinese Americans
just don't like to talk about that.
I think we like to pretend that
like Leo said, everything's okay.
That we've made it.
We're part of the dream.
That could easily happen today.
That does easily happen today, that same fear,
that same language, that same
we all look the same mentality.
(melancholy guitar music)
(gong chimes)
- When they were reading the names,
every hit of a gong, it just felt so jarring to me.
I would picture the upright wagon
and each person literally being lynched.
- What stood out to me the most,
when they were reading out the names
at the candlelight vigil,
were how familiar the names sounded.
They sounded like people that could know.
- I didn't know that it was
the largest lynching in U.S. history.
I can see history repeating itself.
Like you see people being killed for who they are today
and that is just a sign to me that we're not learning
as much as we should be as humans, you know?
- You still hear, "Oh, they're taking our jobs."
So how much has really changed?
- I feel inspired honestly just to see the folks
over at the Chinese American Museum
and everyone that showed to the event today
that clearly cared about history
and cared about preserving our heritage and our culture
and never allowing our communities to forget
the things that happened to us.
- I feel pride now for how resillent
our people have been and are.