“You have expended a lot of the Public money foolishly, all because of a one poor little Child. Her playmates is all Caucasians, ever since she could toddle around. If she is good enough to play with them! Then is she not good enough to be in the same room and studie with them? You had better come and see for yourselves. See if the Tape’s is not same as other Caucasians, except in features. It seems no matter how a Chinese may live and dress so long as you know they Chinese. Then they are hated as one. There is not any right or justice for them.”
–Mary TapeAmong the many young girls who arrived in San Francisco in 1868, was one 11-year-old from Shanghai. After five months in Chinatown, she was taken in by Ladies’ Protection and Relief Society on Franklin Street, where she was given the name Mary.
The following year, Chew Diep arrived from Taishan. In 1875, he met Mary while he delivered milk for the Sterling family. They married on November 16, and before long, Chew Diep changed his name to Joe Tape. The Tapes’ daughter Mamie was born the following summer. The Tapes would have three more children: Frank, Emily, and Gertrude.
The Tapes lived in the Black Point neighborhood, now called Cow Hollow, which was predominantly white. Teen neighbor Florence Eveleth taught little Mamie and Frank reading and math. But neither the Tapes’ affluence nor assimilation could protect them from discrimination.
Additional Resources:
“The 8-Year-Old Chinese-American Girl Who Helped Desegregate Schools” (History Channel)
“Before Brown v. Board of Education, There was Tape v. Hurley” (Library of Congress)
“In Pursuit of Equality: Separate is Not Equal” (Smithsonian Museum of Natural History)
The Lucky Ones: One Family and the Extraordinary Invention of Chinese America by Mae Ngai
“The Tapes of Russell Street” (Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association)
Unbound Voices: Chinese Women in San Francisco by Judy Yung
“We Have Always Lived as Americans” (The New York Historical Society)
“What a Chinese Girl Did,” The Morning Call, November 23, 1892, Page 12
“The worst of the explosion occurred in the No. 8 mine.” (Mine Wars, Part 1)
“We lived with constant fear.” (Encore: Freedom Summer, Part 2)
“We have to be shot down here like rabbits.” (Encore: The Great Migration, Part 1)
“His Intelligence from the Enemy’s Camp were Industriously Collected…” (James Armistead Lafayette, Mini Episode)
“The more I read, the more I fought against slavery.” (Slave Narratives and the Pursuit of Literacy, Part 3)
“It was only by trickery that I learned to read.” (Slave Narratives and the Pursuit of Literacy, Part 2)
“I would take my child and hide in the mountains.” (Slave Narratives and the Pursuit of Literacy, Part 1)
“We are afraid to speak for our rights.” (Freedom Summer ’64, Part 2)
“Mississippi is going to be hell this summer.” (Freedom Summer ’64, Part 1)
“I was awakened … by the low roar of guns.” (Hello Girls, Mini Episode)
“We fed them what we had.” (Women’s Welfare Work in WWI, Part 3)
“Don’t drop them pies!” (Women’s Welfare Work in WWI, Part 2)
“We washed the men and the floors.” (Women’s Welfare Work in WWI, Part 1)
“My wound is all healed.” (The 372nd Infantry, Mini Episode)
“I have the right not to vote.” (Women’s Suffrage, Mini Episode)
“Our child cries for you.” (Loved Ones of Black Civil War Soldiers, Mini Episode)
“Nothing here but money.” (The Great Migration, Part 3)
“We will do any kind of work.” (The Great Migration, Part 2)
“We have to be shot down here like rabbits.” (The Great Migration, Part 1)
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