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Mamie Tape Was Barred From School Because She Was Chinese — So Her Parents Sued
Her case came decades before Brown v. Board of Education
Discrimination against Asians in the United States is not a recent occurrence. More than a century ago, in the mid- to late 1800s, Chinese exclusion was even institutionalized in U.S. society, particularly in the state of California.
Among the struggles Chinese immigrants endured at that time, an eight-year-old Chinese American girl tried to attend one of San Francisco’s public schools — and was refused. Her name was Mamie Tape, and she was the plaintiff in the landmark California Supreme Court case Tape v. Hurley in 1885.
The Tape family
Mamie’s parents were both Chinese immigrants. According to History.com, her father, Jeu Dip, who would later take the name Joseph Tape, emigrated from the Guangdong province in southern China. At the age of 12, he moved to San Francisco. He became a house servant for a dairy rancher and later graduated to driving the milk-delivery wagon.
Mamie’s mother, Mary McGladery, was from Shanghai, China, and she moved to the United States in 1868, when she was 11. After a few months in Chinatown, she was taken in by the Ladies’ Protection and Relief Society. She was fortunate as during that time most Chinese women were known for working in brothels in Chinatown.
Mary was schooled in English and quickly adapted Western manners. She later became an accomplished photographer and painter. In 1875, she and Joseph married.
Soon after, Joseph became a respected businessman. His ventures, including a delivery business, transportation, and interpreting services, took off. The Tapes settled outside of Chinatown in the Cow Hollow neighborhood of San Francisco. In 1876, the first of their children, Mamie, was born.
The Chinese Exclusion Act
The Tape family became an example of Chinese immigrants who settled in the United States and became successful. But with the rising number of Chinese immigrants, many locals started to loathe them, blaming them for taking their jobs. Growing anti-Chinese sentiment led to the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882…
