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{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2023}}
{{Infobox outbreak
| name =1900–1904 San Francisco plague
| width =
| image = The Bubonic Plague in San Francisco, Harper's Weekly, June 1902.jpg
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| image_upright =
| alt =
| caption = Illustration of [[Chinatown, San Francisco|Chinatown]] residents cooking meals while quarantined, [[William Allen Rogers|W. A. Rogers]], ''[[Harper's Weekly]]'', June 1902
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The clash between Gage and federal authorities intensified. Wyman instructed Kinyoun to place Chinatown under a second quarantine, as well as blocking all [[East Asians]] from entering state borders. Wyman also instructed Kinyoun to inoculate all persons of Asian heritage in Chinatown, using an experimental [[vaccine]] developed by [[Waldemar Haffkine]], one known to have severe side effects. Spokesmen in Chinatown protested strenuously; they did not give their permission for this kind of mass experimentation.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Trauner |first=Joan B. |date=Spring 1978 |title=The Chinese as Medical Scapegoats in San Francisco, 1870–1905 |journal=California History |volume=57 |issue=1 |pages=70–87 |jstor=25157817|doi=10.2307/25157817 }}</ref> The [[Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association]], also known as the Six Companies, filed suit on behalf of Wong Wai, a merchant who took a stance against what he perceived as a violation of his personal liberty. Not quite a [[class action suit]], the arguments included similar wording such as complaints that all residents of Chinatown were being denied [[Equal Protection Clause|"equal protection under the law"]], part of the [[Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fourteenth Amendment]] to the US constitution. Federal judge [[William W. Morrow]] ruled uncharacteristically in favor of the Chinese, largely because the defense by the State of California was unable to prove that Chinese Americans were more susceptible to plague than Anglo Americans. The decision set a precedent for greater limits placed on public health authorities seeking to isolate diseased populations.<ref>Kraut 1995, [https://books.google.com/books?id=EIqwDj9umzYC&pg=PA89 pp. 89–92] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160519122058/https://books.google.com/books?id=EIqwDj9umzYC&pg=PA89 |date=May 19, 2016 }}</ref><ref name=McClain2006>{{cite journal |last=McClain |first=Charles |date=November 17, 2006 |title=Of Medicine, Race, and American Law: The Bubonic Plague Outbreak of 1900 |journal=Law & Social Inquiry |volume=13 |issue=3 |pages=447–513 |issn=0897-6546 |doi=10.1111/j.1747-4469.1988.tb01126.x |s2cid=12415113 |url=https://scholarship.law.berkeley.edu/facpubs/136 }}</ref>
Between 1901 and 1902, the plague outbreak continued to worsen. In a 1901 address to both houses of the [[California State Legislature]], Gage accused federal authorities, particularly Kinyoun, of injecting plague bacteria into [[cadavers]], falsifying evidence.<ref name=Skubik2002>{{cite web |url=http://www.skubik.com/thesis%20summary.pdf |title=Public Health Politics and the San Francisco Plague Epidemic of 1900–1904 |publisher=Mark Skubik, San Jose State University |year=2002 |access-date=August 19, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304000446/http://www.skubik.com/thesis%20summary.pdf |archive-date=March 4, 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref> In response to what he said to be massive scaremongering by the MHS, Gage pushed a censorship bill to gag any media reports of plague infection. The bill failed in the [[California State Legislature]], yet laws to gag reports amongst the medical community succeeded in passage and were signed into law by the governor. In addition, $100,000 was allocated to a public campaign led by Gage to deny the plague's existence.<ref name="Gage denies plague epidemic"/> Privately, however, Gage sent a special commission to [[Washington, D.C.]], consisting of [[Southern Pacific Railroad|Southern Pacific]], newspaper and shipping lawyers to negotiate a settlement with the MHS, whereby the federal government would remove Kinyoun from San Francisco with the promise that the state would secretly cooperate with the MHS in stamping out the plague epidemic.<ref name=Skubik2002/> [[Rupert Blue]] was appointed in Kinyoun's place.<ref>{{cite AV media|format=Video|website=www.pbs.org|url-access=limited|access-date=2023-09-25|title=Plague at the Golden Gate|url=https://www.pbs.org/video/plague-at-the-golden-gate-dhdrto/}}</ref>
[[File:Kinyoun kicked out 1900.jpg|thumb|upright|In October 1900, Kinyoun was the subject of a political cartoon about his being kicked out of his federal position.]]
Despite the secret agreement allowing for Kinyoun's removal, Gage went back on his promise of assisting federal authorities and continued to obstruct their efforts for study and quarantine. A report issued by the State Board of Health on September 16, 1901, bolstered Gage's claims, denying the plague's outbreak.<ref name="Gage denies plague epidemic"/><ref>{{Citation |title=Report of the Special Health Commissioners Appointed by the Governor to Confer with the Federal Authorities at Washington Respecting the Alleged Existence of Bubonic Plague in California |place=Sacramento |publisher=California State Board of Health |year=1901 |edition=1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TCILAAAAIAAJ |access-date=December 26, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160504052453/https://books.google.com/books?id=TCILAAAAIAAJ |archive-date=May 4, 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref>
== Racism and discrimination lawsuit ==▼
Widespread racism toward [[History of Chinese Americans|Chinese immigrants]] was socially accepted during the initial time of the Chinatown plague in the early 1900s. Standard social rights and privileges were often denied to the Chinese people, as shown in the way landlords would refuse to maintain their own property when renting to Chinese immigrants.<ref name="ReferenceA">{{Cite book|title=Plague, Fear, and Politics in San Francisco's Chinatown|isbn=9781421405100|last1=Risse|first1=Guenter B.|date=March 14, 2012}}</ref> The living conditions in the Chinatown community reflected the social norms and racial inequalities during that time for Chinese immigrants. Housing for the majority of Chinatown Chinese immigrants was not fit nor adequate for human living, but with scarce housing options and landlords unwilling to provide equal and fair housing, Chinese immigrants were left little option other than to live with such housing disparities.<ref name="ReferenceA"/> Discrimination against Chinese Americans culminated in two acts, the quarantine of San Francisco's Chinatown, and the permanent extension of the [[Chinese Exclusion Act]] of 1882.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/5views/5views3g.htm|title=A History of Chinese Americans in California: THE 1900s|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180210072505/https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/5views/5views3g.htm|archive-date=February 10, 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> The extended quarantine of Chinatown was motivated more by racist images of Chinese Americans as carriers of disease than by actual evidence of the presence of [[Bubonic plague]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/5views/5views3g.htm|title=A History of Chinese Americans in California:THE 1900s|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180210072505/https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/5views/5views3g.htm|archive-date=February 10, 2018|url-status=live}}</ref>▼
▲== Racism and discrimination lawsuit ==
▲Widespread racism toward [[History of Chinese Americans|Chinese immigrants]] was socially accepted during the initial time of the Chinatown plague in the early 1900s. Standard social rights and privileges were often denied to the Chinese people, as shown in the way landlords would refuse to maintain their own property when renting to Chinese immigrants.<ref name="ReferenceA">{{Cite book|title=Plague, Fear, and Politics in San Francisco's Chinatown|isbn=9781421405100|last1=Risse|first1=Guenter B.|date=March 14, 2012}}</ref> The living conditions in the Chinatown community reflected the social norms and racial inequalities during that time for Chinese immigrants. Housing for the majority of Chinatown Chinese immigrants was not fit nor adequate for human living, but with scarce housing options and landlords unwilling to provide equal and fair housing, Chinese immigrants were left little option other than to live with such housing disparities.<ref name="ReferenceA"/> Discrimination against Chinese Americans culminated in two acts, the quarantine of San Francisco's Chinatown, and the permanent extension of the [[Chinese Exclusion Act]] of 1882.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/5views/5views3g.htm|title=A History of Chinese Americans in California: THE 1900s|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180210072505/https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/5views/5views3g.htm|archive-date=February 10, 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> The extended quarantine of Chinatown was motivated more by racist images of Chinese Americans as carriers of disease than by actual evidence of the presence of [[Bubonic plague]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/5views/5views3g.htm|title=A History of Chinese Americans in California:THE 1900s|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180210072505/https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/5views/5views3g.htm|archive-date=February 10, 2018|url-status=live}}</ref>
San Francisco's quarantine measures were explicitly discriminatory and segregatory, allowing European Americans to leave the affected area, but Chinese and Japanese Americans required a health certificate to leave the city. Residents were initially angered as those with jobs outside of San Francisco were prevented from working. Few Chinese agreed to take the inoculation, especially after press reports on May 22, 1900, that people who did agree were experiencing severe pain from the untested vaccine. On May 24, 1900, with the help of [[Chinese Six Companies]], they hired the law firm of Reddy, Campbell, and Metson. Defendants included [[Joseph J. Kinyoun]] and all of the members of the San Francisco Board of Health. The Chinese wanted the courts to issue a provisional injunction to enforce what they argued was their constitutional right to travel outside of San Francisco. On July 3, 1900, Judge [[William W. Morrow]] ruled that the defendants were violating the plaintiffs' [[Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fourteenth Amendment]] rights. The ruling required that the same restrictions, if any, be applied to everyone no matter their ethnic group. The defendants did not have enough evidence to prove that the Chinese were transmitting the plague. Morrow agreed with the argument that if they were, the city would not have permitted them to roam the streets of San Francisco.<ref>{{cite book|last1=McClain|first1=C.J.|title=In Search of Equality: The Chinese Struggle against Discrimination in Nineteenth-Century America|date=1994|isbn=9780520205147|pages=385}}</ref>
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==External links==
* [http://www.sfmuseum.org/loc/chtownvisit.html 1902 Scene in Chinatown], Early Motion Pictures, Library of Congress
PBS American Experience: Plague at the Golden Gate
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/plague-golden-gate/#part01
{{Epidemics}}
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[[Category:Healthcare in the San Francisco Bay Area]]
[[Category:Third plague pandemic]]
[[Category:Disease outbreaks in
[[Category:1900 in California]]
[[Category:1901 in California]]
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