Summary
Mamie Tape Fights to go to School, written by Traci Huahn and illustrated by Michelle Jing Chan, takes readers through the journey of how access to education became a right to children in the United States, including Chinese children. Based on a true story, Mamie Tape was on her way to her first day at Spring Valley Primary School in San Francisco. An all-white school in their neighborhood. When they arrived on the steps of the school, the principal flat out denied them, claiming that their “kind” was not welcome. A strange concept for Mamie, as she played with the children in her neighborhood just like anyone else, but wasn’t allowed to learn with them? Though the neighborhood did have a school for Chinese students at some point, it was in the basement of a church and shut down by the time Mamie was old enough to attend. It was an effort to prevent the Chinese community from receiving an education, and therefore making roots in the United States. Mamie’s community fought with and for her though. With neighbors to tutor and play with her, Mamie barely skipped a beat while her lawyers fought for her right to do those things in a classroom with her peers.. After back and forths with courts, the California
Supreme Court finally decided that all children, including those of Chinese descent, have the right to attend school. But even with the Court’s decision and a mandatory vaccination from a non-Chinese doctor, the principal still denied Mamie admission. The school board opened a
school for Chinese children (again) across town and above a grocery store; a stark contrast to Spring Valley Primary School. Though this was not the ideal Mamie and her family had in mind, it was a win for the community and would later set precedents for other cases fighting to end segregated schools. On April 13, 1885, The Chinese Primary School opened and Mamie and her little brother Frank became the
first to attend. This school would later be renamed to the Oriental School in 1906 to encompass
the education of Korean and Japanese children until the abolishment of racially segregated schools in California in 1947.
Significance
The decision to educate Mamie to any degree was a shock to both American and Chinese cultures. On the one hand, the school physically and legally restricted access to education. On the other, Chinese culture (especially at the time) did not generally believe that women should be
educated. The decision made in Tape v. Hurley (1885) was one of the earliest steps in the Civil Rights Movement and directly challenging the public education system. Just a few years prior, in 1882, the Chinese Exclusion act was signed into law under the Arthur administration. This policy prohibited the immigration of Chinese laborers, restricted status to only those who were able to get certified by the Chinese government, and permanently prevented Chinese immigrants from becoming citizens. Tape v. Hurley would later be used in decisions for cases like Brown v. Board of Education (1954), another landmark case in working towards a desegregated society.
By Izzy Liu, Fall 2024 Intern
