In June of

1867 Events January–March * January 1 – The Covington–Cincinnati Suspension Bridge opens between Cincinnati, Ohio, and Covington, Kentucky, in the United States, becoming the longest single-span bridge in the world. It was renamed a ...

, two thousand Chinese

Transcontinental Railroad A transcontinental railroad or transcontinental railway is contiguous railroad trackage, that crosses a continental land mass and has terminals at different oceans or continental borders. Such networks can be via the tracks of either a single ...

workers participated in a

general strike A general strike refers to a strike action in which participants cease all economic activity, such as working, to strengthen the bargaining position of a trade union or achieve a common social or political goal. They are organised by large co ...

collective action Collective action refers to action taken together by a group of people whose goal is to enhance their condition and achieve a common objective. It is a term that has formulations and theories in many areas of the social sciences including psych ...

) for a week along the

Sierra Nevada The Sierra Nevada () is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primarily ...

range, demanding better working conditions. By 1867, the

Central Pacific Railroad The Central Pacific Railroad (CPRR) was a rail company chartered by Pacific Railroad Acts, U.S. Congress in 1862 to build a railroad eastwards from Sacramento, California, to complete the western part of the "First transcontinental railroad" in N ...

workforce was composed of 80-90% Chinese laborers and the rest were European-Americans. The workers in the Chinese project were literate and well organized, but left no written records. Despite the lack of written account from the Chinese workers, it is apparent from reports in the press and from the railroad bosses that the Chinese workers were hard-working, peaceful, and that the strike was carried out with no violence. The strike was organized in June, at the time of the

Summer Solstice The summer solstice, also called the estival solstice or midsummer, occurs when one of Earth's poles has its maximum tilt toward the Sun. It happens twice yearly, once in each hemisphere ( Northern and Southern). For that hemisphere, the summer ...

, and carried it out a way that strongly reflected

Confucian Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China. Variously described as tradition, a philosophy, a Religious Confucianism, religion, a humanistic or rationalistic religion, ...

values. The strike lasted a little over a week, and the workers returned peacefully to work.

Chinese Railroad Workers in North America Project at Stanford

The main historical record for the Chinese Labor Strike of 1867 has come from a

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

initiative called the Chinese Railroad Workers in North America Project. The project was co-directed by Professors Gordon Chang and Shelley Fisher-Fishkin "believing that Stanford University had a special obligation to try to fill this gaping hole in the historical record . . ." The project included more than 100 scholars from fields of archaeology, American studies, anthropology, Asian American studies, history and literature. The Stanford project is the main source for information on the Chinese Labor Strike of 1867 and includes research materials, a

bibliography Bibliography (from and ), as a discipline, is traditionally the academic study of books as physical, cultural objects; in this sense, it is also known as bibliology (from ). English author and bibliographer John Carter describes ''bibliography ...

, a digital materials repository,

exhibits An exhibition, in the most general sense, is an organized presentation and display of a selection of items. In practice, exhibitions usually occur within a cultural or educational setting such as a museum, art gallery, park, library, exhibition ...

, a

curriculum In education, a curriculum (; : curricula or curriculums) is broadly defined as the totality of student experiences that occur in the educational process. The term often refers specifically to a planned sequence of instruction, or to a view ...

guide and oral histories with railroad worker descendants.

References

{{authority control June 1867 events 1867 in rail transport 1867 in California First transcontinental railroad General strikes in the United States Chinese-American history Chinese-American culture in California 1867 labor disputes and strikes