Two of the most important court cases on immigrant children's schooling in America started in San Francisco classrooms, and both were brought by Chinese families. A new KQED report by Cecilia Lei traces that history.
1885: Tape v. Hurley
In 1871 the city barred Chinese children even from segregated public schools. In 1884, Joseph and Mary Tape tried to enroll their American-born daughter, 8-year-old Mamie Tape, at the all-white Spring Valley School, and the principal turned her away. The family sued and won, and in 1885 the California Supreme Court affirmed that U.S.-born Chinese children were entitled to public education. The school board quickly got the legislature to authorize segregated schools, and the city opened the Chinese Primary School. Historian Mae Ngai calls the ruling a "partial victory."
1974: Lau v. Nichols
By the late 1960s, many Chinese-speaking students sat in English-only classrooms without help. In 1970 a group of students, with first grader Kinney Kinmon Lau of Jean Parker Elementary as lead plaintiff, sued the San Francisco Unified School District with backing from Chinese for Affirmative Action. Lower courts sided with the district. In 1974 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that failing to give about 1,800 Chinese-speaking students meaningful instruction violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964, establishing a national duty to serve English learners.
SFUSD responded with the Lau Consent Decree and bilingual programs. Notably, Commodore Stockton Elementary, the building where the old segregated Chinese school had stood, housed the city's first Cantonese bilingual program.
Today
SFUSD ended the consent decree in 2019. Retired teacher Laureen Chew, now 78 and one of the city's early Cantonese bilingual teachers, told KQED she is working to revive a bilingual teacher training track at SF State as a generation of Cantonese bilingual teachers retires.