The story of 22 lewd Chinese women will be told this weekend at the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association’s annual convention, reports NPR.
The women immigrated to the United States without husbands and children.
They were labeled “lewd and debauched” by California’s commissioner of immigration and ordered to pay $500 in gold if they wanted to enter the United States.
The Supreme Court ruled the law unconstitutional in 1875 and the case will be reenacted at NAPABA annual convention.
For each of the last seven years, an historical case significant to the Asian American community is reenacted at the convention.
“[These re-enactments are] about building awareness of how history does repeat itself,” she says. “So many of the themes that we treat in these re-enactments are still very relevant today.”
You can read more about this effort and why its so important on NPR.