A march was held Monday in Victoria, Canada, to honor the 100-year-anniversary of a strike led by Chinese students in response to school segregation policies.
“On the first day of school — Sept. 5, 1922 — the Chinese students were called out of their classrooms by their principals,” said Alan Lowe, chair of the Victoria Chinatown Museum Society, in an interview, according to CBC News.
“They were marched down to the Chinese segregated school … All of the students essentially dispersed and went home, and that’s when the strike started.”
According to CTV News Canada, around 200 Chinese Canadian students went on strike for a year after the Victoria School Board mandated Chinese-only schools. The strike forced the school board to reverse the policy for the 1923 school year.
The Greater Victoria School District apologized for the policy on Friday.
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“Among a long list of historic wrongs perpetuated against the Chinese community in Victoria, this stands out as a particularly dark incident for our school district,” said chair Ryan Painter in a statement, according to CBC News. “We will work with the Chinese community to ensure this history is not forgotten.”
Grace Wong Sneddon, a University of Victoria professor with a PhD in Anthropology and Pacific and Asian Studies called the strike a defining moment for Chinese Canadians.
“This, to me, is the defining moment,” Sneddon said, according to CBC News. “This moment — this act of defiance and this demonstrated piece of agency — I think, really set the moment and made Chinese Canadians as a concept and a reality.
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