rss feedAngel Island station, stopping point for Chinese immigrants, marks 100 years
I’m a little late writing about the Centennial of the Angel Island Immigration Station in San Francisco Bay. But the Jan. 21 event in San Francisco - which featured my aunt, poet Nellie Wong - is noteworthy on many fronts.
Angel Island served as a stopping point for scores of immigrants, many Chinese and including my relatives, from 1910 to 1940.
Keep in mind that the Chinese Exclusion Acts – which limited the Chinese who could enter the United States to certain categories – existed from the 1880s until the 1940s, just before after World War II started.
Some immigrants were sent back home. Others received the green light from federal immigration officials to move to the U.S. mainland. Many spent long periods of time on Angel Island, not knowing their fate.
