Kala Bagai Way

Anti-Asian discrimination in Berkeley

Kala Bagai’s immigrant journey, and the racism her family faced in Berkeley, are part of a larger story.

There have been South Asian Americans in Berkeley since at least the 1880s. Berkeley’s early South Asian residents included students, workers, and families. Some were activists in the Ghadar Party, which fought for Indian independence.

If you were walking around 1910s Berkeley, you might have run into UC Berkeley activist Sarangadhar Das, Berkeley High students Kanta and Prabha Chandra, anti-colonial organizer Har Dayal, palm reader Boor Singh, dishwasher Natio Lee, or downtown storekeeper Vaishno Das Bagai. You might have even heard of Old James.

Racism against Asian Americans—including South Asians—was a constant backdrop in their lives. It shaped how they lived, and limited the choices they could make. Workers, families, and interracial couples were sometimes more targeted, while UC Berkeley international students were sometimes buffered by their association with the university.

Here are a few examples of local anti-Asian discrimination, focusing on the period when Kala Bagai and her family were attempting to move to the area:

  • 1878: The Workingmen’s Party, infamous for its slogan “The Chinese Must Go!”, won Berkeley’s first election. (source)
  • 1879-1886: Chinese workers at a West Berkeley soap factory faced lower wages and poor working conditions, and were ultimately fired for their race after vicious racist organizing. (source)
  • 1907: Neighbors demand that four households of “coolies and Hindoos” be ejected from near 6th & Grayson and further west, with newspaper warning of a “race conflict.” (source)
  • 1907: Neighbors opposed a Chinese man and his white wife living at 2328 Fulton Street. (source)
  • 1909: Japanese farmer and multimillionaire George Shima, the “potato king,” faced intense community racism when he bought a home in Berkeley’s Elmwood district. (source)
  • 1911: Neighbors staged a protest against Indian immigrants planning to build a home at McGee and Cedar Streets. (source)
  • 1913: The California Alien Land Law barred Asian immigrants from owning property or signing long-term leases, severely restricting South Asian, Japanese, and Chinese residents. (source)
  • 1914: The Berkeley School Board opposed admitting new students from India to Berkeley High School. (source)
  • 1916: Berkeley adopted single-family zoning, which economically excluded working-class immigrants, including Asians, who relied on affordable multi-family housing; California Real Estate magazine lauded the zoning rules for its “protection against invasion of Negroes and Asiatics” (source)
  • 1918-ish: Kala and Vaishno Das Bagai are prevented from entering their new home, and choose to leave to protect their children. (source)
  • 1920: Neighbors protested a landlord renting to Japanese tenants (source)
  • 1922: Fifty-three residents petitioned to block the sale of property to Japanese buyers, leading the City Council to explore ways to prevent the transaction. (source)
  • 1923: Neighbors petitioned to stop a Chinese family from moving into a home on McKinley Avenue (source)
  • 1923: Residents opposed a home for Chinese orphans at Ashby Avenue and Ninth Street, citing fears of introducing “Orientals” into the neighborhood. (source)
  • 1923: Indian Americans, including those associated with Berkeley like Vaishno Das Bagai, were forcibly stripped of their U.S. citizenship in the wake of the federal Bhagat Singh Thind decision. (source)
  • 1927-1930: Around 800 residents protested racial integration at International House, focusing on the threat of Asian and Black students living alongside white residents. (source)
  • 1928: The Central Berkeley Improvement Association proposed a restrictive covenant to bar non-white students from renting near UC Berkeley, spurring resistance from Asian and Black students. (source)

For Asian Americans in early Berkeley, racism acted as a headwind, complicating even basic activities like finding housing. Yet, they persisted. They worked, ran businesses, organized social events, and earned degrees, all while building connections with others.

By the late 1940s, open racism against Asian Americans in Berkeley had decreased, but it never fully disappeared. Even today, we see echoes of this history. Asian Americans in Berkeley might still hear comments like “go home,” Muslim Asians face Islamophobia, and unfair housing rules make it harder for middle- and working-class families to live in historically white neighborhoods.

You can learn more about early Asian American lives through events like the monthly Berkeley South Asian Radical History Walking Tour, the Berkeley Historical Society’s online exhibit on Berkeley’s Chinese American history, or by following the links on this page.