Image Above: "The one-room Oriental School near the levee in Greenville, MS. Courtesy of Ted Shepherd." From Chopsticks in the Land of Cotton, p. 115.
Audio Clip Above: Emily Jones:"Your case, there were two that were enrolled in the public school there. And so, that's 1924. That's before the Chinese mission schools ever started. It was because of your case, that the families had to form Mission Schools, send their children back to China for an education, or move to another community...But your case really did change the landscape for parents and the children. It really made the debate in the question of, 'Where can we go? What are the boundaries?' Really, kind of, more "black and white"... The case that you're studying is actually something that not a lot of people know about or talk about. Umm, so I hope that you bring a whole lot more attention to it..."-Personal Interview with Emily Jones, Archivist at Delta State University, Cleveland, MS. August 18, 2016.
Decades after Lum v. Rice, many Chinese continued to live and work in the Delta, among blacks and whites, but sent their children to Chinese-only schools, rather than send them to the county's segregated "colored" schools. Many went on to attend college, too.
"Exterior, Chinese School of Mississippi." Courtesy Mississippi Delta Chinese Heritage Museum.
"Cleveland Chinese Mission, First Baptist Church. Courtesy, Sung Gay Chow."
"Students from the Cleveland Chinese school collected 6,000 pounds of scrap metal to sell as part of their participation in the Schools-At-War Program, 1942-1943. The money received was donated to the Red Cross. In addition, Chinese students sold $1,200.10 of War Stamps and Bonds. The Schools-At-War Program was sponsored by the War Savings Staff of the U.S. Treasury Department, the U. S. Office of Education and its Wartime Commission. Photograph from the Cleveland, Mississippi, Chinese School Scrapbook. Courtesy Mississippi Department of Archives and History." Caption by Mississippi History Now.
"Students in the Oriental School, Greenville, Courtesy, Delta State University Archives, Cleveland, MS."
“Students of the only all-Chinese school in Bolivar County, Mississippi, 1938. Courtesy Mississippi Department of Archives and History” Caption by Mississippi History Now.
"The experience wasn't that you would call happy. It wasn't what you would call sad. You just never felt like you belonged. You sort of become uncomfortable, because you never fitted in. You always was singled out because of your race." -Laura Jue and Bobby Jue, by Kimberly Lancaster.