Image Above: "Cleveland Chinese Mission, First Baptist Church. Courtesy, Sung Gay Chow."
"Mama got mad and said, 'If they can't go to school here, I'm not going to live in this town." Berda Lum, from Adrienne Berard.
After the Lums lost, an uncle in Michigan took the children, but neglected them. Kate moved them home and across the Mississippi River into Arkansas, to attend public school there. Other Chinese in the area made their own schools and kept fighting...
"To fight this, Chinese Americans: 1)Set up their own schools. By the 1930s Mississippi had dozens of Chinese schools. 2)Contributed money to white institutions (churches, civic organizations, social clubs, politicians, etc. 3)Became Christians through Chinese missions opened up by white churches. 4)Had white people witness them mimicking whites in their treatment of blacks...It slowly took effect...Some districts could not afford schools for 3 separate races and eventually closed the Chinese schools. One Chinese group was left behind- those who married black or were part black. Whites made it very clear that in order to let Chinese into any white institution, they must guarantee that they were full Chinese with no "Negro" blood."- abagond.
