Module 4: Exclusion in Education and Family Life
Who “belongs” in the United States?
Salvador Roldan arrived in Los Angeles, California, from the Philippines in 1925. He wanted to attend medical school, but instead picked up work serving a white family in Pasadena. He met Marjorie Rogers, an aspiring actress from England, at a nearby tennis court. After asking her out they began dating, and in 1931 they wanted to marry. Roldan applied for a marriage license, but the county of Los Angeles rejected his application.
Not only were Asians barred from migrating and working in certain industries, but laws aimed at segregating people by race regulated the most everyday and intimate of experiences: schools, marriages, and families.
This module is an overview of various education and anti-miscegenation laws that restricted Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino people (usually men) from close interracial contact with whites. Exclusionary groups and scientific racism reinforced these laws, further racializing Asian groups as threatening, dangerous, disease-carrying, and undeserving of equal treatment to white people in the United States.
Image 42.04.01 — Salvador Roldan (right), a Filipino immigrant, and Marjorie Rogers (left), a white Englishwoman, had their marriage license revoked in 1933 due to California’s anti-miscegenation laws.
Should race play a role in the education one receives?
Should race limit whom you love and marry?
What were anti-miscegenation laws and how did Asian Americans challenge them?
