In June 1867, two thousand Chinese

Transcontinental Railroad A transcontinental railroad or transcontinental railway is contiguous rail transport, railroad trackage that crosses a continent, continental land mass and has terminals at different oceans or continental borders. Such networks may be via the Ra ...

workers participated in a

general strike A general strike is a strike action in which participants cease all economic activity, such as working, to strengthen the bargaining position of a trade union or achieve a common social or political goal. They are organised by large coalitions ...

collective action Collective action refers to action taken together Advocacy group, by a group of people whose goal is to enhance their condition and achieve a common objective. It is a term that has formulations and theories in many areas of the social sciences ...

) for a week along the

Sierra Nevada The Sierra Nevada ( ) is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primari ...

range, demanding better working conditions. By 1867, the

Central Pacific Railroad The Central Pacific Railroad (CPRR) was a rail company chartered by U.S. Congress in 1862 to build a railroad eastwards from Sacramento, California, to complete most of the western part of the "First transcontinental railroad" in North Americ ...

workforce was composed of 80-90% Chinese laborers and the rest were European-Americans. The workers in the Chinese project were literate and well organized, but left no written records. Despite the lack of written account from the Chinese workers, it is apparent from reports in the press and from the railroad bosses that the Chinese workers were hard-working, peaceful, and that the strike was carried out with no violence. The strike was organized in June, at the time of the

Summer Solstice The summer solstice or estival solstice occurs when one of Earth's poles has its maximum tilt toward the Sun. It happens twice yearly, once in each hemisphere ( Northern and Southern). The summer solstice is the day with the longest peri ...

, and carried it out a way that strongly reflected

Confucian Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China, and is variously described as a tradition, philosophy, religion, theory of government, or way of life. Founded by Confucius ...

values. The strike lasted a little over a week, and the workers returned peacefully to work.

Chinese Railroad Workers in North America Project at Stanford

The main historical record for the Chinese Labor Strike of 1867 has come from a

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

initiative called the Chinese Railroad Workers in North America Project. This repository covers the Chinese Labor Strike of 1867 and includes research materials, a

bibliography Bibliography (from and ), as a discipline, is traditionally the academic study of books as physical, cultural objects; in this sense, it is also known as bibliology (from ). English author and bibliographer John Carter describes ''bibliograph ...

, a digital materials repository,

exhibits An exhibition, in the most general sense, is an organized presentation and display of a selection of items. In practice, exhibitions usually occur within a cultural or educational setting such as a museum, art gallery, park, library, exhibition ...

, a

curriculum In education, a curriculum (; : curriculums or curricula ) is the totality of student experiences that occur in an educational process. The term often refers specifically to a planned sequence of instruction, or to a view of the student's experi ...

guide and oral histories with railroad worker descendants.

References

{{authority control June 1867 1867 in rail transport 1867 in California First transcontinental railroad General strikes in the United States Chinese-American history Chinese-American culture in California 1867 labor disputes and strikes 1860s strikes in the United States