Wednesday, December 14, 2016

"The only town in the United States built and inhabited exclusively by Chinese"

LT:
In 1915 a group of immigrants from the Zhongshan area of southern China built their own town in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta of California, called Locke. The only town in the United States built and inhabited exclusively by Chinese, Locke soon grew to provide all the services needed by a population of farm laborers, mostly single men. Main Street had brothels, gambling houses, stores and restaurants, cheap rental rooms and speakeasies. More than that, Locke provided a place of refuge for Chinese immigrants in an unwelcoming world.