We know white labor's resentment against Chinese workers resulted in the US passing the Page Act (1875) and eventually the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882). But predating both those was San Francisco's 1870 Cubic Air Ordinance 1/

At that time, organized labor attempted to create an environment so hostile to Chinese workers to force them to go back to China. Public health strategies were often deployed as Chinese were seen as dirty and carriers of disease that would infect the white population. 2/

n 1870, Thomas Mooney and Hugh Murray, president and VP of the Anti Coolie Association requested the city of SF take sanitation measures against its Chinese immigrants. They based their request on a recent health officer’s report on Chinatown, quoted here 3/

As a response SF passed the Cubic Air Ordinance on July 29, 1870. The ordinance required every room, house, or apt used for lodging in SF contain 500 cubic feet for every person residing there. Violations were punishable by a fine of $10-$500 or up to 3 months in jail, or both 4/

Arrests for violations began in 1873 and public records show that btwn 1873-1886, THOUSANDS of Chinese workers in SF were jailed for violating this public health ordinance driven by anti Chinese racism. 5/

This wasn't the first time Chinese workers were seen as harbingers of pestilence. Chinese being viewed as spreading disease was the basis for US's first restrictive immigration laws. This is the history that Trump blaming China/Chinese for COVID is part of https://twitter.com/catcontentonly/status/1254472759603798016?s=20