PRESS RELEASE
CONTACT: Gentle Blythe, 415-241-6565
For Immediate Release
SF Board of Education rescinds 1906 resolution that
excluded Asians from “normal” schools
January 25, 2017 (San Francisco, CA) - Last night, the San Francisco Board of Education (BOE)
formally rescinded a BOE resolution dating back to 1906 that excluded children of Chinese,
Japanese, and Korean ancestry from normal schools and restricted them to an “Oriental School.”
“The 1906 board resolution reflected an extremely racist time when the Japanese and Korean
Exclusion League vilified Asians and anti-Chinese sentiment reached new heights,” said
Commissioner Emily Murase, who co-authored the resolution. Murase is the first Japanese
American to serve on the school board. Commissioner Stevon Cook, the newest member of the
school board, co-authored the resolution with Murase and all BOE commissioners asked to
signed on.
In its early history, district actions led to landmark school discrimination cases, including the
1885 California Supreme Court Case, Tape v. Hurley, in which the parents of eight year-old
American-born Mamie Tape successfully challenged the principal’s refusal to enroll Mamie and
other Chinese children at Spring Valley School. The Tape case determined that all children,
including immigrants, were entitled to public education.
However, in the same year the Tape case was decided, the California State Assembly enacted Bill
268 that authorized school districts to assign children of “Mongolian” descent to segregated
schools. This gave rise to the “Oriental School” in San Francisco.
When the school board adopted the resolution in October 1906 authorizing the removal of
Japanese students from normal schools for placement in the “Oriental School,” it violated the
1894 U.S.-Japan Treaty of Commerce and Navigation, which established a non-discrimination
policy for Japanese immigrants in the U.S. In response, the Japanese government lodged a
formal complaint with the administration of President Theodore Roosevelt. This then created a
diplomatic crisis at a time when Roosevelt sought to maintain the fragile peace treaty he
brokered to end the war between Russia and Japan.
In an unprecedented move, President Roosevelt summoned the San Francisco Board of
Education and Mayor to the White House in January, 1907 to negotiate a compromise. The
school board agreed to return Japanese students to normal schools and the Japanese
government agreed to voluntary limits on immigration, known as the “Gentleman’s Agreement.”
“The board’s action to now rescind the 1906 resolution puts an unequivocal end to exclusionary
policies directed at students of Asian ancestry,” said Interim Superintendent Myong Leigh. “We
reject the nativism and racism that motivated these policies of a century ago and remain
committed in our mission to educate every child, regardless of race or immigration status.”
Today Asian American students account for approximately 40 percent of the 56,000 preK
through 12th grade students in the San Francisco Unified School District.
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