Up Next
Back to Show
American Experience
The Chinese Six Companies
On May 28, 1900, San Francisco policemen formed a perimeter around Chinatown, and set about building an eight-foot high wall around the district using cement blocks and barbed wire. Officials diagnosed bubonic plague in the neighborhood and wanted to quarantine the nearly 20,000 residents. As tensions flared, an influential group of merchants known as the Chinese Six Companies sprang into action.
Support Provided By
Unlock with PBS Passport
1:50:24
Follow LBJ from rural Texas to his ascendancy to the presidency after the assassination of JFK.
