Hostile Shores: Racial Exclusion Laws and the West Coast

Today the West Coast is regarded as a bastion of liberalism and reliably in the Democratic column. It was a focal point of attacks from President Trump leading up to his 2020 re-election campaign defeat. Yet it was not so long ago in history that sentiments like Trump’s would have been popular on the West Coast. The West Coast, dating to its growing white population in the mid-1800s, and up to modern times, was a very racist region of our country, and that racism was embodied in laws and even state constitutions. That history, and how it resonates to the present day, is worth examining as we come to terms with the racial inequities that have long defined our society.