Cooper Union, 1899. Photo courtesy of the Museum of the City of New York

By Sam Moskowitz

The Asian-American story is often told through the lens of the West Coast or the bustling streets of Manhattan’s Chinatown. But the Chinese-American history of Greenwich Village and the East Village is just as vital. Here, an impressive yet frequently overlooked roster of individuals and organizations played a pivotal role in the national story, particularly within the realms of civil rights and the arts.

While Chinatown was a residential and commercial hub, the Village was often where Chinese intellectuals, radicals, and artists found a “third space” to work and collaborate with other marginalized groups. It is here that rights were won in the face of discrimination, innovations in painting, writing, and sculpture took place, and people confronted challenges and secured opportunities.

The Chinese Equal Rights League

On September 22, 1892, a group of 1,000 U.S. citizens and 200 Chinese merchants and laborers gathered at The Cooper Union’s Great Hall to protest the Geary Act, forming the Chinese Equal Rights League. The Geary Act, passed in 1892, was a ten year extension of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, and required Chinese residents of the United States to carry a resident permit at all times. If a person did not carry a permit, they would risk deportation or a year’s worth of hard labor. Under the Geary Act, Chinese residents were also prohibited from bearing witness in court and from receiving bail in habeas corpus proceedings.

At its first meeting, the Chinese Equal Rights League passed a resolution condemning both the Act’s immigration restrictions and its denial of citizenship to Chinese-Americans. The resolution demanded that the act make a formal distinction between recent Chinese immigrants and resident Chinese-Americans. The Philadelphia merchant Lee Sam Ping was elected president of the organization. Wong Chin Foo, a journalist and activist who is credited with founding the organization and with coining the term “Chinese-American,” was elected as secretary.

To read the entire article: https://www.villagepreservation.org/2026/04/17/chinese-american-history-in-greenwich-village-and-the-east-village-part-i/