PBA Galleries

Black & white lithograph. 24.5x32 cm. (9½x12½") plus margins.

"The Tables Turned You Sabe Him Kealney (sic) Must Go" was published by I.N. Choynski, one of the first, if not the first antiquarian booksellers in San Francisco. “The Chinese Must Go!” was the rallying slogan of the Working Man's Party of California during the depression years of the 1870s. Denis Kearney, its leader, often concluded speeches to his followers with this anti-Chinese slogan. Anti-Chinese sentiment lead to violent riots and legal demands - many of which were met, ranging from taxing Chinese employees to expelling them from California. The primary rallying point of the Working Man's Party of California was to protest Chinese workers' acceptance of lower wages, poorer conditions, and longer hours than white workers. The image shows Denis Kearney in prison stripes, with Chinese poking insults at him. He had been jailed for inciting a riot. The S.F. Board of Supervisors had passed an emergency ordinance banning incendiary speech following some of Kearney’s fiery speeches against San Francisco’s rich on Nob Hill. A parade of thousands marched through the city in support of Kearney. The Chinese in San Francisco, however, were less than appreciative of his nativist and racist views toward Chinese immigrants. An important early political print.