Dennis Kearney
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Dennis Kearney (1847–1907) was a California populist political leader in the late 19th century, known for his nativist and racist views toward Chinese immigrants.
Kearney was born in Oakmount, County Cork, Ireland and immigrated to the United States. He worked as a sailor and then as a drayage proprietor in San Francisco. During the Long Depression, he became popular by speaking to the unemployed in San Francisco, denouncing the railroad monopoly and immigrant Chinese workers (known as Coolies.) His slogan was, simply, "the Chinese must go"'.
Kearney began his political life on the side of employers. He gained some notoriety for breaking up "sandlot" meetings of working men. He became involved with the notorious vigilantes for a time. With the onset of the depression of the 1870s, he saw a change in the political winds and helped organize the Workingman's Party of California, and led often violent attacks on Chinese, including denunciations of the powerful Central Pacific railroad which had employed them in large numbers. He was influential in the enactment of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. The party was influential at the California Constitutional convention of 1878.
Kearney traveled east to popularize his views and campaigned with the Massachusetts' politician Benjamin Butler, as a Vice President candidate. He faded from the public's eye by the early-1880s, leaving only his legacy of anti-Chinese laws. Corresponding with the English author and politician James Bryce in the late-1880s, Kearney claimed credit for making the "Chinese Question" a national issue and affecting the legislation of the Exclusion Act in 1882.
Ironically, San Francisco's Kearny Street runs through Chinatown, but it was not named after Dennis Kearney, but after another Irish immigrant, Mexican-American War Army officer Stephen W. Kearny[1].
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