| Tye Leung Schulze | |
|---|---|
| Born | Tye Leung 1887 San Francisco, California, United States |
| Died | 1972 |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Interpreter |
| Known for | First Chinese American woman to cast a ballot in a primary election. |
Tye Leung Schulze was the first Chinese American woman to cast a ballot in San Francisco on May 19, 1912. The San Francisco Call stated that she was "the first Chinese woman in the history of the world to exercise the electoral franchise." Schulze was also the first Chinese woman hired to work at Angel Island.[1] She is a designated Women's History Month Honoree by the National Women's History Project.[2]
Contents |
Tye Leung was born in San Francisco, California in 1887. She was one of eight children and her father was a Chinese cobbler while her mother ran a boarding house. As a teenager she was placed in an arranged marriage to a man in Butte, Montana. At 14 she was saved from the arranged marriage by Donaldina Cameron of the Presbyterian Mission Home. At the Mission she learned to speak English, studied Christianity, and helped Cameron rescue Chinese slaves by acting as an interpreter.[3]
Leung was the first Chinese American to pass the civil service examinations[4] and she was hired to work as an assistant to the matron at the Angel Island Immigration Station. There she would work with Chinese immigrants who were detained for physical examinations and interrogation upon their arrival.
In 1912 Lueng was the first Chinese woman to vote in a primary election.[3] After voting the San Francisco Examiner called the vote "the last word in the modern movement for the complete enfranchisement of women...It was the latest achievement in the great American work of amalgamating and lifting up all the races of the earth."[4]
She repeatedly defied the limitations imposed on her, transcending barriers, achieving a self-created life of honor, dignity, and service. No national organization or major legislation bears her name. Her legacy is one of determined belief in human worth, in a kinship that transcends artificial borders, in the steady, dedicated assault on prejudice and bigotry.
--Robin Kadison Berson[4]
At Angel Island she would meet immigration inspector Charles Schulze. Intermarriage of Chinese and white Americans were illegal in California so the couple went to Vancouver, Washington to be legally married.[3] They would be married in October 1913.[4] They had to quit their government jobs after the marriage due to racial prejudice. Schulze would go on to work for the Southern Pacific Company as a mechanic and then as a telephone repairman[4]. The couple would have four children.[3] Schulze would die in 1935 and Lueng would serve as a bookkeeper at the San Francisco Chinese Hospital to support her family.[4] Lueng would go on to work as a night-shift operator at the Chinatown telephone exchange.[4][3] She spent many years providing interpretation and social services to San Francisco's Chinatown residents.[3]
In October 2011 the story of Tye Leung Schulze was told through a play staring actress Lily Tung.[5]