July 12, 2012
To explore the western territories of the United States of America, filled with color and racial diversity, means more than seeing the Grand Canyon, Pikes Peak or the Great Fountain Geyser in Yellowstone National Park.
Americans do not realize the integral role Chinese immigrant laborers played in building Yosemite National Park. Many of these workers were former workmen on California railroad and levee systems that had been completed in the state. After building much of the infrastructure of the American West, many Chinese were discriminated against, burned out and lynched. Some of the survivors ended up on plantations in the Mississippi Delta as cotton pickers and and exploited farm workers.
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