Unknown History: Before Ruby Bridges, There Was Mamie Tape
Unknown History: Before Ruby Bridges, There Was Mamie Tape
Author Marie Chan shares what inspired her new book, Mamie Tape Takes A Stand
I’m so excited to have Marie Chan guest post this month! Marie is a dear friend and her debut book, Mamie Tape Takes A Stand, recently hit bookshelves.
Mamie Tape Takes A Stand is the true story of Mamie Tape, a Chinese-American girl who fought for the right to an equal education. While many of us are familiar with the landmark case, Brown vs. the Board of Education and the story of Ruby Bridges, few know the story and cases that preceded it. Mamie Tape is one such case.
I asked Maire to share her heart and purpose behind writing Mamie’s story. I pray her words both enlighten and challenge you. Enjoy!
Interwoven Histories Inspire Mamie Takes a Stand
At the start of COVID in 2020, I read Separate is Never Equal, by Duncan Tonatiuh, aloud to my six-year-old daughter, who had chosen it from her school’s online library. “Interesting choice,” I thought to myself. The familiar phrase reminded me of the landmark Supreme Court case of Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, but the focus of this picture book biography was a Latina girl named Sylvia Mendez, not Linda Brown. I mistakenly assumed this story would be set in the deep South–wasn’t that where most of the segregated schools were located during this time period?
As I kept reading, more cities were listed that had segregated schools: El Modena, Garden Grove, Santa Ana, and Westminster; cities not far from the neighborhood where I grew up in Orange County, California. As a child, my family often drove to Little Saigon in Westminster to enjoy a delicious Chinese meal. I reflected on all the countless times we went to dine on dim sum, yet I never knew this Chinese restaurant was a mile away from where the Mendez case had taken place in 1947.
For many years, I taught second and third grade just north of OC (Orange County) in Los Angeles, where the majority of my students came from families whose parents had immigrated from Mexico. Even the focus of my master’s project had been on multicultural children’s literature, and I had intentionally selected picture books for my class where the cultural heritage of my students would be represented. How had I never learned this history of separate Mexican schools in California?
I flipped to the back of Separate is Never Equal. I wanted to learn as much as I could about the case of Mendez et al v. Westminster et al. I looked up references in the bibliography. I was curious about this important piece of history that hit so close to home. One rabbit trail led to another, and suddenly, this case became even more personal. In my research of school segregation cases, I discovered that an eight-year-old Chinese American girl, Mamie Tape, was denied entrance into her local public school in San Francisco in 1884. What?! The Chinese weren’t allowed to go to public schools in California too? How did I not know about separate Chinese schools? Immediately, I saw myself reflected in the pages of history.
I passionately searched for anything I could find about the Tape v. Hurley case. I dug through online archives, articles, documentaries, and photographs; read books about Asian American history; and interviewed historians, professors, Chinese elders, and the Tape family descendants. While I was researching the Tape v. Hurley case, which happened during the time of the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, many Chinese Americans were experiencing anti-Asian hate during the height of the COVID pandemic. My heart mourned for the harm and violence done toward the elderly in my Chinese community as they were simply walking down the street to shop for groceries, meet a friend, take the bus, or exercise. The rhetoric of blaming and scapegoating the Chinese for this new disease seemed so similar to the articles I had been researching from the late 1800s. How could I raise awareness and help prevent history from repeating itself?
I remembered how I had learned about Sylvia Mendez through reading a children’s book. Busy parents would take 20 minutes to read a bedtime story to their child, just like I did when I read Separate is Never Equal to my daughter. When I began my research in 2020, there hadn’t been any picture book biography written about Mamie Tape yet. That’s when I knew I had to write this story.
When I began my research in 2020, there hadn’t been any picture book biography written about Mamie Tape yet. That’s when I knew I had to write this story.
One significant primary source that struck a chord in my heart was a letter that Mamie Tape’s mother had written to the school board that was published in a California newspaper. Mrs. Mary Tape boldly spoke up against the racial discrimination Mamie and her family had experienced: “Is it a disgrace to be Born a Chinese? Didn’t God make us all!!! What right! have you to bar my children out of the school because she is a Chinese Decend?” Mrs. Tape wasn’t afraid to speak up against injustice and how segregation was incongruent with the board members’ outward piety: “I suppose, you all goes to churches on Sundays! Do you call that a Christian act to compell my little children to go so far to a school that is made in purpose for them.”
I knew I wanted to quote Mrs. Tape’s letter in my book, Mamie Takes a Stand, but I struggled with whether or not to correct Mrs. Tape’s non-standard English. I decided to quote Mrs. Tape’s words precisely how she wrote them in 1885. I wanted to emphasize that even if you’re an immigrant and don’t write with impeccable English grammar or spelling, you can still stand up when you see or experience injustice. Your voice matters; you have inherent worth and value because you have been made in the image of God.
In a well-known letter, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote on April 16, 1963 (exactly 78 years after Mrs. Mary Tape’s letter was published on April 16, 1885) from a Birmingham jail: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”
Interestingly, the Mendez et al case occurred because the Mendez family was leasing and caring for the Munemitsu farm, which belonged to a Japanese American family that had been unjustly forced to move to an incarceration camp during World War II. The Mendez case surprisingly had an Asian American connection. Our lives and histories are more interwoven than we think. We need to stand together in solidarity.
Our lives and histories are more interwoven than we think.
We need to stand together in solidarity.
Mamie Tape’s case began 70 years before Brown v. Board of Education.
Mendez et al v Westminster et al was decided 7 years before Brown v. Board of Education.
This year, 2024, marks the 70th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education.
Each case built on another.
I hope my book, Mamie Takes a Stand: The True Story of Mamie Tape, a Chinese American Girl’s Fight for School Rights, will help readers grow in empathy and respect for others and see how our histories are interconnected. When we see each person as having inherent worth and created in the image of God, it will bring us closer to creating a more just and compassionate world.
Wrap up
If you’re like me, you find yourself like Marie asking, “How did I not know? Why wasn’t this part of our history lessons?” While it’s true, that we don’t know what we don’t know, it’s also true that the answers are there if we choose to look. And our histories are more connected than we might assume.
Like Mamie, Marie faced obstacles, roadblocks, setbacks, and disappointments as she struggled to give a voice to this important story and piece of history. And like Mamie, Marie preserved. She didn’t give up. As a result, we have the opportunity to learn about Mamie Tape’s impact!
I strongly believe that children’s books are a great way to learn no matter our age. My personal library is a collection of both children's and adult books because both have value. So please don’t allow the fact that this is a children’s book to give it (or any children’s book) less credibility. These narratives have a way of explaining and connecting with us even as adults in a beautiful way.
Marie also includes an added bonus at the end of the book that you won’t want to miss. Since I love spoilers, I really want to share it, but I won’t. (Ahhh! It’s so cool. I really want to tell you!)
Mamie Tape Takes a Stand is a must-have for your home and school library! Click below to order your copy today! Actually, grab one for you and one for a friend, school, or local library.
Follow Marie on Instagram, Facebook or her website.
Thank you for reading!
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