Antioch, a city with a complex anti-Asian history, takes meaningful steps toward reconciliation

By TERRY TANG and DEEPA BHARATH
The Associated Press

ANTIOCH, Calif. (AP) — Over the last two years, the quiet city of Antioch, California, has been wrestling with its long and complicated history of discrimination against early Chinese immigrants during the gold rush. This includes fires that decimated the city’s Chinatown in the 1870s. Newspaper reports from that time period say local laws and intimidation in Antioch and neighboring towns forced Chinese people to use secret tunnels to get around after sundown. Antioch’s mayor issued a formal apology in 2021 for the city’s mistreatment of early Chinese immigrants. On Saturday, over 200 people came to Antioch for an event titled “May We Gather,” a Buddhist pilgrimage to honor persecuted ancestors and victims of anti-Asian hate nationwide.