1882

In the mid-1800s, when news of gold discoveries in California spread, immigrants from around the world rushed in. Among them was Sam Wong from China, a young farmer lured by the rumor that in America there was "gold, gold, gold everywhere on the streets."

Although the rumor was exaggerated, Sam found gold in the streams of California-and other riches on the railroad. The demand for labor to build the first transcontinental railroad was so great that workers were recruited from China in large numbers. Once dismissed as too small and, with their pigtails, too feminine, for heavy labor, Chinese workers became a dominant force in uniting the country by rail.

Sam thrived on the opportunities America offered, but he also encountered its darker side. While the hardships of frontier life affected workers of every stripe, Chinese immigrants were singled out for discrimination. The greatest injustice was the law that denied them the right to become citizens. Without the vote--and without political power--they became easy scapegoats.

In 1882, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, the first U.S. law to restrict immigration based on nationality.

Sam Wong struggled and persevered. Like the silkworm raised on his family's farm in China, he passed through many stages of metamorphosis and was ultimately transformed.