Background
Mary Tape, faced many barriers as she was fighting with her daughters for equal rights in the school including the Chinese Exlcusion Act. Source: Kpbs
Mary Tape, mother of Mamie Tape, originally born in Shanghai, China in 1857, came to San Francisco California in 1868. She was very shortly taken in by the “Ladies Protection and Relief Society” where she would learn to speak english and pick up American traditions. Mary Tape met her husband Joseph Tape who had come to America from China in 1864. For many years Joseph Tape worked as a domestic servant for a family who would eventually hire him to be a milk delivery man. He would deliver milk to the "Ladies Protection and Relief Society," this is how the two would meet. Eventually they married. The couple had four children Mamie, Frank, Emily, and Gertrude. As the children grew older it was time for to get enrolled in Spring Valley School District. At this point in time, there were no laws against the Chinese immigration. However, in 1882 America implemented the Chinese Exclusion Act. The Chinese Exclusion Act discriminated against the Chinese race prohibiting them from working in America, and also removing the children of chinese descent from public schools. This would mean that Mamie Tape would be denied entrance to the Spring Valley School district, Mary Tape was very upset and decided to sue the school district as well as California's Board of Education.
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