The Chinese Exclusion Act was a United States federal law signed by President Chester A. Arthur on May 6, 1882, prohibiting all immigration of Chinese laborers for 10 years. The law made exceptions for merchants, teachers, students, travelers, and diplomats. The Chinese Exclusion Act was the first major U.S. law ever implemented to prevent all members of a specific national group from immigrating to the United States, and therefore helped shape twentieth-century race-based immigration policy.
An 1886 advertisement for "Magic Washer" detergent: The Chinese Must Go
Chinese immigrant workers building the first transcontinental railroad
Anti-Chinese Wall cartoon in Puck
Front page of The San Francisco Call from November 20, 1901, discussing the Chinese Exclusion Convention
The United States Code is the official codification of the general and permanent federal statutes of the United States. It contains 53 titles. The main edition is published every six years by the Office of the Law Revision Counsel of the House of Representatives, and cumulative supplements are published annually. The official version of these laws appears in the United States Statutes at Large, a chronological, uncodified compilation.
A few volumes of the official 2012 edition of the United States Code
A few volumes of an annotated version of the United States Code
