American Experience, Plague at the Golden Gate

Tuesday, May 24, at 9 PM

Repeats Wednesday, May 25, at 2 AM

Airs on Fusion on Friday, May 27, at 7 PM 

Discover how an outbreak of bubonic plague in 1900 set off fear and anti-Asian sentiment in San Francisco.

On March 6, 1900, a city health officer autopsied a deceased Chinese man and found organisms in the body that looked like bubonic plague. Anti-Chinese feeling ran strong in the city then, and the first step taken was to quarantine Chinatown. The Chinese objected and so did the business community—not because they wanted to protect the rights of the Chinese, but it was bad for business to have people thinking there was plague in their city or state. 

This new documentary tells the gripping story of the race against time by health officials to save the city from the deadly disease.