Tuesday, May 29, 8 p.m.

On May 6, 1882 – on the eve of the greatest wave of immigration in American history – President Chester A. Arthur signed into law a unique piece of federal legislation. Called the Chinese Exclusion Act, it singled out as never before a specific race and nationality for exclusion – making it illegal for Chinese workers to come to America – and for Chinese nationals already here ever to become citizens of the United States.

The Chinese Exclusion Act, a two-hour film, explores in riveting detail this little known, yet deeply resonant and revealing episode in American history – one that sheds enormous light on key aspects of the history of American civil liberties, immigration, and culture – during one of the most formative periods of U.S. history. The first in a long line of acts targeting the Chinese for exclusion, the law remained in force for more than 60 years.

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