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What began as a labor dispute between white and Chinese coal miners on September 2, 1885 turned into a bloodbath known as the Rock Springs Massacre that left 28 Chinese miners dead and 15 others wounded. Following the violence, white miners set 79 homes ablaze, effectively wiping out the Chinatown neighborhood of Rock Springs in what was then the Wyoming Territory.
Perpetrators of the violence against the Chinese immigrant community faced little to no consequences for the massacre. And anti-immigrant and anti-Chinese sentiment followed the Chinese immigrant community as they moved from the American West to other parts of the country.