During a time of debate around immigration and what it means to belong in the U.S., an exhibit at the Saratoga Library presents the 165-year struggle for Chinese-American women to gain legal standing and immigration rights.

The exhibit, entitled “Herstory,” features rare photographs and case descriptions from 1852 to the present, each depicting this population’s trying history.

Dr. Chang C. Chen, the founder of “Herstory,” gave an opening presentation of the exhibit at the library on Sept. 30, where she described some of the lawsuits that won Chinese-American women standing in American society.

Chen singled out a California Supreme Court case from 1885, “Tape v. Hurley.” Mamie Tape, then 8 years old, was denied admission to the Spring Valley School in San Francisco due to her Chinese ancestry. Her parents sued the San Francisco Board of Education and won.

According to the book, the judge on the case, Justice McGuire wrote, “To deny a child, born of Chinese parents in this state, entrance to public schools would be a violation of the law and of the state and Constitution of the United States.”

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Chen also described a woman named Eileen Chang, who under the Refugee Relief Act of 1953, became a citizen of the United States.

“Chang is the most famous Chinese-American writer, and she came here under the Refugee Act,” Chen said. “She became a permanent resident and eventually a citizen, yet nobody knows about these things.”

A more modern victory, in recent years Mi Chu, a Chinese-American woman, won a 1997 sex discrimination lawsuit under the Equal Employment Opportunity Act.

“This is my personal hero, Dr. Mi Chu,” Chen said. “She just retired from the Library of Congress. She came from Taiwan, she went to the best school, got a PhD from Harvard, the department of library. And she couldn’t even get an interview, so she sued. The next day she got the job.”

The book features 35 cases, and some of those stories are covering the walls in the Saratoga Library’s group study room. The exhibit, which has traveled around the world, will be on view through October. Its next stop is West Valley College.

The Saratoga Library is located at 13650 Saratoga Ave.