Born in San Francisco, Mamie Tape was the daughter of two Chinese immigrants who tried to enroll eight-year-old Mamie in San Francisco’s public Spring Valley School in 1884. When Mamie was turned away from the school, her parents sued the city for violating an 1880 law that guaranteed “all children . . . residing in the district” admission to public schools. A Superior Court judge ruled that “To deny a child, born of Chinese parents in this State, entrance to the public schools would be a violation of the law of the State and the...