Chinese Laundries
In the late 1800s Chinese began to operate laundries all over the United States and Canada.
Whites tried and failed to block the survival of Chinese laundries. Only with the increase in home washers and dryers in the
1950s, as well as the better opportunities their children had through education, did the Chinese laundry fade into
history much as the horse and buggy did with the arrival of automobiles.
This site focuses on North America, but actually the laundry played a vital role for Chinese immigrants in many other parts
of the world including New Zealand, Australia, Mexico, and England.
Click here for Web Sites On Chinese Laundries Throughout North America
There were 19 Chinese laundries in the Deep South run by male descendants (in dark green in the
chart) of my great great grandfather Fun Fai Lo. Various laundries operated from about 1915 until around the 1960s, and one
still is open in Atlanta. Thanks to their arduous labor and sacrifice, these laundry men enabled their descendants to pursue
higher education and success in professions and other careers.
| Lo Family Laundries In South (c. 1915-2004) |
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