Mary Tape

She was born in Qing China, near Shanghai. Her birth name is unrecorded and she was reportedly an orphan.

In 1868, she emigrated as an unaccompanied minor to the United States. She found a home in San Francisco at the Ladies Protection and Relief Society,^[6] where she learned English and took the name of her caretaker, Mary McGladery. In 1875, she married Chew Diep (Chinese: 趙葉, also romanized as Jeu Dip) an immigrant from Canton who had come to the United States at age 12 in 1864, with whom she had four children. The couple converted to Presbyterianism, with Chew taking on the English name Joseph C. Tape.^[a][2][7][3]

While her husband ran a successful delivery business,^[7] Tape's accomplishments as an amateur photographer and painter attracted the attention of a local reporter, who described his initial disbelief that "a Chinese girl" was capable of these skills.^[8]

In 1884, Mary Tape's daughter, Mamie, was denied admission at Spring Valley Primary School because of her Chinese heritage. The Tape family filed suit against the school principal and the city's board of education. The suit was recognized by the Superior Court and upheld by the Supreme Court of California in Tape v. Hurley. The school superintendent pushed through legislation to create "separate but equal" Chinese schools and directed the Tapes to a new Chinese Primary School in Chinatown.^[2]

While Joseph and Mamie Tape are named in the suit,^[4] it was Mary Tape who continued arguing their case in a detailed letter of protest to the Board of Education, which concluded with an argument that prejudice is un-American:

I will let the world see Sir What justice there is When it is govern by the Race prejudice men! just because she is of the Chinese decend [sic] [...] just because she is descended of Chinese parents I guess she is more of an American then a good many of you that is going to prevent her being Educated.^[3]

• Mamie Tape Curriculum Guide - Chinese Historical Society of America (San Francisco)