Life and Career
Donaldina Cameron was born in New Zealand. When she was two years of age, she and her family moved to California. In 1895, Cameron started working as a sewing teacher at the Occidental Mission Home for Girls, founded in 1874 by the Presbyterian Church. While working at the mission, she began to participate with the city's police in the rescue of women and girls held captive, wielding an axe during nighttime raids on cribs and brothels. With the death in 1897 of Margaret Culbertson, the mission's superintendent, Cameron's responsibilities increased. In 1900, she became Superintendent of the Mission Home. Cameron became known as "Lo Mo" or Beloved Mother to those she rescued, and "Fahn Quai", or White Devil, to those they were rescued from. She came to be known as the "Angry Angel of Chinatown".
In April 1906, the great San Francisco earthquake and fire forced evacuation of the Mission Home. Realizing that the records that gave her guardianship over the young women had been left behind, Cameron re-entered the burning building to retrieve them. She then led her wards across the bay, first to Marin County and then to Oakland. While the records were saved, the Mission Home itself was destroyed, one of many buildings dynamited to try to stop the spreading fire. The Mission Home was rebuilt in 1908 and remains standing today at 920 Sacramento Street. It was renamed Donaldina Cameron House in 1942 and is now a comprehensive family service agency, serving low-income and other Asian immigrants and families, many residing in Chinatown. Cameron also founded two homes for Chinese children who were orphans or the children of the rescued women: the Chung Mei Home for boys (led by Dr. Charles R. Shepherd) and the Ming Quong Home for girls. The former Chung Mei Home is today a part of the Windrush School in El Cerrito, California, while the building which housed Ming Quong is today a part of Mills College in Oakland, California.
After she retired, Donaldina Cameron moved to Palo Alto to be near family members. She died at age 98, on January 4, 1968. She is interred in Evergreen Cemetery, Los Angeles.
Frank Chin accuses Cameron of racism, rescuing Chinese prostitutes only from brothels that served Chinese men while blessing those that served white men.
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