Wong Him was born in the United States. He applied to the Clement Grammar School but was denied by the principal and the Board of Education because he was of Chinese descent. Wong Him's father took the case to the United States Circuit Court for the Northern District of California. The Board claimed they could exclude Wong because of the Political Code of California, which gave the Board the power to establish separate schools for children of Mongolian or Chinese descent. San Francisco had a separate school available for children of Chinese descent. Wong’s parents did not allege that the separate Chinese school was unequal to the white schools. Wong Him lost the case because the state had the right to provide separate but equal schools for children of different races.