Honoring Our Past, Building Our Future

The Manilamen from the Filipino settlement at St. Malo fought for the American militia under General Jackson. According to oral history and Filipino historians, the militia was made up of common civilians and “pirates from the swamps of the Delta,” suspected and highly likely to be the Manilamen.

During the time in which Chinese workers were laboring on the sugar plantations in Hawaii, many Chinese overseas begin to migrant through into the United States through the increased trade between China and the other countries. This was the first sign of Chinese sailors in New York.

Juila Foochee ching-chang king (Afong Moy) was the first documented Chinese woman to come to America. She was brought over by two American traders, Nathaniel and Frederick Carne, who placed Afong Moy in an exhibition hall on display on November 6, 1834. Spectators paid 25 cents to observe Moy eating with chopsticks, speaking Chinese, and waking around in her bound feet.

The first documented Japanese arrive in the United States in 1843, with many working as domestic servants for middle-class white families. There were two main types of domestic servants 1) school boys, those who lived in the house to cook and serve household duties who could sometimes attend classes during the day, and 2) day workers who lived in boarding houses with the same tasks. In addition, many Japanese immigrants found occupations similar to Chinese immigrants.

Three Chinese students arrive in New York City for schooling. One of them, Yung Wing, graduates from Yale (class of 1854) and becomes the first Chinese to graduate from a U.S. college. Wing went on to have a long and diverse career as an interpreter, tea trader, diplomat, educator, military procurement specialist, and writer.

The gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The first to hear confirmed information of the gold rush were the people in Oregon, the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii), and Latin America, but in total, the news of gold brought over 300,000 people to California. The presence of gold encouraged thousands of Chinese immigrants to arrive during this period in U.S. history.

Norman Asing, a recent immigrant from China as well as a self-appointed spokesperson for the Chinese-American community in California, wrote a letter of protest to Governor Bigler, which was published in the Daily Alta California. Asing contested Governor Bigler’s exploitation of anti-Chinese racism for political gain, citing his logical fallacies as well as the cultural wealth Asians bring to America.

The Foreign Miners Tax was enacted during the height of the Gold Rush, around when 20,000 Chinese immigrants migrated from China to California. During this time, the anti-Chinese sentiment surfaced in mining camps, and many Chinese miners received increasingly harsh treatment, and culminating when the legislature adopted a new foreign miners’ tax of $4 per month. The $4 monthly fee levied against foreign miners who, but was a thinly veiled attempt to exclude Chinese and Mexican miners.

Ordinance 546 was passed in San Francisco by a committee that was motivated by the need for “the immediate expulsion or removal of Chinese prostitutes to a more uninhabited line of streets.” Although Ordinance 546 was initially directed at all races, the committee directed it at only Chinese and Mexican brothels to force them out of their homes and into undesirable neighborhoods while white brothels remained. This became a prime example of discrimination to single out Chinese women.

Golden Hills’ News, established in San Francisco, was the first Chinese-language newspaper that became an outlet for Chinese-Americans to demand a greater respect for Chinese culture. An editorial published on June 10th, 1854 states, “We protest against making targets of the poor Chinese, and say, it is only fair, that Republicans should warmly encourage, cherish and protect every effort to diffuse the spirit of Christianity and Republicanism amongst that interesting race.”

The California Supreme Court rules that a Chinese witness could not testify against a white man accused of murder. After George Hall was convicted of the murder of Ling Sing, based on the testimony of three Chinese witnesses, Hall’s lawyer argued that a California statute barring testimony by African Americans, mulattoes, and Indians applied to all non-whites. The court concurred.

A tax of $50 imposed on shipmasters or ship owners for each foreign passenger ineligible for citizenship (i.e., Chinese). The California Supreme Court declared the law unconstitutional in 1857.

In an attempt to place Chinese children into public schools segregated from white Americans, “The Chinese School” was founded and presented itself for “Chinese only.” Chinese children were not allowed to any other school in San Francisco.

California imposes a “police tax” of $2.50 a month on all Chinese living in the state. The California Supreme Court declared the law unconstitutional later in 1862.

Chinese laborers, termed “coolies,” were considered an alternative source of labor replacing slaves, and were forced to endure harrowing living conditions. U.S. Presidents from Pierce through Grant contested the manipulation of coolie labor in annual messages to Congress. President Lincoln eventually signed the Prohibition of Coolie Trade Act, which outlawed the involuntary trading of coolies as labor, only allowing voluntary immigrants from China.

Yick Wo v. Hopkins becomes the first case where the U.S. Supreme Court rules that a law with unequal impact on different groups is a violation of the Equal Protection Clause in the 14th amendment and thus, discriminatory (won by Chinese laundry men).

The Chinese workers on the Central Pacific Railroad demanded a higher wage (from 31/month to 45/month) and an 8-hour day. 5,000 laborers walked out “as one man”. The company offered to raise their wages from thirty-one to thirty-five dollars a month, but the strikers stood by their original demand. “Eight hours a day good for white men, all the same good for Chinamen.” Superintendent Crocker isolated the strikers and cut off their food supply, which resulted in the workers surrendering.

Established basic principles to ease immigration restrictions and represented a Chinese effort to limited American interferences in Chinese affairs. While the treaty temporarily granted China the Most Favored Nation status, the provisions were ultimately revered in 1882 with the Chinese Exclusion Act signed into law by President Chester A. Author.

The Fourteenth amendment passes as one of the Reconstruction Amendments. The amendment gives all persons born in the U.S. citizenship regardless of race.

The Transcontinental Railroad, originally known as the Pacific Railroad, was completed in May of 1869. This great American accomplishment could not have been achieved without the extraordinary efforts of Chinese Americans. The Chinese American workers comprised of at least 80% of the workforce, however while the white workers were given their monthly salary at about $35 including food and shelter, the Chinese immigrants received a salary of about $28, without food and shelter.

Thomas Nast, a cartoonist for Harper’s Weekly, defends Chinese immigrants against the fierce prejudice and discrimination which they faced in late-nineteenth-century America. In the cartoon illustration, Columbia, the feminine symbol of the United States, shields the dejected Chinese man against an armed mob. On the wall behind Columbia are plastered slurs against the Chinese immigrants, who are labeled as barbarian, heathen, immoral, anti-family, and degraded labor.

The first identifiable Chinatown in Los Angeles, California, was situated on Calle de Los Negros – Street of the Dark Hued Ones. Much smaller than the vibrant Chinatowns today, the first Chinatown was a short alley 50 feet wide, and one block long between El Pueblo Plaza and Old Arcadia Street. Despite the discrimination, the Chinese immigrants held a dominant economic position in the Los Angeles laundry and produce industries during this period.

The Chinese Massacre of 1871 was a racially motivated riot when a mob of over 500 white men entered Los Angeles’ Chinatown to attack, loot, and murder Chinese residents of the city. The riots were allegedly triggered by the killing of Robert Thompson, a rancher who was caught in the cross-fire during a gun battle between two Chinese factions. Scholars have attributed the riots to the growing movement of anti-Chinese in California, in addition to economic causes.

California’s Civil Procedure Code began to allow Chinese court testimonies after alleviating an old restriction in 1854, which prohibited Chinese court testimonies against whites.

San Francisco ordinance imposes a fee of $2 for laundries using one horse-drawn vehicle, $4 for those using two, and $15 for laundries without carts or more than two animals. The ordinance was invalidated by People v. Soon Kung.

The first federal immigration law, which restricted immigrations, who were considered “undesirable” from entering the United States. Some examples of those who were considered undesirable were Asian men who were contract laborers, Asian women who were prostitutes, and Asians who were convicts in their own country.

The Queue Ordinance, or the Pigtail Ordinance, was a law established to force prisoners in San Francisco, California, to have their hair cut within an inch of the scalp. While the law did not discriminate between races, it affected the Han Chinese prisoners in particular, as it meant that they would have to cut their queue, a waist-long braided pigtail and symbol of national identity.

In a productive, yet tumultuous collaborative relationship, Mark Twain and Bret Harte present a caricature of the stereotypical Chinese man while satirizing the intense racism directed towards Chinese-Americans.

Dennis Kearney, Irish immigrant and leader of the party, led violent attacks on the Chinese in San Francisco in 1877. The party adopted the slogan “The Chinese Must Go”, and successfully elected candidates to state office. The Workingmans Party influenced much of California policies, and a number of them had connections to the officials at the Angel Island immigration center.

The Japanese Gospel Society (Fukuin Kai) forms; this is believed to be the first immigrant association formed by the Japanese.

In re Ah Yup was an 1878 landmark court decision in the United States that deemed residents of Asian descent ineligible for naturalization. Since the existing laws allowed only for the naturalization of white people and black people, the Chinese plaintiff Ah Yup attempted to argue that Chinese people were white. A federal court in California dismissed this contention with reference to then current scientific and popular ideas about race, emphasizing that "Orientals" were unfit for participation in republican government because of the unsatisfactory political culture which existed in Asia at the time.

California adopted a new Constitution which explicitly authorized the state government to determine which individuals were allowed to reside in the state, and banned the Chinese from employment by corporations and state, county or municipal governments.

Chinese community leaders in San Francisco formally established the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association or the Six Companies (the Six Companies: Hop Wo, Kong Chow, Ning Yung, Sam Yup, Yan Wo, and Yeong Wo Companies). To this day, the community organization represents and serves the Chinese community in San Francisco, and exists as old of the oldest and historical community organizations.

The Chinese Exclusion Act was signed into law by President Chester A. Author. The Chinese Exclusion Act prohibited the immigration of new Chinese laborers for 10 years – groups that were exempt from the Exclusion Act were merchants, children, wives, students, teachers and labors already present before the passage of the act. The Chinese Exclusion Act was the first law in U.S. immigration history to define immigration as a criminal offense.

The Treaty of Chemulpo, also known as the Treaty of Amity and Commerce, began diplomatic relations between the United States and Korea, which allowed Korean immigrants into the United States. In 1904, the United States secretly nullified the Chemulpo Treaty in the Taft-Katsura Agreement.

The Irwin Convention hires Japanese contract laborers to work in sugar plantations in Hawaii. Contract laborers would register to come to Hawaii aboard the SS City of Tokio, the first ship to carry Japanese migrants at the time. Until 1894, the organization would bring approximately 29,000 government-sponsored Japanese laborers on 3-year contracts. This would segue to Japanese migration to Hawaii and subsequently the Western Hemisphere.

The City of Tokio arrived in Honolulu carrying the first 944 official migrants from Japan to Hawaii.

The Rock Springs Massacre, also known as the Rock Springs Riot, occurred on September 2, 1885. The riot which involved Chinese immigrant miners and white immigrant miners, was the result of racial tensions and an ongoing labor dispute over the policy of paying Chinese miners lower wages than white miners. The rioters burned 75 Chinese homes, and at least 28 Chinese miners were dead, with 15 injured.

The Scott Act was a piece of legislation that prohibited Chinese laborers abroad from returning to the United States. The main proponent of the legislation was William Lawrence Scott, member of the U.S. House of Representatives of Pennsylvania. The legislation was introduced as an extension of the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, and left an estimated 20,000 – 30,000 Chinese outside the United States at the time stranded.

Shortly after the Chinese Exclusion Act, Chae Chan Ping decided to re-enter the United States using original authorization. He was denied reentry. With a unanimous vote, the Supreme Court ruled, the United States government can constitutionally restriction the entrance of aliens as “an incident of sovereignty” because the treaties regarding Chinese Exclusion held the same value as a federal statute and can be repealed or modified based on Congress’ desire to do so.

The Geary Act was written by California Congressman Thomas J. Geary, and it extended the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. The Act required all Chinese residents of the U.S. to carry a resident permit (America’s first internal passbook). Those who failed to carry the permit at all times were punished by deportation or a year at hard labor. In addition, Chinese were not allowed to bear witness in court, and could not receive bail in habeas corpus proceedings.

The Gresham-Yang Treaty accepted total prohibition of Chinese immigrants to the United States, in return for the readmission of those who left the United States back in China on a visit (the treaty nullified the Scott Act of 1888).

The Court ruled on the concept of 'separate but equal' and set back civil rights in the United States for decades to come which separated whites and people of color in public spaces.

The U.S. annexes Hawaii and the Philippines as territories.

The first significant group of Korean immigrants of 103 men, women, and children arrived at Honolulu Harbor on the S.S. Gaelic as contract laborers.

The first wave of Asian Indian Immigration began in 1905 – 1924, and many the 65,000 who arrived were from the North in Punjab. Overwhelmingly of these immigrants tended to be farm laborers, and had no formal education (less than 3.7 % were educated). Asian Indian communities were bachelor societies, in that there was a large gender imbalance of men to women, in fact, the ratio was 75 men to 1 woman.

During 1905 to 1935, roughly 1000,000 Filipinos immigrated to the United states and Islands. The major push factor was war, mainly the Spanish American War of 1898, and the Philippine American War. California was the state with the largest numbers of Filipinos, that represented 45,000 Filipinos on the mainland. Roughly 80% of the Filipino immigrants were under the age of 30, and 96% of the 100,000 were male and only 4% were female.

The Asiatic Exclusion League was a racist organization formed in the early twentieth century in the United States that aimed to prevent immigration of people of East Asian origin. The Asiatic Exclusion League was formed in San Francisco, California, by labor unions of predominantly European immigrants. The group’s stated aims were to spread anti-Asian propaganda and influence legislation restricting Asian immigration, specifically targeted were Japanese, Chinese, and Koreans.

After the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, many Chinese claimed that they were born in San Francisco, which allowed them to claim citizenship or admission for others. Families would claim that they had sons in China, although many did not, and used the earthquake and the subsequently destruction of records to assist in helping others immigrate into the United States as “paper sons.”

The San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 displaced hundreds of thousands of people throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. Largely damaged by the earthquake and fire was San Francisco’s Chinatown, hundreds of causalities in Chinatown went ignored and unrecorded. The 1906 earthquake and fire afforded a convenient excuse by city officials to claim Chinatown, and relocate the Chinese remaining in the city to segregated camps in a remote, cold, and windy corner of the Presidio.

An informal agreement between the US and the Emperor of Japan to not place restrictions on Japanese immigration, in return, Japan would restriction emigration out of the country to the US. While Congress never officially approved the agreement, the purpose was to reduce Japanese and US tensions in the Pacific after its defeat to the Soviet Union and the US, causing Japan to desire equal treatment.

An immigrant processing facility in San Francisco. 56,000 Asian immigrants who came through Angel Island were held in the immigration detention centers for months, weeks, and even years.

The California Alien Land Law prohibited “aliens ineligible for citizenship” (i.e., all Asian immigrants) from owning land or property, but permitted three year leases. It affected the Chinese, Indian, Japanese, and Korean immigrant farmers in California. In order to bypass the legislation, many Japanese immigrants placed the title to the land to their American born children, or set up a corporate with American friends of lawyers.

Sessue Hayakawa became the first Asian to star in a Hollywood film with the release of The Typhoon.

Also known as Immigration Act of 1917 and the Asiatic Barred Zone Act. This law added to the list of “undesirables”, who were prevented from entering the country based on their national origins. Severe illnesses included, but were not limited to, epilepsy and mental illnesses/ physical deformations. Despite Woodrow Wilson’s previous veto of the act, the law received a majority support in the Senate and the House.

Criminalized sending money back to home to China for Chinese immigrants during McCarthy era.

Anna May Wong, a Chinese American actress, became the first Asian American actress when she was starred in Bits of Life. Wong went to star in other films, such as Toll of the Sea, The Thief of Bagdad, Piccadilly, and Daughter of the Dragon. Her acting career had been marred by the “Dragon Lady” and “Butterfly” stereotypes, which either depicted her as evil, sly, and deceitful, or naive and self-sacrificing. Wong remains to be well-recognized and even portrayed on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

In 1920, the 1913 California Land Law was amended and made more restrictive. The amendments were aimed at Japanese and Chinese immigrants in California, and prohibited Asian farmers from owning, buying, and leasing land.

10,000 Japanese and Filipino plantation workers go on strike. Japan stops issuing passports to picture brides due to anti-Japanese sentiments. Initiative in California ballot plugs up loopholes in the 1913 alien land law.

The Emergency Quota Act of 1921, also known as the Emergency Immigration Act of 192, established the nation’s first numerical limits on the number of immigrants who could enter the US; it restricted immigration based on existing population proportions. These country-by-country limits were specifically designed to keep out “undesirable” ethnic groups and maintain America’s character as a nation of northern and western European stock.

The United States found Japanese immigrant, Takao Ozawa, ineligible for naturalization under the Naturalization Act, which allowed African- Americans and Caucasian to apply for citizenship through nativity. He did not challenge the racist nature of the law, instead he sought to have Japanese people classified as white. However, the explanation of the ruling against this notion, states that Caucasians are exclusively defined as white, restricting Asians from this classification.

The US Supreme Court ruled that Bhagat Singh Thind cannot be naturalized as he was not of Caucasian descent. He defended the definition, which he fit, of Caucasian is someone of Aryan descent and has a high caste in society. However, this was not recognized by the US Supreme Court, which believed he didn’t fit the common understanding of Caucasian.

Also known as the Immigration Act of 1924, it limited the number of immigrants allowed entry into the United States through a national origins quota. It completely excluded immigrants from Asia.

Lum v. Rice ruled that exclusion by race of Chinese American from school did not violate the 14th amendment, effectively approved exclusion of minority children.

Anti-Filipino riot in Watsonville, California.

Although growing up as a Chinese American woman presented only a few opportunities at the time, Hazel Ying Lee rejected “invisible jobs” for women and was passionate about being a pilot. Stereotypes reinforced images of Chinese American women as passive and weak, but Lee was able to receive her flight license and then applied to the Women Air Force Service Pilots (WASP). She was accepted and her role as an aviator left a significant mark for the advancement of gender equality.

A United States federal law that established a 10-year Commonwealth period in the Philippines and independence from the United States. This set the timetable for a sovereign self-government in the Philippines. The act reclassified all Filipinos, including those who were living in the United States, as aliens for the purposes of immigration to America. A quota of 50 immigrants per year was established. Before this act, Filipinos were classified as United States nationals, but not United States citizens, and while they were allowed to migrate relatively freely, they were denied naturalization rights within the US, unless they were citizens by birth in the mainland US.

Conceived during the economic depression, the “Nisei Week” festival was a means for bringing Japanese Americans together from all over California to reclaim their cultural heritage and celebrate. The festival became the largest and boosted business for Little Tokyo merchants in Los Angeles, California while also acting as a place for Japanese Americans to convene.

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt granted citizenship for 500 Asian Americans who served in armed services during World War II. The Public Law 162 granted several hundred veterans of Asian descent who had served in World War I the opportunity to apply for American citizenship through naturalization. However, many others would continue to not have and fight for citizenship even after serving in the war.

150 Chinese women garment workers strike for three months against the National Dollar Stores (owned by a Chinese).

The “new” Chinatown in Los Angeles formed as a result of the construction of Union Station and became a new home to many former residents of Old Chinatown. Along with Mexicans who were also displaced with the building of Los Angeles municipal buildings, Chinese were easily “removed” to make room for the City’s plans for reimagining itself without a Chinese presence. Segregation and exclusion went hand-in-hand for the residents of Old Chinatown.

Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay a feminist and socialist at the Harlem NAACP.

B.R. Ambedkar was the chief architect of the Indian Constitution and the best-known Dalit (Untouchable) civil rights activist of the 20th century.

The Empire of Japan attacked the United States Naval Base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The attack was preventive, intended to stop the US Pacific Fleet from interfering with Japanese Southeast Asia campaign, against overseas allies, some of which were US allies. This initiated US involvement in World War II and later, the bombing of two Japanese cities.

Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an exclusion order that authorized the United States Secretary of War to detain and exclude individuals as deemed necessary regardless of ethnicity or race, and also transform specific areas into military zones. 120,000 Japanese Americans were forced from their homes and relocated into makeshift internment camps without an official trial and due process, determination of guilt, or evidence of espionage and sabotage.

Repealed the exclusion of Chinese immigration, however there was a quota of 100 Chinese immigrants selected by U.S. government who were allowed to enter the United States annually.

One of the first Chinese American woman pilots, Maggie Gee received her flight licenses and joined the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP). Gee idolized Amelia Earhart and aspired to overcome obstacles and barriers to fly. Since women were not allowed to regularly serve in combat at the time, she trained male pilots and also co-piloted military planes for simulated mock dogfights. In 2010, she and other WASP pilots would receive the Congressional Gold Medal for her contributions.

Act that allowed spouses and adopted children of United States military officers, including many Asian, to immigrate to the United States after World War II on a non-quota basis. Despite the exclusionary laws targeting Asians during this time period, this Act became an important loophole for Asian veterans to bring and reunite with their families and wives to the country.

The act allowed a quota of 100 Indians to immigrate to the United States per annum. It also permitted Indian nationals already residing in the U.S. (of whom there were approximately 2,500-3,000 at the time) to become naturalized American citizens.

United States Supreme Court case that decided that specific provisions of the 1913 and 1920 California Alien Land Laws violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to Fred Oyama who as a Japanese American naturalized in the United States had purchased land on behalf of his father. While his father cannot own land under his name, because he could not apply for naturalization, his son, born in the United States and naturalized, can own land.

Victoria Manalo Draves was a Filipino American woman born in the United States that became the first woman to win two gold medals in diving in the same Olympics. Draves also the first Asian American to win an Olympic gold medal of any kind, a feat she accomplished in the 1948 London Olympics.

The McCarran-Walter Act, also known as the Immigration and Nationality Act, removed total ban of Chinese immigrants but still upheld national origins quotas. The act illustrates a mixed bag in terms of reforms of Asian Americans. The first provision establishes naturalization rights and allows Asian immigrants to naturalize to U.S. citizenship. As a result of this provision, an anomalous status of “aliens ineligible to citizenship” is knocked off the U.S. immigration law.

Supreme Court case that convicted Chinese American from the China Daily News, a newspaper publication, under the Trading With the Enemy Act that prohibited and criminalized sending monetary funds back to China.

A landmark United States Supreme Court case in which the Court declared state laws establishing separate public schools for people of color and white students to be unconstitutional. The decision overturned the Plessy v. Ferguson decision of 1896, which allowed state-sponsored segregation, insofar as it applied to public education. Handed down on May 17, 1954, the Warren Court's unanimous (9–0) decision stated that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal." As a result, de jure racial segregation was ruled a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution. This ruling paved the way for integration and was a major victory of the civil rights movement.

California repeals alien landownership laws.

Dalip Singh Saund was a member of the United States House of Representatives. He served the 29th District of California from January 3, 1957 to January 3, 1963. He was the first Sikh/Punjabi Asian American/Indian American elected as a voting member of the United States Congress.

Dalip Singh Saund, a South Asian American, becomes the first Asian American to be elected to the United States Congress. He advocated for South Asian naturalization rights and against corruption.

Hiram Fong became the first Asian American to be elected to the U.S. Senate.

Kimm v. Rosenberg was a Supreme Court decision that ruled that a Korean national should be deported if he/she refused to answer whether or not he/she was Communist. This was at the height of McCarthyism and certainly affected Asian American communities.

Drafted by the Los Angeles Rams, Roman Gabriel was a Filipino American quarterback who was considered by many to have been one of the best quarterbacks in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He was the first Asian American to have played in American football and also the first to ever be in the starting lineup.

Immigration Act abolishes country preferences. Asian immigration increases.

Patsy Matsu Takemoto Mink became the first Asian American woman elected to Congress from Hawaii. She went on to oppose the Vietnam War, support peace, fight for civil rights, women’s rights, economic justice, civil liberties, and equal rights in education.

While voting had been largely restricted in the Asian American community, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 prohibited racial discrimination in voting and banned literacy tests and other discriminatory registration and voting practices that aimed to exclude voters from voting. This eased political participation to include limited-English proficient voters and prevented exclusion from voting based on color, race, or membership in a language minority group.

Term “model minority” first coined by sociologist William Petersen in an article he wrote for The New York Times Magazine, “Success story: Japanese American style,” that highlighted that the educational and financial success of Japanese Americans, relative to other immigrant groups, meant that they were able to overcome discrimination as a whole.

Richard Aoki was one of the most prominent Asian Americans involved in the civil rights movement in the United States. As a Sansei Japanese American, he maintained close relations with Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale and helped to found the Black Panther Party. He would have the position of field marshal and represented the only Asian American to have a formal leadership position. In the subsequent years, he would help lead the Third World Liberation Front at Berkeley.

Loving v. Virginia was a landmark civil rights decisions that invalidated laws prohibiting interracial marriages. The decision in this case would open the doors for Asian Americans to marry interracially and freely in the United States.

Encompasses social movements in the United States whose goals were to end racial segregation and discrimination against people of color and to secure legal recognition and federal protection of the citizenship rights enumerated in the Constitution and federal law.

A group of US Army soldiers were sent on a “search-and-destroy” mission in My Lai for communists (Viet Congs). The mission unfolded into a massacre of approximately 500 unarmed civilians, including men, women, children, infants, and the elderly. Higher-ranking officers managed to cover-up the events until it became public a year later. Although 14 officers were convicted, only one was charged. Lt. William Calley was convicted for the murder of 109 lives and sent to life in prison; he only served 3.5 years under house arrest due to an appeal from President Nixon.

Also known as the Hart-Cellar Act, the legislation was monumental immigration reform act that reversed years of restrictive immigration policies against Asia. The Act allowed a greater number of immigrants to enter the United States unrestricted by geographic location or origins.

San Francisco inter-ethnic movement started by student activist groups and organizations on college campuses to advocate for more class and programs about ethnic studies and history.

Bruce Lee became the first Asian American Hollywood action superstar and legend when Enter the Dragon premiered at Grauman’s Chinese Theater.

Ellison Shoji Onizuka, a Japanese American from Hawaii, became the first Asian American astronaut in space with the Space Shuttle Discovery. He served as a mission specialist on-board the shuttle and responsible for activities of the primary payloads, which included the unfolding of the Inertial Upper Stage (IUS) surface. After 48 orbits around the Earth, he returned to Earth. Onizuka died in his second mission with Space Shuttle Challenger the following year that exploded shortly after launch.

Dalit Panther was a militant Dalit (Untouchable) liberation movement inspired by the Black Panther Party and Black Power activism. Founded in Bombay, member organized against cateist repression and murder.

Thelma Buchholdt became the first Filipino/a American legislator in the Alaska House of Representatives. Before her post, she was a leader in the civil rights movement and helped to establish a number of organizations and causes, such as the Boys and Girls Clubs, March of Dimes, and League of Women Voters. She was also the first woman president of the Filipino Community of Anchorage for two terms.

Hawaii elected George R. Ariyoshi as the first Asian American governor to which he held as the longest-serving state governor for Hawaii in its history.

A case of police brutality and harassment, Peter Yew, an architectural engineer, was beaten, bloodied, and arrested during a minor traffic altercation in New York’s Chinatown. In the following months, Asian Americans for Equal Employment (AAFEE) would protest the arrest to argue against police racial subjugation and oppression. Thousands of protesters marched the mile from Chinatown to City Hall in a daring demonstration to incite change and political awareness.

A US Government plan to transport Vietnamese orphans to America, Australia, Canada, and Europe. The first flight had about 300 people, mostly of whom were Vietnamese children under the age of 2. Due to a malfunction, the plane crash-landed, killing 78 children and about 50 adults. The operation continued and evacuated over 3,300 infants and children out of South Vietnam.

When Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, fell on April 30, 1975 to North Vietnamese military forces, the first wave of Vietnamese refugees began. The first wave consisted of mainly South Vietnamese soldiers and their families that had relations to the United States that left Vietnam in fear of political persecution between 1975 and 1977.

A symbol of breaking racial barriers, Cheryl Song was a standout Asian American dancer that stayed on the show Soul Train for 14 consecutive years. She was highly criticized for being “non-black” or “yellow” at the beginning, but rose above those criticisms. She appeared in Michael Jackson’s music video, “Beat It,” and Rick James’ “Superfreak.”

The second wave of Vietnamese refugees started in 1977 until 1981. Under the fall of Saigon, the sprout of re-educational camps, socialist policies, and corruption influenced many to flee on makeshift boats. Nicknamed as “Vietnamese boatpeople,” men, women, and children all fled in horrible conditions, overcrowded, widespread sickness, starvation, dehydration, pirate attacks, and death.

After the fall of Saigon, the oppressive regime of Khmer Rouge gained power in Cambodia, which resulted in a dramatic increase of Cambodian refugees to flee the country to refugee camps in Thailand. There, they would wait to be resettled in the United States.

Act that reformed the United States immigration law in defined “refugee,” reduced restrictions on entry, and admitted refugees on a systematic basis for humanitarian reasons. Primarily, Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Laotian political refugees were all greatly affected by this Act which supported their immigration to the United States.

The International Hotel, often referred to as the I-Hotel, was built in 1907 after the devastating 1906 earthquake and was a low-cost residential hotel located at the corner of Kearny and Jackson Streets in the Manilatown section of San Francisco. It was during the 1920s and 1930s when thousands of seasonal Asian laborers came to reside at the hotel. It was home to many Asian Americans, specifically a large Filipino American population. By the late 1970s, the I-Hotel was almost all that was left of Manilatown. The hotel was demolished in 1981.

In Portsmouth, Maine a Cambodian man was on the head by a rock hidden in a snowball thrown by neighbors as he was playing in the snow with his children. Neighbors said: “Go back where you came from, Gook!”

Vincent Chin was a Chinese American murdered in Detriot, Michigan by Crysler superintendent Ronald Ebens, and his stepson Michael Nitz. Many of the layoffs in Detriot’s auto industry was blamed on the increasing market share of Japanese automakers – leading to allegations that Vincent Chin received racially charged comments before his death. The case became a pivotal point for the Asian American community, and is often considered the beginning of the pan-ethnic Asian American movement.

In Davis, California, a student at the Davis High School campus stabbed Thong Hy Huynh to death. He was a victim of a racially motivated attack and a bullying incident that emerged from prior incidents in which students taunted Huynh and his Vietnamese friends for not speaking fluent English, harassing them with racial slurs. The tipping point came when a fight broke out in the classroom with Huynh’s friend and a bully. Huynh intervened to help defend his friend, but was fatal stabbed to death.

Act that granted reparations to Japanese Americans interned during World War II as a result of Executive Order 9066. The Act granted each surviving internee with about $20,000 dollars in compensation. Moreover, the United States apologized and recognized that the internment had been unjust based on race prejudice, war hysteria, and failed political leadership.

A best-selling novel by author Amy Tan, the Joy Luck Club would provide a unique insight for many Americans on the lives of Chinese American immigrants and culture. The book would enjoy 8 months on The New York Times bestseller’s list and turn into a movie in the subsequent years.

On November 25, 1989 at about 10:30PM a group of white teenagers both physically and verbally assaulted Asian American employees and an Asian American store owner at a shopping center in Castro Valley, CA. According to the sheriff’s investigation, the incident was racially motivated.

President George H. W. Bush signs a congressional bill that designates May to be Asian Pacific American Heritage Month (APAHM) in commemoration to the first Japanese to the United States on May 7, 1843 and mark the anniversary of the completion of the transcontinental railroad on May 10, 1869. To the present day, May is celebrated with a yearly theme, cultural celebrations, festivals, discussions, and activities.

Murder of Luyen Phan Nguyen in South Florida. Racially derived acts – was called “Chink”. “Viet Cong”, “gook!”

Immigration Act raised the total quota and reorganized system of preferences. Nearly 5 million immigrants arrive from Asian countries.

Amidst the struggle for Asian American Studies, students wrote “Asian American Studies Now!” on Walker Wall of the Pomona College in the Claremont Colleges in support for more Asian American Studies courses and faculty members. Walker Wall was a popular campus site for student graffiti and semi-sanctioned by the university. However, overnight the words were changed and defaced to read “Asian Americans die Now!” sparking fear and disbelief among the Asian American community at Pomona.

The LA Riots were sparked when a jury acquitted three white and one Hispanic Los Angeles Police Department officers accused in the videotaped beating of black motorist Rodney King. Thousands of people in the Los Angeles area rioted over the six days following the verdict. Many Korean businesses looted and burned as a result of riots in Los Angeles due to outrage over Rodney King verdict.

Connie Chung becomes the first Asian American to be a nightly news anchor for a major network (CBS).

72 Thai nationals were found working in conditions of slavery in a makeshift garment factory, the first recognized case of modern-day slavery in the U.S. since the abolishment of slavery. The Asian Pacific American Legal Center and the Thai Community Development Center picked up this case and represented all 72 workers. Upon winning the civil case against the retailers and manufacturers, the workers won a $4 million settlement. Families of the workers were reunited in the US and have all gained citizenship to become independent and productive individuals.

Dr. Lee was working as a research scientist at the Los Alamos Nuclear Laboratory on military missile systems. In the midst of national hysteria about nuclear secrets being passed onto China in 1999, Dr. Lee was arrested and charged with 59 counts of mishandling classified information. Dr. Lee was denied bail, kept in solitary confinement, and forced to wear leg shackles and chains for nine months. Finally, in September 2000, just two days before they were forced to produce documents to support their case against him, the government dropped all but one of those 59 charges against him. This was also after everyone learned that an FBI agent provided false testimony about Dr. Lee in the initial investigation. Dr. Lee was finally released after pleading guilty to one count of mishandling computer data. At his release hearing, the presiding judge in the case took the unprecedented step of apologizing to Dr. Lee

Filipino American postal worker Joseph Ileto was murdered by a white supremacist in Chatsworth.