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Zinn Education Project News

For Asian Pacific American Heritage Month (May) ---- and all year long ---- we feature 20 Asian Americans and events of note in people's history. We hope this list serves as an inspiration and starting point for students to do further research. 

 
Asian Americans and Moments in People's History
Wong Kim Ark
Wong Kim Ark
On March 28, 1898, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a landmark decision in United States v. Wong Kim Ark, holding that children born in the United States, even to parents not eligible to become citizens, were nonetheless citizens themselves under the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Read more.
Patsy Mink 
"The 'glass ceiling' is an upper-class glass ceiling...not about those who can never rise above the minimum wage. The majority of people working at minimum-wage jobs are women. That's the glass ceiling I am
committed to doing something about."
 
Patsy Mink was the first Asian American woman elected to Congress, and consistently took moral stands on behalf of Asian Americans, women, and children. Read more

Peter Yew_Police Brutality Protests_ 1975
Peter Yew/Police Brutality Protests, 1975
In April 1975, Peter Yew asked police to stop beating a 15-year-old whom they had stopped for a traffic violation. For his concern, Yew was savagely beaten, taken back to the police station, stripped, beaten again, and arrested on charges of resisting arrest and assault on a police officer. His beating was the last straw as 15,000 Chinatown community members took to the streets to fight back against police attacks and brutality against their community. Read more.

Jung Sai Garment Workers Strike, 1974
On July 15, 1974, workers at the Jung Sai factory in San Francisco went on strike after a union activist was fired for "unsatisfactory work." The workers----most of them middle-aged Chinese immigrant women----protested the firing and unfair labor practices, and demanded better working conditions and the right to organize. This united body of immigrant workers inspired popular support from community, student, and working-class populations throughout the San Francisco Bay area. Read more.

Silme Domingo _ Gene Viernes 
Silme Domingo & Gene Viernes
In 1981, the labor leaders Silme Domingo and Gene Viernes were gunned down in a drive-by shooting. Domingo and Viernes were Filipino American activists and fishing cannery Local 37 union members. Initially, the murders appeared to be retributions for reform efforts, but after a wide-ranging legal investigation, a federal jury found that former Philippines dictator Ferdinand Marcos conspired to silence political opponents in the United States.
Read more.

Philip Vera Cruz
"The movement should be the most
important thing. ... The movement must
go beyond its leaders."
Philip Vera Cruz, a Filipino immigrant, worked for migrant and farm worker rights, and was active in the Asian American rights movement. Vera Cruz was elected a vice president of the United Farm Workers, a position he held until  1977. Read more.
More stories from Asian American and Pacific American History.
 
Related Resources
What the Tour Guide Didn_t Tell Me_ Tourism_ Colonialism_ and Resistance in Hawai_i
What the Tour Guide Didn't Tell Me: Tourism, Colonialism, and
Resistance in Hawai'i
Teaching Activity. By Wayne Wah Kwai Au. Lesson on the history of Hawai'i and the impact of colonization and tourism. Download lesson.

The Other Internment:
Teaching the Hidden Story of Japanese Latin Americans During WWII
Teaching Activity. By Mo� Yonamine. Poetry, photography, and text are used in this role play to teach about the seldom told history of Japanese Latin American internment during WWII. Download lesson.

Escape to Gold Mountain_ A Graphic History of the Chinese in North America
Escape to Gold Mountain: A Graphic History of the Chinese in North America
Book - Non-fiction. By David H.T. Wong. 2012. 240 pages. A graphic novel that gives a panoramic but also an intimate look at the Chinese experience in North America.
Conscience and the Constitution
Conscience and the Constitution
Film. By Frank Abe. 2000. 57 minutes.
In World War II, 63 Japanese Americans refused to be drafted from an American concentration camp. Read more.


 
A Community of People's History Teachers Grows
This week, we reached the milestone of 60,000 teachers
teaching outside the textbook.

Carolina Gutierrez from Garfield, New Jersey, wrote: "Love your work. It is much needed and provides hope and support!"  

Help continue to provide hope and support, and build the community of teachers
bringing people's history to the classroom----
 
 
Zinn Education Project
The goal of the Zinn Education Project is to introduce students to a more accurate, complex, and engaging understanding of United States history.
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