Asian Pacific American Timeline

February 18, 2008 – University of Colorado - Boulder student newspaper Campus Press website runs a column titled, “If it’s war the Asians want…”

December 31, 2007 – Korean American Michael Cho is shot and killed by two police officers in La Habra, California. Cho was unarmed and also had a walking disability. Both police officers shot at Cho numerous times, leaving the community with many unanswered questions.

April 16, 2007 - Korean American Seung-Hui Cho, kills 32 fellow students and himself in the largest school shooting in the U.S. Cho was diagnosed with severe anxiety disorder, bringing mental health issues in the APA community to light. Some of the victims were Asian Americans.

January 2007 - Cha Vang, 30, was found dead in the Peshtigo Harbor Wildlife Area in northern Wisconsin. He had been shot once with a shotgun and stabbed six times, mainly in the neck. He also had a three to four inch-long wooden stick protruding from his mouth. James Nichols, 28 is charged with first-degree intentional homicide, hiding a corpse and being a felon in possession of a firearm. Both men were hunting.

December 2006 - Rosie O'Donnell makes fun of the Chinese language by saying "ching chong" on the national TV show “The View.” After a wave of protest from APA groups, she apologizes to those who were offended, but never apologizes for the comments, which her spokesman claims was comedic humor.

February 2006 – Nationally syndicated radio talk show host Adam Carolla spoofed the Asian Excellence Awards with a segment where he said, “ching chong, chng chong, ching chong…” over and over for several minutes. He apologizes but continues his radio show.

January 2005 – A month after a tragic Asian tsunami, a New York radio station, Hot 97, played a Tsunami "satire" set to the music of “We Are the World” that included words such as "chinks" and "Chinamen" in the lyrics, and made fun of the Asians who were killed by the tsunami. The producer of the morning show was fired; the half-Asian co-host, who objected to the song on the air, quit; and the main host was off the air briefly but was back on the air after apologizing.

2003 – Shaquille O'Neal, Lakers’ basketball player, was asked about his thoughts on the Houston Rockets’ rookie center Yao Ming, a player from China. His reply, "Tell Yao Ming, 'ching-chong-yang-wah-ah-soh.'" After protests from APA groups, Shaq apologized to Ming but said this about the Asian-American columnist who wrote about the comments in AsianWeek: "I said it jokingly, so this guy was just trying to stir something up that's not there. He's just somebody who doesn't have a sense of humor, like I do."

2002 - Disguise, one of the largest Halloween costume suppliers in the U.S. sells a "Kung Fool" costume that features a mask of a slant-eyed, buck-toothed caricature wearing a headband with the Chinese character for "loser."

2002 – Abercrombie and Fitch launches a new line of t-shirts with Asian caricatures including one with Chinese characters wearing straw hats with the caption, “Two Wongs can make it white.” After a national protest by APAs, the line of shirts was pulled from shelves.

2002 – The National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium’s Backlash: When America Turned on Its Own chronicles a significant spike in racial violence against Asian-Americans since the events of 9/11. People who vaguely resemble the enemy, including Sikh Americans and South Asian Americans, have been locked away without due process, the organization charges.

2001 – Elaine Chao is confirmed as the nation’s twenty-fourth secretary of labor and the first Asian=American woman appointed to a cabinet post in U.S. history.

2000 – A total of eight Asian Pacific Americans serve in the 107th Congress, including Daniel Inouye, (D-Hawaii), Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii), Mike Honda (D-California), Patsy Mink (D-Hawaii), Eni Faleomavaega (D-Am Somoa), Robert Matsui (D-California), Robert Underwood (D-Guam), and David Wu (D-Oregon).

2000 - The first U.S. Census to include survey options for multiracial and multiethnic Americans is taken. Over two million Asian Pacific Americans report being “hapa” (of mixed heritage or internationally adopted), comprising 17% of the total APA population.

June 21, 2000 – President Clinton awards the Medal of Honor to 22 Asian Americans, including 20 Japanese American WWII veterans, one Filipino American and one Chinese American. Thirteen of the Medal of Honor awards were given posthumously.

2000-2001 – Norman Y. Mineta is confirmed as the US secretary of commerce during the final six months of Clinton administration, making him the first Asian-American cabinet member in US history. Mineta is confirmed as the US secretary of transportation in George W. Bush’s administration in 2001, the only Democrat in the Bush Cabinet.

1999 - President Clinton signs an Executive Order establishing a President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders to address the health and human services needs of AAPIs, and to increase their participation in federal programs. It is only the second Executive Order issued concerning Asian Americans.

April 11, 1997 - Asian American students are denied service at local Denny’s Restaurant near Syracuse University. After being told to leave and escorted by security guards, the students were attacked by a group of white students. Two of the students were beaten unconscious. Security guards stood and watched and the incident only ended after two African American bystanders intervened.

1996 - Gary Locke becomes governor of Washington State. He is the first Asian American to be elected governor of one of the contiguous United States.

1995 - In NYC Asian Americans help to organize a citywide demonstration, occupying bridges during rush hour to protest police brutality.

1994 - Pitcher Chanho Park is signed by the Dodgers, becoming the first Asian player, and the first Dodger since Sandy Koufax to be drafted directly into the majors.

1993 - After a 36-day hunger strike in May, Asian American students at the University of California-Berkeley finally convince the administration to establish an Asian American studies program.

1990 – In the last 30 years, the U.S. Asian/Pacific Islander American population grows from 1 million to more than 7 million.

1990 - President Bush proclaims May Asian Pacific Heritage Month.

1988 - The Civil Liberties Act of 1988, which implements the recommendations of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, is signed into law by President Ronald Reagan. The law apologizes and offers redress and reparations to thousands of Japanese Americans who were denied their civil and constitutional rights by the U.S. government during World War II, paying $20,000 to each eligible former internee.

1988 - The American Homecoming Act permits over 25,000 Vietnamese Amerasians entry to the U.S. and legal status as U.S. permanent residents.

1987 - The admissions policy of the University of California at Berkeley comes under attack as discriminatory against Asian Americans.

1986 - U.S. Civil Rights Commission issues a draft report on the rise of anti-Asian violence - its history, causes, and recommendation that all Americans work together to resolve the problem.

January 28, 1986 – Astronaut Lt. Colonel Ellison Onizuka along with six others dies when the shuttle Challenger explodes 1 min. 13 sec. after launch. Onizuka earned his B.S and M.S. simultaneously at the University of Colorado University - Boulder.

1982 – Chinese American Vincent Chin, 27, is clubbed to death with a baseball bat after an argument with two white men in a Detroit bar, who accused him of being Japanese, and blamed the Japanese for layoffs by U.S. car manufacturers. American Citizens for Justice organizes Asian Americans nationally to protest the light sentences of three years probation and a fine of $3,780 each. After a federal grand jury investigation, Ronald Ebens is sentenced to 25 years imprisonment and Michael Nitz is acquitted in 1984. Ebens is later acquitted by the Court of Appeals in Cincinnati in 1986. The murderers never served a day in prison for their crime.

1982 - Congress passes Public Law 97-359 (American Immigration Act), offering top priority for immigration to children in Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, or Thailand known to have been fathered by a U.S. Citizen.

1981 – The congressionally established Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians concludes that internment of Japanese Americans in 1942 was a “grave injustice” stemming from “racial prejudice, war hysteria and a failure of political leadership.”

1980 - First national Asian Pacific American Women’s conference on educational equity held in Washington D.C.

1978 – The Japanese American Citizens League calls for reparations for the U.S. incarceration of Japanese Americans without due process of law during World War II.

1977 - East Coast Asian Student Union is formed at Yale University. Annually, it’s one of the largest student conferences in the United States, bringing over 1000 APA college students from across the country.

1976 - President Gerald Ford rescinds Executive Order 9066, which authorized the relocation of Japanese Americans from the Pacific coast.

1975 - North Vietnam violates the Paris Agreement and attacks South Vietnam, which falls in April. American forces withdraw from Vietnam and Congress passes Public Law 94-23, authorizing the resettlement of 130,000 Southeast Asian refugees from Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, under the Indochinese Refugee Assistance Program.

1969 - As a result of student protests at schools like San Francisco State University and University of California, Berkeley, Asian American Studies programs are inaugurated and established at colleges.

1968 - Members of the San Francisco State College Third World Liberation Front- a coalition of African American, American Indian, Asian American, and Latino campus groups- initiate the longest student strike in U.S. history, calling attention to the need for ethnic studies in the college curriculum.

June 12, 1967 - Loving v. Virginia, a land-mark Supreme Court civil rights case, ends race-based marriage restrictions in the U.S., including the Arizona Statute of 1942 which stated: “The marriage of a person of caucasian blood with a Negro, Mongolian, Malay, or Hindu is null and void.”

1964 - A native of Hawaii, Patsy Takemoto Mink becomes the first Asian American woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.

1956 - Dalip Singh Saund, an Asian Indian from the Imperial Valley, CA, is the first Asian Pacific American elected to the U.S. Congress.

1948 - Congress passes Displaced Persons Act. Gives permanent resident status to 3,500 Chinese visitors, seamen, and students caught here because of Chinese civil war. California repeals law banning interracial marriage.

1945 – Wing Ong becomes the first Asian American elected to state office as a representative in Arizona.

October 30, 1944 – 100th/442nd Regimental Combat Team comprised of Japanese Americans and Japanese Hawaiians rescue Texas “lost battalion’ after five days of battle. Suffering 800 casualties, including 184 killed in action, to rescue 211 Texans in Vosges mountains in France. They became the most decorated unit in U.S. military history for its size and length of service and received nearly 18,000 awards.

February 19, 1942 - Executive Order 9066 authorizes the military to prescribe military zones from which persons may be excluded; 120,000 Japanese Americans, many of who were second and third generation American citizens, are incarcerated in ten concentration camps as a result.

December 7, 1941 - Japanese planes attack Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. United States enters World War II.

1941 - 2,000 Japanese community leaders along the Pacific Coast states and Hawaii are suddenly rounded up and interned in the Department of Justice camp.

1924 - Immigration Quota Act excludes all aliens ineligible for citizenship (all Asians except Hawaiians and Filipinos).
1908 – Asian Indians are driven out of Live Oak, California.

1907 - President Theodore Roosevelt enters into "Gentlemen's Agreement" with Japan to limit Japanese immigration to the mainland and Hawaii. It also includes a ban on further Korean immigration to the United States as laborers, thus opening up farming jobs in Hawaii for Filipinos. Korean immigration does not resume until the Immigration Act of 1965 is passed.

1905 - The Asiatic Exclusion League organizes in San Francisco to prevent the immigration of Asians.

1902 - Congress indefinitely extends the prohibition against Chinese immigration.

1898 - The Spanish-American War ends with the signing of the Treaty of Paris, giving Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines to the United States. Spain sells the Philippines to the United States for $20 million. Filipinos declared “wards” and need no visas to travel to the United States. Filipino wives of Spanish-American war veterans allowed to come as war brides.

1882 - The Chinese Exclusion Act bans immigration of Chinese laborers to the United States and prohibits Chinese from becoming naturalized citizens.

1848 - Arrival of a large number of Chinese laborers to the West Coast to work in the mining and agricultural railroad where many were indentured servants. California’s Foreign Minter’s Tax is passed and enforced mainly against Chinese miners who were forced to pay taxes repeatedly.

1763 - First recorded settlement of Filipinos in America.