Untold Civil Rights Stories - First & New Book on Asian American Struggles

Xinhua News - The newly published textbook spotlights the often-unsung role of Asian Americans in U.S. civil rights history, one of the authors says. 

"Untold Civil Rights Stories: Asian Americans Speak Out for Justice," published Wednesday, was a joint effort of the Asian Pacific American Legal Center and the Asian American Studies Center at the University of California, Los Angeles. 

The textbook is the first that focuses on the role of Asian Americans in the civil rights and social justice struggles, before and after 9-11.

Profiled in the book, among others, are Philip Vera Cruz, Lily Chin, the Ileto family, Beulah Kwoh, K.W. Lee, Fred Korematsu, Faustino Baclig, and Amric Singh Rathour. 

The textbook was edited by Stewart Kwoh, APALC's president and executive director, and Russell C. Leong, an Asian American studies professor at UCLA. 

Kwoh, a fourth generation Chinese American, told Xinhua that his mother told him that Asian Americans seemed to be either invisible or negatively portrayed in American movies and television and that for many years, the mainstream media neglected Asians' role in U.S. history. 

During the past 26 years as president of the nonprofit Asian Pacific American Legal Center, Kwoh has helped hundreds of Asian Americans fight for their civil rights and was touched by many of their stories. 

"It is a book about Asian American heroes whose stories were not often told. Those people face major challenges in life," Kwoh said. "They lost their loves because of the hate crimes. They were exploited in the work or even treated as slaves. They were excluded from the public place in terms of media coverage." 

He said they face discrimination because of their race or religion. 

"They face different kinds of challenges. Their rights were taken away because they looked like the enemy, yet those people did not see themselves as mainly victims. They saw themselves as people who spoke out for justice," he said. 

Kwoh said he once talked with his son about what he learned about Asian Americans at school and discovered that very little was taught. That, Kwoh said, means the roles of Asian Americans in U.S. history have been neglected even at the schools. 

Many American students, Kwoh said, are not taught the history of hate crimes against Asian Americans, the crossing of racial boundaries in Hollywood, or Asian Americans' fight for constitutional rights during World War II. 

The textbook, with its included lesson plans and teacher resources, seeks to fill that void and do away with the "invisibility" of Asian Americans in U.S. history, Kwoh said. 

"As I was growing up, I watched Martin Luther King Jr, Cesar Chavez, and Nelson Mandela fight for social justice by confronting and challenging the inequalities that affected their communities," said Kwoh. 

He said those courageous public figures of different ethnic and racial backgrounds helped him to see the injustices happening everyday to those closest to him in his own community.

One of his first and most vivid realizations of this occurred when he was a middle school student. His church pastor, who was white, was nearly killed during a peaceful demonstration in Alabama in the 1960s. The demonstration was in response to the brutal murders of four African American girls in a church bombing by white supremacists. 

"It was a result of such experiences that I began to develop a consciousness of how all individuals could be affected by racism and discrimination," he said. 

Reviews

"Untold Civil Rights Stories is a social milestone that recognizes the unsung contributions of Asian Americans to America’s Civil Rights Movement. It shows mothers, daughters, sons and fathers - ordinary Americans - organizing around workplace, racial profiling and other issues that have affected all of us before and after 9/11. It has a broad multicultural experience and is solidly grounded in U.S. history. A must-read and a must-have for educators and students alike."

- Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa, city of Los Angeles

"Untold Civil Rights Stories is an important contribution to a broader understanding of the contemporary struggle for democratic rights. It is essential reading in order to appreciate the contributions of Americans of Asian and Pacific Islander heritage to the fight to secure civil rights, union representation, social justice and the American Dream."

- Supervisor Mark Ridley Thomas, Los Angeles County

This book can be purchased for US 20.00 at UCLA AASC. for more information please follow the link or contact the AASC Press at 310-825-2968 (aascpress@aasc.ucla.edu)
UNTOLD CIVIL RIGHT STORIES is the first educational textbook directed to U.S. high school students, high school teachers, and communities and the role of Asian Americans in today's Civil Rights and social justice struggles, before and after 9/ll. Profiled in the book are Philip Vera Cruz, Lily Chin, the Ileto family, Beulah Kwoh, K.W. Lee, Fred Korematsu, Faustino Baclig, Amric Singh Rathour, and many others. Stories is also useful for college and adult education classes.

Contributors: May Lee Heye, Bill Ong Hing, Stewart Kwoh, Irene Lee, Dale Minami, Karen Narasaki, Angela Oh, Mary Ellen Kwoh Shu, Cas Tolentino, Kent Wong, Eric Yamamoto, Helen Zia. A collaborative publication of the UCLA Asian American Studies Center and the Asian Pacific American Legal Center.