The Chinatown
branch of the Los Angeles Public Library opens.
1977
START OF ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH
June
1977
- Representative Frank Horton (R-NY) and Norman Y. Mineta (D-CA) introduced
Pacific/Asian Heritage Week (House Resolution 540) in the House of Representatives,
which called upon the President to proclaim the first ten days of May
as Pacific/Asian Heritage Week.
July
19, 1977 - Senators Daniel Inouye and Spark Matsunaga introduced SJ
Res 72 in the Senate, similar to legislation introduced by Frank
Horton and Norman Mineta in the House.
1978
JACL CALLS FOR REPARATIONS
National
convention of the Japanese American Citizens League adopts resolution
calling for redress and reparations for the internment
of Japanese Americans. Massive exodus of "boat people" from Vietnam.
1978
ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH IS OFFICIAL
July
10, 1978
- House Representatives passed legislation to proclaim an Asian/Pacific
American Heritage Week in May. The proclamation had to be obtained yearly
because the final Joint Resolution did not contain an annual designation.
Oct.
5, 1978 - President Jimmy Carter signed the Joint Resolution
CONSCIOUSNESS OF ASIAN AMERICANS RECOGNIZED BY THE UNITED STATES
This proclamation and legislation is the United States' official recognition that from their first days on these shores, Asian Americans fought against the discrimination they faced. Strikes, slowdowns, and legal actions were common. It is little known, for example, that Filipino farm workers actually initiated the famous grape boycott of the 1960s, which was then joined by Mexican workers and tremendously amplified under the leadership of Cesar Chavez. Most of these struggles were fought on a nationality or class basis.
It was not until the late 1960s that a common racial/panethnic identity took hold among Asian Americans. Several facts contributed to this delay: different Asian nationalities immigrated in different historical periods, they rarely lived or worked in the same geographical areas, most were immigrants until the 1960s, and their native languages were unintelligible to each other. Thus there was no amalgamation of the Asian nationalities as their had been, say, among the different African ethnicities under slavery (and that took many generations). Although Asians in the United States fell victim to the same racial laws and customs and
followed the same racialized patterns, the predominant consciousness remained ethnic/national, not panethnic or racial.
The development of Asian-American consciousness took place in the 1960s when, for the first time, the majority of Asians in this country were U.S. born. It was an explicitly political consciousness influenced by the Civil Rights and Black Power movements of that era. And it was cemented for many by the murderous racist dehumanization of Asians exhibited by the U.S. government, press, and armed forces during the Vietnam War.
To be Asian American was not a simple recognition that one had roots
in Asia; it meant to reject the passive racist stereotype embodied in the white-imposed term "Oriental" and to embrace an active stance against war and racism. The people of color movements of the 1960s led to the rejection of the term "Negro" in favor of "Black" or "Afro-American"; it produced the new concepts of "La Raza" and "Chicano"; and it gave rise to "Asian American."
Unbeknownst to many people, including many movement people, the
Asian-American movement of the late 1960s and 1970s was of mass proportions and dramatically transformed the political (and personal) consciousness and institutional infrastructure of the different Asian-American communities. In addition, influenced by the powerful Vietnamese, Chinese, and Korean communist parties of the time, many Asian-American activists turned to Marxism and became a major presence in the U.S
