Asian American Trailblazers in Civil Rights

Lesson guide and reference materials based on a inperson Techasers workshop about Asian American Civil Rights trailblazers that impacted the civil rights landscape in the United States.

Original Post Date: April 7, 2023

Questions: contact@1990institute.org

What is on this page

• Video Overview and Recording

• Resources

  • Lesson Guide for Grade 6 -12 Teachers

  • Materials for further leaning

  • Watch List

• Speakers Information

Overview & Recording with Time Codes

By 2025, a majority of states will have requirements in place for ethnic studies and/or Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) studies to be taught in schools. This in-person Teachers Workshop highlighted Asian American pioneers and the pivotal court cases that changed the landscape of U.S. civil rights, including the U.S. Supreme Court decision in United States v. Wong Kim Ark (1898) that established the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship for all. The 125th anniversary of this landmark case was on March 28, 2023.

This workshop reviewed seven often overlooked landmark cases that established rights for birthright citizenship, public education, equal protection under the law, the Miranda Act, political asylum, civil disobedience, and bilingual education.

This event featured prominent Asian American studies luminaries who fought to include ethnic studies and AAPI studies in our schools along with a steward of Chinese American history. Standing on their shoulders, young advocates who are helping their communities learn more about Asian Americans joined us to share their experiences.

https://youtu.be/CsDWd4NyFr4?si=aCVcoUGBRz24ilV-

0:00 Intro - Sandra Pan, Susana Liu-Hedberg - 1990 Institute  

3:29 Liana Szeto - Alice Fong Yu Alternative School 

8:45 David Lei - Chinese Americans in Civil Right 

19:01 Susana Liu-Hedberg - 1990 Institute resources and video shorts 

22:06 Jaslene Lai and Ethan Su, AAPI Youth Rising 

24:43 Advocate to Advocate: Conversation between Drs. Laureen Chew and Russell Jeung

Resources

Lesson Guide

• Episode 1, Lesson 4: The Fight For School Desegregation by Asian Americans, lesson plan (grades 7-12), Asian Americans Advancing Justice 

• Episode 4, Lesson 3: The Fight for Ethnic Studies,  lesson plan (grades 7-12), Asian Americans Advancing Justice

• I Want to Go to School: The Case of Tape v. Hurley, 2014, Chinese Historical Society

• Equal Justice Under Law, lesson plan (grades 5-8, 9-12), by Linda Weber, Annenberg Classroom

• Refugees / Asylum, lesson plan, Immigration History

• Constitutional Law Lesson Plan: Do I Have a Right? Game, lesson plan (grades 5-12), BrainPOP

• Teaching about Miranda Rights in Social Studies Classrooms, lesson plans, by David Childs, May 11, 2019, Democracy & Me 

• Our History and Our Future, lesson plan (grades 5-12), The Asian American Education Project

• Civil Rights Lesson Plan, study.com

• Lesson Plans/Resources on the Chinese Exclusion Acts, National Council for the Social Studies

• Untold Civil Rights Stories, lesson plans on Asian American civil rights issues for grades K-12, Asian Americans Advancing Justice Los Angeles and UCLA Asian American Studies Center

• Teacher’s Toolkit | Call It What It Is – Racism Against Asian Americans, 2021, The 1990 Institute

• Lesson Plan: Landmark Supreme Court Case: Yick Wo v. Hopkins (1886), March 16, 2018, C-SPAN

• Citizenship, Immigration History

• Racial Identity and American Citizenship in the Court, lesson plan (grades 5-12), Asian American Education Project

• Teaching Chinese Immigration in the 19th Century, lesson plans and resources, (grades 5-12) The Immigrant Learning Center

Reference Materials

Right to Public Education - Tape v. Hurley (1885) 

• The Fight Against School Segregation | Asian Americans, PBS LearningMedia

• Tape v. Hurley, Casetext

Equal Protection Under the Law - Yick Wo v. Hopkins (1886)

• Equal Justice Under Law: Yick Wo v. Hopkins, Annenberg Classroom

• Yick Wo v. Hopkins, Casetext

Civil Disobedience - Fong Yue Ting v. United States (1893)

• Fong Yue Ting v. United States (1893), Immigration History

• Chinese Immigration, Exclusion and the Chinese-American Experience, by Deborah Samuel, Yale National Initiative

• U.S. Immigration Policy: Contract or Human Rights Law?, by Victor C. Romero, 2008, Nova Law Review

• A World Without Fong Yue Ting: Envisioning an Alternative Reality if the Dissenters Prevailed, by Chris Westfall, 2018, Georgetown Immigration Law Journal

Birthright Citizenship - United States v. Wong Kim Ark (1898)

• United States v Wong Kim Ark - Immigration history

• United States v. Wong Kim Ark, Casetext

• United States v. Wong Kim Ark (1898), National Constitution Center

• 14.4 Primary Source: United States v Wong Kim Art (1898), National Constitution Center

• Have your students heard of Wong Kim Ark?, by Adam Strom, Re-Imagining Migration

• Who was Wong Kim Ark? How a son of immigrants helped define who is a U.S. citizen, by Leslie Berestein Rojas, January 19, 2011, Multi-American

• Wong Kim Ark’s Legacy: why we must keep fighting for our courts, by Mariah Lindsay and Jane Liu, March 14, 2019, Alliance for Justice

• Reconstructing Citizenship, National Museum of African American History and Culture

• Defining Citizenship, National Museum of American HistoryWong Kim Ark, Stanford Libraries

Political Asylum - Public Law 29

• “Will Let 300 Stay”: Framing Exceptance within the Context of Pershing’s Chinese and Public Law 29, by Anthony Irizarry, Penn State

• Who were the Pershing Chinese?, Chinese American Heroes

• Chinese, by Edward J. M. Rhoads, updated September 5, 2022, Texas State Historical Association

• Asylum in the Midst of Chinese Exclusion: Pershing’s Punitive Expedition and the Columbus Refugees from Mexico, 1916–1921, by Andrew Urban, April 27, 2011, Journal of Policy History

Miranda Act - Ziang Sung Wan v. United States (1924)

• The Triple Homicide in D.C. That Laid the Groundwork for Americans’ Right to Remain Silent, by Scott D. Seligman and Zócalo Public Square, April 30, 2018, Smithsonian Magazine

• The Third Degree, by Scott D. Seligman

• Wan v. United States, Casetext

• A precursor of Miranda v. Arizona, by Paul Mark Sandler, July 13, 2021, The Daily Record

Bilingual Education - Lau v. Nichols (1974)

• Developing Programs for English Language Learners: Lau v. Nichols, U.S. Department of Education

• How U.S. Schools Are Failing Immigrant Children, by Brentin Mock, July 1, 2015, CityLab

• Languages, Law, and San Francisco, by Charlie Euchner, January 25, 1984, Education Week

• Examining the Impact of Lau v. Nichols, by Mary Ann Zehr, November 01, 2007, Education Week

Third World Liberation Front

• Remembering the Strike, SF State Magazine

• The student strike that changed higher Ed forever, Code Switch, 2019 NPR

Recommendations

Podcasts

• Birth: Birthright Citizenship, Civics 101: A Podcast

• Ziang Sung Wan vs The United States, June 13, 2022, Asian American History 101

Videos

• United States v. Wong Kim Ark | The Chinese Exclusion Act, 2018, American Experience | PBS

• Wong Kim Ark’s Fight for Birthright Citizenship || Our Composite Nation, 2022, New York Historical Society

• Exclusion: The Shared Asian American History, 2023, The 1990 Institute

• Education is Solidarity: The Third World Liberation Front, 2021, See Us Unite

• Asian American Legal Cases that Shaped Civil Rights for All, presented by John Trasviña, 2022, The 1990 Institute  

• The fight for birthright citizenship in America, 2018, Washington Post

• Yick Wo and the Equal Protection Clause, 2018, Annenberg Classroom

• AAPI Civil Rights Heroes Mamie Tape, 2019, Advancing Justice - Asian Law Caucus

• Fong Yue Ting v. United States Case Brief Summary | Law Case Explained, 2021, Quimbee

• Wong Sun v. United States Case Brief Summary | Law Case Explained, 2020, Quimbee

• SFUSD Bilingual Education Lau vs Nichols SFGTV San Francisco, 2007, Rich Bartlebaugh

• Scott Seligman: The Third Degree, National Committee on United States-China Relations

• Redefine American | Asian Americans, PBS LearningMedia

• Mitchel Wong talks family history with Pershing's army, Chinese Exclusion Act, 2021, KVUE

Books

• 100 Americans Making Constitutional History: A Biographical History, edited by Melvin I. Urofsky, 2004, CQ Press: This book presents the key people behind landmark U.S. Supreme Court decisions including Fong Yue Ting and Yick Wo. 

• The Third Degree, by Scott D. Seligman, 2018, University of Nebraska Press

• I am an American: The Wong Kim Ark Story, by Marcha Brockenbrough, Grace Lin, and Julia Kuo, 2021, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

• Asian Texans: Our Histories and Our Lives, by Irwin A. Tang, 2008, The It Works

Speakers Info

Liana Szeto: Founding principal of Alice Fong Yu Alternative School in San Francisco

Laureen Chew, Ed.D.: Activist, retired professor of Asian American Studies at San Francisco State University, Elementary Education Department Chair, 2001-06; Former Associate Dean, College of Ethnic Studies, 2006-12 

Russell Jeung: Professor of Asian American Studies at San Francisco State University and a Co-Founder of Stop AAPI Hate

David Lei: Community advocate, Center for Asian American Media (CAAM) board member

Jaslene Lai and Ethan Su: Founding Board Member and Middle School Director, respectively, at AAPI Youth Rising, a student-led organization whose mission is to take small actions to make positive change in their communities.