The following selection of slides created from photographs taken in 1978 by longtime civil rights attorney and activist Rocky Chin offers a snapshot of the range of activism that Asian Americans led and engaged in during this tumultuous year. Inspired by earlier struggles for civil rights and the power of collective action, this generation of Asian American activists fought for the needs of low-income members of their communities, greater access to higher education, and peace and an end to violence and racism against Asians. Rocky, based primarily in New York, seemed to have traveled this year to photo document and likely participate in protests in Los Angeles, contributing to the cross-pollination of ideas and solidarity-building among activists across Asian American communities during this era.
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Asian American Activism, 1978
2017.013.012 A rally of Asian Americans for Peace in Los Angeles in 1978.
2017.013.021 This slide documents an anti-war demonstration protesting Nixon’s new Vietnamization policy, which promised to achieve a drastic reduction in American ground troops by vastly ramping up the training and arming of South Vietnamese troops. Protestors’ banners—“Nixon Out of S.E. Asia”, “Nixon’s Vietnamization is a Bomb!”, “Stop the Bombing of Asian People,” “Freedom for Asians Now,” and “End Racism”—drew attention to the fact that this withdrawal policy entailed continued war, militarization, and suffering for South East Asian peoples.
2017.013.008 Asian Americans’ position on affirmative action has become more complicated and divided today, however, Asian American students here expressed solidarity with other students of color opposing the 1978 Supreme Court ruling in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke. Although Bakke upheld the legality of considering race as one of several factors in determining admission, it prohibited colleges from continuing racial quotas which reserved a minimum number of slots for minority students. Significantly, Justice Lewis Powell’s deciding vote and opinion redefined race-based admission as appropriate and permissible for the purpose of diversity, shifting it away from its original intent as a means of redress for past injustice and discrimination.
2017.013.002 Here, the traditional Chinese Lion Dance was performed while holding a blue banner that read “SMASH BAKKE."
2017.013.010 This slide takes us back to a moment in time when members of the Asian American community in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles fought collectively for their housing needs and attempted to prevent corporate efforts to develop and take away their residential space. The large banner on the building reads “Hell No We Won’t Go!”
2017.013.001 This slide brings our attention to a newsstand on the street, where a passerby stands and reads an article titled “Little Tokyo Needs Housing!!”. The indistinct photograph printed in the news article captures Little Tokyo protestors holding homemade banners and is a reprint of Rocky’s photograph (the first featured image).