Preserving Asian American History

From the birth of the Asian American Movement to the death of Vincent Chin. From Norm Mineta’s groundbreaking appointment to the U.S. Cabinet to Linsanity. From the embers of the L.A. riots in Koreatown to post-9/11 racism. These people, moments and events are not only notable chapters in the Asian and Pacific Islander American narrative—they are precious pieces of American history. They are the community leaders and stories across entertainment, business, education and public service that helped shape the America of today.
Beginnings of the Asian American movement in Berkeley, California, May 1968. Source: V. Wong, AAPA Archive, via Berkeley Historical Plaque Project
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And AsianWeek has been there through it all, leading the way as the newspaper of record for APIs since 1979. As the “Voice of Asian America,” AsianWeek was the go-to news source and media outlet for local and national Asian American community content. It spotlighted API leaders—their triumphs, their struggles, their passions—in an effort to celebrate the beauty and diversity of this complex yet ever-changing community.

Fred Korematsu, Minoru Yasui, and Gordon Hirabayashi at a press conference about the Asian American Civil Rights Movement, via Bettman Archive / Getty Images
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You can help us preserve the history of Asians in America with theAsianWeek Database Project .
Roof Koreans, 1992 L.A. riots, via Wikimedia
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The AsianWeek Database Project  will digitize all past AsianWeek news stories and photos and make them free, easily and publicly accessible to the general public. The database will utilize the latest technology to be user-friendly with both original pages and full story text. It will feature simple search and display functions so that anyone can readily and easily access AsianWeek’s trove of information—to research, to reference or to simply remember these significant times in Asian America.

Courtesy of Corky Lee

With a population of nearly 23 million—the API community has become the fastest growing and fastest developing segment in the country. This growth has provided APIs with tremendous political and economic power. And with the growing racial inequity in today’s society, we need to make sure APIs can carve out our community’s place and articulate our community’s narrative into that discussion.

You can support our conservation of important API history—so that it may live on as we move into the future. Please consider making a donation today, and ask your friends and family to join us, too!
For more information, please visit www.AsianWeek.com

Jeremy Lin was the first Chinese American to play in the NBA. During the 2011–12 season, he generated a cultural phenomenon known as "Linsanity". Jeyhoun Allebaugh / NBAE, via Getty Images

For more information, please visit www.AsianWeek.com