EXHIBITS:

AIA Time Line
A brief outline of Asian American history.

Main Gallery
A growing collection of images documenting the life and history Asian Pacific America

Internment of Japanese Americans
Selected National Archives photos of the "evacuation" of Japanese Americans during World War II.

A Historical Timeline of Asians in America

12,000 BC - First Americans arrive from Asia
Archaeologists believe the first people to live in North America came from Asia at least 14,000 years ago when the two continents were connected by land bridges. Archeologival evidence suggests that they arrived during the end of the Pleistocene epoch, also known as the Ice Age. If true, then these people were the ancestors of Native Americans.
Source: http://www.museum.state.il.us/muslink/nat_amer/pre/htmls/paleo.html

450 AD - Buddhist from China reach America
Chinese records indicate that Buddhist priests traveled down the west coast from present day British Columbia to Baja California in 450 A.D. Spanish records show that there were Chinese ship builders in lower California between 1541 and 1746. When the first Anglo-Americans arrived in Los Angeles, they found Chinese shopkeepers.
Source: http://brownvboard.org/brwnqurt/01-3/01-3f.htm
See Also: http://www.geocities.com/EnchantedForest/Tower/1217/asia.html

1421 - Chinese Explore North America
In his book "1421: The Year China Discovered America," Gavin Menzies asserts that Chinese seafarers had explored and settled the West Coast of North America. His research is based on Archeological evidence and Chinese historical documents.
Source: 1421: The Year China Discovered America by Gavin Menzies (Harper Collins)

1587 - Filipinos arrive in California
The first Filipinos to set foot in North America arrive in Morro Bay, California on board the Manila-built galleon ship Nuestra Senora de Esperanza under the command of Spanish Captain Pedro de Unamuno. They were called the "Luzon Indios" or Luzon Indians.
Source: http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Towers/3131/usimmig.htm

1847 - Chinese Laborers Build Railroad
Between 1847 and 1874 in the United States, 9000 Chinese laborers, also known as "coolies," were used to construct the Transcontinental Railroad. Chinese laborers built the more difficult half of the railroad, which required dangerous blasting through the Sierra Nevadas and the Rockies while dangling by ropes in baskets. During this time, many Chinese laborers endured discrimination, persecution by mobs and were denied legal rights enjoyed by white Americans such as voting and purchasing land.
Source: goldsea.com/Parenting/Selfimage/selfimage3.html
See Also: http://cprr.org/Museum/Fusang.html

1848 - The Gold Rush
The discovery of gold in California attracted miners from diverse backgrounds, all with the goal of striking it rich. Among them were the Chinese who, drawn together by a common language, settled in camps scattered along the tributaries of the Yuba and Bear Rivers.
Source: http://www.historichwy49.com/ethnic/chinese.html

1861 - Asian Americans serve in the Civil War
It is a little known fact that several Chinese served in the Union and Confederate armies and navies during the Civil War. Even less well known is the fact that there were natives of other Asian countries who served during the war, mainly in the Union Army and Navy. Among them were Chinese, Filipinos, Asian Indias, Malays, Guamanians, and Indonesians.
Source: http://www.tfoenander.com/asians.html

1871 - Los Angeles Chinese Massacre
On the evening of October 24, several white constables entered Chinatown to break up an argument between members of the tongs. Whether by anger or accident, a white man ended up dead by gunshot wound. Shortly thereafter, a mob of 500 non-Asian Angelenos began hunting down and assaulting every Chinese they could find. After five hours, the mobs had killed 19 Chinese men and boys (only one of the victims might have been implicated in the death of the white man). Chinese homes and businesses had also been looted. Eleven white men including Sheriff James Burns and prominent Angeleno Robert Widney had attempted to stop the mobs but were themselves overwhelmed. The mob even shot and killed one of the white men who was trying to protect the Chinese. The incident drew national attention and provoked a grand jury investigation. Seven men were held responsible and convicted for the riots, but only one actually served any jail time.
Source: http://www.losangelesalmanac.com/topics/History/hi06d.htm

1882 - Chinese Exclusion Act
Ever since the "Gold Rush" days of the 1860s, racial tensions had been increasing as more and more Chinese emigrated, occupied jobs, and created competition on the job market. Legislation, including immigration taxes, and laundry-operation fees, was passed in order to limit the success of the Chinese workers. During the financially unstable 1870's, the Chinese became an ideal scapegoat as cartoons and other propaganda reinforced the view that the Chinese "worked cheap and smelled bad." By 1882 the Chinese were hated enough to be banned from immigrating; the Chinese Exclusion Act, initially only a ten year policy, was extended indefinitely, and made permanent in 1902. This created enclaves of "bachelor" societies, as thousands of Chinese were unable to send for families or wives. The Act wasn't repealed until 1943, when China was an important ally of the United States against Japan during World War II Source: http://sun.menloschool.org/~mbrody/ushistory/angel/exclusion_act

1885 - Chinese Massacre in Rock Springs, Wyoming
After Chinese workers refuse to participate in a strike for higher wages planned by Euro-American miners, a mob of white coal miners violently attacked their Chinese co-workers on September 2, 1885. Twenty-eight Chinese were killed and fifteen wounded, some of whom later died. The homes of seventy-nine Chinese people were set ablaze and the bodies of many of the dead and wounded thrown into the flames. Hundreds of Chinese workers fled into the surrounding desert. A week later, federal troops escorted Chinese laborers back to the mines. After restoring order, federal troops remained at Rock Springs until 1898. Although the federal government refused responsibility for actions in a territory, President Grover Cleveland requested a compliant Congress to indemnify the Chinese for $150,000.
Source: http://www.losangelesalmanac.com/topics/History/hi06d.htm
See Also: http://immigrants.harpweek.com/ChineseAmericans/Items/Item088L.htm

1893 - United States Annexes Hawaii
In the soverign state of Hawaii, protests for voting rights by the native Hawaiian people spur white plantation owners to secretly plan to overthrow the monarchy and set up a provisional government. They then put forth a bid for US annexation of the islands. Queen Lilioukalani stepped down under protest with the belief that the United States would not enforce the annexation. Representatives from the provisional government and Queen Lilioukalani went to Washington to plead their respective cases. US President Grover Cleveland did not immediately ratify the annexation since his investigations indicated that the majority of Hawaiians had not favored the move, and that American plantation owners had incited the revolt in order to further their own business interests. The annexationists nonetheless succeeded in establishing a provisional government, despite President Cleveland's subsequent attempts to restore Queen Lilioukalani. In 1898, the US Congress approved official annexation of Hawaii despite protests of Native Hawaiians. The islands were made a US territory in 1900. Source: http://www.letsgo.com/HAW/02-LifeTimes-20

1895 - Filipinos Settle in Lousiana
Filipino sailors from Spanish Galleons in the Gulf of Mexico jump ship and settle in a little community near New Orleans. Rich with the tradition of the Philippines, they started a small Filipino fishing village. They found the bayous of Louisiana similar to those in their original island homes. Using their fishing knowledge from the Philippines, they created what eventually became one of the largest, oldest, and most popular shrimping villages in Barataria Bay, Manila Village.
Source:http://members.tripod.com/philipppines/reggie/manilav.html

1899 - US gains Philippines and Guam in Spanish-American War
After a 7-hour battle in Manila Bay, the US Navy destroys the Spanish fleet thus winning the Spanish-American War. In the Treaty of Paris, the Philippine islands, the islands of Guam and Puerto Rico are made into U.S. territories. Filipinos fighting for independence from Spain turn their attention on the American occupation and declare war on the United States.
Source:http://www.smplanet.com/imperialism/splendid.html

1907 - "Gentlemen's Agreement" stems immigration from Japan
A treaty with Japan in 1894 had assured free immigration, but as the number of Japanese workers in California increased, they were met with growing hostility and discriminatory laws were being passed against people of Asian descent. In order to preserve good relations with Japan (An ally against Russia), President Theodore Roosevelt agreed to rescind segregation laws against the Japanese. In return and to prevent the humiliation of more discrimnation against their people, Japan would officially deny passports to laborers wishing to enter the United States. A final Japanese note dated February 18, 1908, made the Gentlemen's Agreement fully effective. The agreement was superseded by the exclusionary Immigration Act of 1924.
Source:http://college.hmco.com/history/readerscomp/ rcah/html/ah_035600_gentlemensag.htm
See Also: http://mcel.pacificu.edu/as/students/lwash/prejudice.html

1934 - Tydings-McDuffie Act curtails Philippine immigration
Hostility towards Filipino laborers, the depression, and pacifist calls to withdraw from Asia in the face of Japanese expansion spurs the US government to accelerate Philippine independence and stem Filipino immigration. After the Philippine legislature's rejection of the more lop-sided Hare-Hawes-Cutting Independence Bill in 1933, President Herbert Hoover pushed for the passage of the the Tydings-McDuffie Act. This provided for a ten-year transition period to independence, during which the Commonwealth of the Philippines would be established. The arrangement was a highly unequal one, as only fifty Filipino immigrants were allowed into the United States annually while American entry and residence in the islands were unrestricted. Trade provisions of the act allowed for five years' free entry of Philippine goods during the transition period and five years of gradually steepening tariff duties whereas United States goods could enter the islands unrestricted and duty free during the full ten years. Quezon had managed to obtain more favorable terms on bases; the United States would retain only a naval reservation and fueling stations.
Source: http://www.los-indios-bravos.com/english/eng_hist_21.html

1942 - Japanese Americans are interened during WWII
After the attack on Pearl Harbor by Japanese forces, distrust of all Japense Americans leads to President Roosevelt's signing of Executive Order 9066. Over 120,000 people, including children and the elderly, are ordered to leave their homes in California and parts of Washington, Oregon and Arizona and are interned in makeshift detention camps across the Midwest. They were only allowed to take few belongings and many lost everything they owned except what they could carry. These camps were surrounded with barbed wire fences and armed guards. Japanese Americans were detained until 1945 after the Supreme Court ruled the Internments to be unconstitutional. See the AIA Exhibit.
Source:http://members.tripod.com/philipppines/reggie/manilav.html

1942 - Military commissions Chinese American fighter pilot
Despite being told that he would be barred from joining the military, Frank Fong joined the U.S. armed forces as a fighter pilot and shot down two German Focke-Wolf 190 fighters in his P-47 Thunderbolt, provided air cover during the D-Day invasion of Normandy and rescued more than 1,000 pilots between January and May 1945.
Source:http://us_asians.tripod.com/timeline-1940.html

1946 - Citizenship priveleges extended to Filipinos and Indians
After years of lobbying from the Filipino and Indian American community, President Harry S. Truman and both houses of congress pass the Luce-Cellar act allowing Filipinos and Asian Indians to become United States Citizens but imposes a quota of 100 incoming immigrants from each country.
Source: http://www.iacfpa.org/census2k/iaimmig.htm

1957 - First Asian elected to Congress
Dalip Singh Saund, an immigrant from India's Punjab region is elected congressman of California's 29th District making him the first Asian to serve in the United States congress.
Source: Dalip Singh Saund:The Unsung Hero of Asian American Politics (AIA)

1968 - Third World Strike sparks Asian American movement
Inspired by the Civil Rights movement and Oakland's Black Panther Party, Students of color at San Francisco State University formed the Third World Liberation Front (TWLF) and on November 6, staged an unprecedented 5-month strike to protest the school's Eurocentric curriculum and demanded the creation of an Ethnic Studies department. The strike gained fame through the publicizing of the violent, brutal clashes between students and police and has been noted as the catalyst for several landmark events in the Asian American movement. The notion of a pan-Asian identity was spawned, uniting the people of Chinese, Japanese, Pilipino, and other heritages under a single indentity and the formation of the first Asian American Political Alliance. Eventually, students made similar demands for Ethnic Studies at UC Berkeley and other campuses across the nation.
Source:http://www.hardboiled.org/2-2/strike.html

1975 - Vietnam War brings thousands from Southeast Asia
The Vietnam War forces thousands of refugees to flee Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Despite strong public opinion against a large influx of new immigrants, President Gerald Ford and Congress passed the 1975 Indochina Migration and Refugee Act, which allowed the refugees to enter the United States under a special migration status. In order to avoid the formation of ethnic enclaves and to lessen the impact of large numbers of refugees in one geographic area, the government initially dispersed the refugees all over the country. Many church groups, corporations, and individuals became sponsors for refugee families, providing housing, food, and clothing until these families were able to live independently. Within a few years, however, a significant amount of secondary migration occurred, mainly to California and Texas, the two states that now have the largest Southeast Asian populations.
Source:http://www.lib.uci.edu/libraries/collections/sea/seaexhibit/resettle.html

1978 - Establishment of Asian Pacific American Heritage Week
In June 1977, Representatives Frank Horton of New York and Norman Y. Mineta of California introduced a House resolution that called upon the president to proclaim the first ten days of May as Asian/Pacific Heritage Week. The following month, senators Daniel Inouye and Spark Matsunaga introduced a similar bill in the Senate. Both were passed. On October 5, 1978, President Jimmy Carter signed a Joint Resolution designating the annual celebration. In May 1990, the holiday was expanded further when President George H. W. Bush designated May to be Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.
Source:http://www.infoplease.com/spot/asianintro1.html

1982 - Vincent Chin murdered
In Michigan, two laid-off autoworkers beat to death Chinese American Vincent Chin with a baseball bat, mistaking him for Japanese. Ronald Ebens and Michael Nitz pleaded guilty to manslaughter and were sentenced to three years probation and each fined $3,000. Outraged, Asians Americans across the country mobilized en masse for the first time since the civil rights movement. The two were tried in federal court for violating Chin's civil rights and found guilty, but the decision was overturned on appeal. To this day, Ebens and Nitz have not served a day in prison
Source:Asian Americans: An Interpretive History by Sucheng Chan and Who Killed Vincent Chin? by Ronald Takaki and A Look Beyond the Model Minority Image. Edited by Grace Yun.