For Asian Americans living, working, and growing up in the margins in the United States during the 1960s and 70s, participating in social activism played an important role in advancing justice for them as citizens of the United States. Asian Americans worked in partnership with other ethnic and racial groups to overcome unfair treatment. Through the examples of the United Farm Workers Movement and the student strike at San Francisco State College, and at the Peace Rally after the L.A. Civil Unrest, students will learn how Asian Americans spoke out against injustice and stood up for the better treatment of all Americans.

Students will be able to:

For Asian Americans seeking justice against discrimination in the United States throughout the 1960s and 1970s, social activism was an important tool for change. Through strikes, protests, and rallies, Asian Americans built solidarity and coalitions across different racial and ethnic groups, demanded more fair treatment for themselves and others, and created stronger communities.

Larry Itliong was a Filipino American farm worker, activist, and labor organizer who started a grape strike in Delano, California in 1965. Filipino farm workers labored under backbreaking conditions for very little pay. The Filipino workers were mostly men, known as manongs, and were prevented from having families because of discriminatory laws that illegalized interracial marriage. The manongs wanted increased wages and better treatment but were ignored. Itliong recognized that it was important to work across racial differences in order to achieve a common goal. He partnered with Mexican American workers led by Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta, creating the United Farm Workers Union, and together, led a strike and national boycott that improved working conditions and pay for all farm workers.

Meanwhile, students at San Francisco State College, inspired by the Civil Rights Movement, built a coalition that spanned across racial groups called the Third World Liberation Front. United by a common purpose and goal, the students of color demanded that the college offer classes that reflected their own histories, taught by teachers and professors that also shared similar identities. Asian American students found solidarity with Black, Latino, and Native American students. They went on strike together and some even got arrested in an act of civil disobedience, just one of the many ways students made their demands heard. In the end, these students’ demands created ethnic studies departments and multicultural learning centers across campuses in California and, later the United States.

The accomplishments of the cross-race coalitions built in the 1960s and 1970s, however, were seemingly forgotten as violence and racial tensions erupted between members of the Black and Korean American communities during the 1992 L.A. civil unrest. One important reason for these tensions was that the newer Korean immigrants, who came to the U.S. after 1965, did not know and understand the history of Black people in America, like their long struggle for equal, civil rights. Escalating violence, feelings of resentment and fear, all rooted in racism and ignorance, led to devastating outcomes for members of both ethnic communities. A large peace rally was organized after the unrest subsided to promote hope and healing and to recognize the injustices that both communities felt. The rally was symbolic of people overcoming their differences for the promise of peace and a better tomorrow.

Remembering the joint efforts of activists in the 1960s and 1970s is a reminder of the justice, peace, and progress that is possible when people can set aside their differences and come together to take action. By lifting up the stories of how Asian Americans mobilized for social activism alongside others is a reminder not to be a bystander, but an ally and an accomplice working for greater justice for everyone.