DID YOU KNOW

The estimated number of people of Chinese descent in the United States is 5.5 million. The Chinese population was the largest Asian group, followed by Asian Indian (4.9 million), Filipino (4.5 million), Vietnamese (2.3 million), Korean (2.1 million) and Japanese (1.6 million). The estimated number of Native Hawaiian residents of the United States in 2022 is 1.8 million. The Native Hawaiian population was the largest detailed Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander (NHPI) group, followed by Samoan (264,392) and Chamorro (152,006).  

MOMENT IN TIME

The Third World Liberation Front (TWLF) rose in 1968 as a coalition of ethnic student groups on college campuses in California in response to the Eurocentric education and lack of diversity.  The TWLF was instrumental in creating and establishing ethnic studies and other identity studies as majors in their respective schools and universities across the United States.  The combined determination of Student groups like the  Intercollegiate Chinese for Social Action, the Native American Students Union, and the  Asian American Political Alliance galvanized California and the rest of the nation with the first student strike, bringing to light the need for wider perspective within educational disciplines. The establishment of the first College of Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State, the first Ethnic Studies Department at Berkeley, increased hiring of faculty of color, and efforts to increase minority representation on college campuses all resulted from the actions of the Third World Liberation Front.

TRAILBLAZER

Samuel (Sammy) Lee was an American physician and diver. He was the first Asian American man to win an Olympic gold medal for the United States in 1948, and the first man to win back-to-back gold medals in Olympic platform diving again in 1952.  Lee also served in the U.S. Army Medical Corps in South Korea from 1953 to 1955.  While serving his tour of duty in Korea, he won the James E. Sullivan Award in 1953, which is awarded annually by the Amateur Athletic Union to the most outstanding amateur athlete in the United States.  Lee was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1968, and was inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 1990

FOR A CAUSE

The National Council of Asian Pacific Americans (NCAPA), founded in 1996, is a coalition of 41 national Asian Pacific American organizations around the country. Based in Washington D.C., NCAPA serves to represent the interests of the greater Asian American and Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander communities and to provide a national voice for AA and NHPI issues.  Their Mission is to strive for equity and justice by organizing their diverse strengths to influence policy and shape public narratives.  Their vision is a world where Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders work together to shape their own future as part of the broader racial justice movement and advance their communities and country towards a common purpose of progress, prosperity and well-being for all.