It has become required viewing in Asian American Studies and Ethnic Studies classes nationwide: “Who Killed Vincent Chin,” a documentary produced by Renee Tajima and Christine Choi, chronicles the June 19, 1982 Detroit hate crime that took the life of a young man a day before his wedding and left a community reeling from the leniency afforded to the murderers.

For those who have not seen this film yet, a very brief synopsis of this chapter in Asian American history follows:

On June 19, 1982, Vincent Chin and his friends were at his bachelor party in Detroit, when they got into an argument with two white autoworkers, Ronald Ebens and Michael Nitz. The two stated, “It’s because of you little motherfuckers that we’re out of work!” Ebens and Nitz later followed Chin to a McDonald's parking lot. They beat Chin with a baseball bat, cracking his skull. Chin died a few days later, the day before his wedding. Ebens and Nitz did not even spend a night in jail, instead getting three years of probation and a $3000.00 fine, because Judge Charles Kaufman thought they were otherwise upstanding citizens. Interestingly enough, Judge Kaufman, who died in 2004, had been a navigator for the Army Air Force in World War II; after 27 missions, his plane was shot down and he was held by the Japanese as a prisoner of war. Perhaps his experience in Japan led him to view Asians, as well as Asian Americans, as the enemy.

Later federal civil-rights cases brought against the two defendants were appealed, and the juries acquitted each of them. A civil lawsuit was filed against Ronald Ebens and resulted in a $1.5 million judgment for Chin’s estate, but Ebens disposed of his assets and went into hiding. The astounding blows dealt by the legal system galvanized community organizing and political action among Asian Americans back in the days when there were few Asian American organizations, no internet portals such as ModelMinority.com, and few Asian Americans in public offices, much less the judiciary. Lily Chin, Vincent’s grief-stricken mother, moved back to China, returning only in 2001 shortly before her death.

Twenty five years after Vincent Chin’s murder, this June and July, Asian Americans across the United States have taken part in remembering the murder of Vincent Chin and the lessons learned. Curtis Chin of Asian Americans for Progress spearheaded the effort to organize nationwide town halls to show the documentary “Who Killed Vincent Chin?” and discuss the issue of hate crimes. Though he is not related to Vincent Chin, Curtis Chin and his family also lived in Detroit in the early eighties and knew Vincent Chin’s family.

“It was a very small Chinese community in Detroit. Our family had one of the oldest restaurants that was literally at the center of Chinatown,” recalls Chin, who now lives in the Los Angeles area.

Though he does not personally have memories of Vincent Chin because he was much younger than Vincent, Curtis Chin says, “But I do remember hearing that he had been beaten up and that he was in the hospital. I also specifically remember seeing the wedding invitation on our kitchen counter and thinking, I guess we can throw this away. In the background, you'll see my dad in ‘Who Killed Vincent Chin.’”

On June 19, 2007, community members in Detroit organized a five-hour-long session covering hate crime legislative updates, discussion about the Vincent Chin case trials, and coalition building. In attendance were Khin Aung from the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (based in New York), Michael Lin of the Organization of Chinese Americans, and Vincent Eng of the Asian American Justice Center in Washington, D.C.

After the discussion, there was a memorial service at Vincent Chin’s grave at Forest Lawn cemetery. Reverend Daniel Shen of the Chinese Alliance Church presided. Amy Lee, Vincent Chin's aunt and the younger sister of Lily Chin, was also present for the eulogies and poetry readings.

Frank Wu, Dean of Wayne State University law school, gave a dynamic speech extemporaneously. Remarking on the Vincent Chin case, he stated, "It brought together Asian Americans as Asian Americans and forged a movement. It made this group of people who had very little in common realize that even if their ancestors hated each other, they had a common cause in America. That's why this case still matters."

Professor Teresa Mah of the University of Chicago, said she “thought the Detroit event was well worth driving from Chicago to attend. The service at the cemetery was especially moving.... Frank Wu was terrific, and it was great to see such a broad array of people in the audience.”

Prof. Mah was also an organizer of a similar event in Chicago. Panelists at the Chicago event were Diana Lin and Myron Quon from the Asian American Institute, Bill Yoshino from the Japanese American Citizens League, and Rima Kapitan from the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Of that event, she was “very happy with the turnout, the quality of the panel, and the engagement by the audience. There were quite a few young people in the audience, which was great, and it was a valuable opportunity to build partnering relationships with our cosponsors.”

The commemorative event organized in Los Angeles on June 24, 2007 drew about 100 people. Opening remarks were given by Assemblyman Mike Eng, State Board of Equalization Vice Chair Judy Chu, and Lilian Ileto, the mother of Joseph Ileto, a Filipino American postal worker gunned down in 1999 by a white supremacist on a shooting rampage.

Panelists included: Vivien Hao of Asian Pacific Americans for Progress, Shazia Kamal of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, Hamid Khan of South Asian Network, Stewart Kwoh of APA Legal Center, Renee Tajima-Pena, filmmaker, professor, and co-director of “Who Killed Vincent Chin?”, and Robin Toma of the LA County Human Relations Commission.

Washington, D.C. activists held their event on Saturday, June 23rd 2007 at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library in Chinatown. First, the audience viewed “Who Killed Vincent Chin” and had a facilitated discussion about how the Vincent Chin tragedy, despite how far we have come in the civil rights movement, is still salient in the APA community today in light of 9/11 and the Virginia Tech shooting tragedy. Professor Larry Shinagawa of the University of Maryland Asian American Studies Program was the featured speaker.

That same day, Boston also held its commemorative event and town hall at the New Star Community Art School. One prominent guest speaker was Grace Lee, a co-founder of Massachusett’s Asian American Commission and former Chief of Civil Rights in the Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office. Leveret Wing, the new Executive Director of the Asian American Commission, also spoke at the event. Organizers also gave a report on the “Quincy Four” case, where four Asian Americans– Chinese Progressive Association organizer Karen Chen, Quon Mah Thin, Tat M. Yuen, and Howard Ng – were assaulted and pepper sprayed by the Quincy police after they left an engagement party on April 30, 2006. The event was sponsored by the Asian American Resource Workshop, Chinatown Resident Association, and Chinese Progressive Association.

Portland, Oregon will hold its town hall event on Saturday, July 7th from 3:00 pm - 6:00 pm at the OHS Doernbecher Children’s Hospital, 11th Floor Auditorium. Organized by Byron Wong, the session will have as panelists Ms. Tracey Lam (Producer, KATU News), Mr. John Kodachi, JD (Lawyer; President of Japanese American Citizens League), Dr. Patti Sakurai, PhD (Professor of Ethnic Studies, Oregon State University ), and Mr. William Chin, J.D., M.S. (Professor of Legal Analysis and Writing, Lewis and Clark Law School). Sponsors of the Portland event are the Korean American Citizens League, Japanese American Citizens League, KBOO Radio, APA Compass, and the Oregon Minority Lawyers Association.

Last, but not least, on July 14, 2007, Durham, North Carolina will be the site of the final event this year commemorating the death of Vincent Chin. North Carolina unfortunately has also been the site of some hate crimes against Asian Americans: in 1989, Jim Ming-hai Loo was murdered at a Raleigh bar by Lloyd and Robert Piche, and in 2002, Lily Wang was shot and killed by a fellow N.C. State graduate student, a white male Asiaphile who thereafter committed suicide. The event, co-sponsored by the National Association of Asian American Professionals-North Carolina and the North Carolina Asian Pacific American Bar Association, will feature a showing of the Vincent Chin documentary, followed by a discussion on hate crimes and a trek to a sushi restaurant nearby.

When Curtis Chin is asked what motivated him to initiate this nationwide commemoration of the Vincent Chin hate crime, he replies, “Well, it was a personal issue with me, but I also felt that APA community has very few figures like Vincent and we need to remember him the same way that the gay and lesbian community remembers Matthew Shepard or the African American community remembers the four little girls in Selma, Alabama.”