Race Religion and Civil Rights: Asian Students on the West Coast 1900-1968 (Asian American Studies Today)

About this book

Histories of civil rights movements in America generally place little or no emphasis on the activism of Asian Americans. Yet as this fascinating new study reveals there is a long and distinctive legacy of civil rights activism among foreign and American-born Chinese Japanese and Filipino students who formed crucial alliances based on their shared religious affiliations and experiences of discrimination. Stephanie Hinnershitz tells the story of the Asian American campus organizations that flourished on the West Coast from the 1900s through the 1960s. Using their faith to point out the hypocrisy of fellow American Protestants who supported segregation and discriminatory practices the student activists in these groups also performed vital outreach to communities outside the university from Californian farms to Alaskan canneries. Highlighting the unique multiethnic composition of these groups Race Religion and Civil Rights explores how the students interethnic activism weathered a variety of challenges from the outbreak of war between Japan and China to the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. Drawing from a variety of archival sources to bring forth the authentic passionate voices of the students Race Religion and Civil Rights is a testament to the powerful ways they served to shape the social political and cultural direction of civil rights movements throughout the West Coast.