Asian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month

Introduction

Photocredit: PBS
Dalip Singh Saund, 1st Asian elected to Congress (1957)

If you follow the blog, you know I'm avid supporter of Black History Month, but I love learning about other cultures as well. Ideally, we'd learn about all cultures equally but that definitely wasn't how classes worked when I was in school. Even if we did teach everyone's history equally, I think it's great to take a minute to acknowledge the struggles, triumphs, people, and traditions of all cultures. As such, I'm all about taking the time and opportunity to research learn about another culture.

It just so happens that May is Asian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Since I'm neither Asian nor Pacific Islander, there's a chance I may miss some crucial insights—I'll never be able to understand or tell their story the way they can. For my readers who are more knowledgable on the topic, feel free to interject, message me about guest blogging, supplement, etc. In the mean time, I'll do the best I can.

History of the Month

I thought I'd kick off the series on how the month actually began. The idea was initiated in 1977 as a week in May to celebrate Asian American culture, however it failed to get the backing it needed to become a national observance. That didn't deter senators from pushing for the recognition and in October 1978, President Jimmy Carter signed the week of recognition into public law. In 1992, Congress finally passed a law to expand the week to a full month.[1]

The month of May was chosen to commemorate the arrival of the first Japanese immigrants to the United States, which occurred on May 7, 1843, and the completion of the transcontinental railroad which was built mainly by Chinese immigrants and completed on May 10, 1869.[1]

If you want a head start, you can checkout out the national archives and exhibits (cited below)[3] or on PBS's website, which has several videos and articles in celebration of the month.[2]

References

1. "About Asian/Pacific Islander Heritage Month". Asian/Pacific Heritage Month; visited April 30, 2018
2. "Asian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month". PBS; visited April 30, 2018
3. "Selected Exhibits and Collections". Asian/Pacific Heritage Month; visited April 30, 2018
4. "Dalip Singh Saund". Wikipedia; visited May 2018