The incident touched a nerve, bringing long-simmering tensions between the Chinese community and police officers to the surface. After a minor traffic accident involving two motorists, one white and one Chinese, a large crowd gathered in front of the Fifth Precinct.Īs police dispersed the crowd, they confronted a young architectural engineer, Peter Yew, and dragged him inside the precinct, where he was stripped and badly beaten. On April 26, 1975, another major controversy erupted in Chinatown, enraging the community and once again bringing the issue of civil rights for Asians to the forefront. Large protest in Chinatown after the Peter Yew beating in 1975. There were more protests, too, against illegal sweatshops and deplorable conditions in local garment factories. The volunteers established an office in Chinatown, which quickly became a resource center for tenants facing harassment, those encountering immigration issues and workers being mistreated. It was a major victory for the community and immediately established Asian Americans for Equal Employment as an organization that people could rely on when they had nowhere else to turn. eventually relented, agreeing to hire 27 minority workers, Asians among them. “I remember the Asian community was afraid to speak up about issues they faced… lack of access to equal employment or services.”ĭeMatteis Corp. Reflecting on the dramatic events of 40 years ago, AAFE Executive Director Chris Kui says protest among New York Asians wasn’t just rare, it was unheard of at that time. While residents have often complained of discrimination and short-changing on city services, public protest has been rare.” Photo by Corky Lee.Ī June 1 New York Times report noted, “The meticulously organized protest, similar to those that have been taking place at sites in black and Latino areas for 11 years in the city, is something new to Chinatown.
Picketers carried signs with slogans such as, “The Asians built the railroad Why not Confucius Plaza?” Dozens were arrested.Ĭonfucius Plaza, 1974. Protests began May 16 and continued to pick up momentum through the fall. The DeMatteis Corp., in charge of building the government-funded project, rejected pleas from the youthful activists, then known as Asian Americans for Equal Employment, to honor the city’s fair- hiring policies. Throughout Chinatown, the injustices at Confucius Plaza were causing great outrage. Many young, idealistic New Yorkers of Chinese descent, some of them radical leftists, began focusing on Chinatown’s many troubling issues and decided the time had come to demand equal rights and equal access to city services. At the same time, the Asian civil rights movement was gaining momentum, partially inspired by the black civil rights campaigns of the ’60s. Already difficult living and working conditions - including overcrowding and exploitation by employers - became worse in a community that had always been neglected by City Hall. After strict immigration quotas were lifted in 1965, a large number of Chinese immigrants poured into the historic neighborhood, remaking the traditional ethnic enclave. In the 1960s and early 1970s, tumultuous national and world events were having a profound effect on Manhattan’s Chinatown. In so doing, they created a powerful grassroots movement that has endured for four decades. Moved to action by a developer who refused to hire Asian workers for the massive Confucius Plaza construction project, local activists raised their voices, staged months of protests and finally prevailed. The following history was written on the occasion of AAFE’s 40th anniversary in 2014.įor Asian Americans for Equality, it all began in the streets of Chinatown in 1974.
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