KEY DATES IN THE VINCENT CHIN MOVEMENT

1922: C.W. Hing Chin immigrates to the US at age 17. He enlists in the US Army during World War II. 1948: Lily Yee, 27, joins her new husband, C.W. Hing Chin in Detroit and works the laundry business. May 18, 1955: Vincent Chin is born in Guangdong Province, China. 1961: Lily and C.W. Hing Chin adopt six-yearold Vincent. 1965: Vincent is naturalized and becomes an American. November 3, 1981: Vincent’s father passes away after a long illness. June 19, 1982: On the eve of his bachelor party, Vincent Chin is hunted and attacked by two white autoworkers and bludgeoned to death with a baseball bat.

June 23, 1982: Vincent Chin dies after being removed from life support. February 8, 1983: Ronald Ebens and Michael Nitz enter pleas of guilty and no contest, respectively, to reduced charges of manslaughter. March 16, 1983: Wayne County circuit judge Charles Kaufman sentences each to three years of probation, a $3,000 fine plus court costs and no jail time. March 16, 1983: Henry Yee, Kin Yee and Helen Zia meet at Golden Star restaurant in Ferndale and organize a larger meeting there on March 21, 1983. March 25, 1983: ACJ reps have an appointment to meet with Judge Kaufman. While they wait outside his courtroom, he cancels the meeting to “go on vacation early.” April 17, 1983: More than 200 attend an ACJ meeting with a US Dept. of Justice representative to discuss the possibility of a federal civil rights investigation. April 29, 1983: Attorneys Liza Chan and Dan Hoekenga appear before Judge Kaufman to argue that he must vacate his sentence. ACJ organizes 100 courtwatchers to attend the hearing. March 31, 1983: ACJ is founded in Detroit’s Chinatown by about 100 Asian Americans from the metro area.

May 4, 1983: Liza Chan and Helen Zia address questions from members of the African American community on a Black talk radio show. May 9, 1983: ACJ organizes a rally of about 1,000 protesters at Kennedy Square in Detroit. May 21, 1983: Alvin Sykes visits ACJ to share his community’s success in seeking a federal civil rights prosecution in the beating death of Steven Harvey, a Black musician, who was killed in a Kansas City, MO, park. June 3, 1983: Judge Kaufman further justifies his sentence of probation for Ebens and Nitz, explaining “If it had been a brutal murder,” he would have sent them to prison.

June 16, 1983: Congressman Norman Mineta and ACJ reps speak out in Chicago against anti-Asian violence. June 19, 1983: Vincent Chin Remembrance rallies are held in Chicago, Detroit, LA, New York, San Francisco and Toronto, one-year after his slaying. June 29, 1983: Lily Chin and ACJ representatives go to Washington, DC, to meet with Department of

Justice officials, seeking a federal investigation into possible violations of Vincent Chin’s civil rights. July 6, 1983: US Attorney Leonard Gilman announces that the FBI would investigate the killing of Vincent Chin. July 14, 1983: Chuck Moy of ACJ addresses the inaugural meeting of the Democratic Party Asian Pacific American caucus in San Francisco. November 2, 1983: A federal grand jury indicts Ebens and Nitz on two counts of interfering with Vincent Chin’s civil rights. June 5, 1984: The federal trial begins in the court of Judge Anna Diggs Taylor in Detroit. June 28, 1984: The jury finds Ebens guilty of one count of interference with Chin’s civil rights. Nitz is acquitted. July 16, 1984: Rev. Jesse Jackson visits Lily Chin and ACJ reps in San Francisco to support justice for Vincent Chin and in solidarity against anti-Asian hate. September 18, 1984: Judge Taylor sentences Ebens to 25 years In prison. He appeals and is released on bond.

September 11, 1986: Ebens’s conviction is reversed on appeal; the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals cites evidentiary errors and pre-trial publicity. September 19, 1986: The Justice Department announces will retry the case against Ebens. April 22, 1987: The new federal trial against Ebens begins in Cincinnati, OH. May 1, 1987: Ebens is acquitted by a jury of 11 whites and one Black; none was acquainted with any Asian Americans. July 1987: In the wrongful death civil suit filed on behalf of Lily Chin, Ebens is ordered to pay $1.5 million to the estate of Vincent Chin. Ebens tells a reporter that Vincent’s mother will never see that money, and he tries to evade the judgment by moving out of Michigan. September 1987: After spending most of her life in the Detroit area, Vincent Chin’s mother Lily leaves the US and moves to Guangzhou, China, because it is too painful to stay in America. April 19, 1992: In Los Angeles, the killer of 14-yearold Latasha Harlins is sentenced to probation and fines. Shopowner Soon Ja Du shot Latasha over an alleged shoplifting accusation. The light sentence triggered mass protests in LA’s Black community and contributed to the civil unrest and riots that destroyed about 3,000 Korean businesses. June 9, 2002: Lily Chin dies, two weeks before the twentieth anniversary of her son’s death. February 26, 2012: In Sanford, FL, Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old African American boy, is racially profiled and shot to death near his father’s home by George Zimmerman, who said the boy “looked suspicious.” Zimmerman was acquitted, sparking protests that helped launch the Black Lives Matter movement.

POSTSCRIPT

The wrongful death judgment levied against Ronald Ebens for taking Vincent Chin’s life remains active. Though he never spent a day in jail, he will never have a day free of the debt he owed to Lily Chin and the Asian American community. The movement to bring justice for Vincent Chin inspired countless individuals to strive to make a positive difference in their communities and in society. Numerous pan-Asian American organizations were also established; to name just a few: Asian Pacific American Legal Center (Los Angeles), Asian Americans Advancing Justice (Washington, D.C.); Break the Silence coalition (Northern California); Committee Against Anti-Asian Violence (New York). On the policy level, the US Commission on Civil Rights issued periodic reports on anti-Asian violence; local and state hate crimes legislative initiatives culminated in the 2010 Matthew Shepard James Byrd Hate Crimes Protection Act that protects people from violations based on perceived gender, sexual orientation and disability; and victims’ rights legislation that allows victims to speak at sentencing about the harm they experienced. In 2021, the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, introduced by Congressperson Grace Meng (NY), was signed into law, to help address the sharp rise in anti-Asian and other hate incidents by expediting the review of hate crimes and supporting the investigation, identification and reporting of bias incidents, which are often underreported.