Producer 1990 Institute 
Overview By 2025, a majority of states will have requirements in place for ethnic studies and/or Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) studies to be taught in schools. This in-person Teachers Workshop highlighted Asian American pioneers and the pivotal court cases that changed the landscape of U.S. civil rights, including the U.S. Supreme Court decision in United States v. Wong Kim Ark (1898) that established the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship for all. The 125th anniversary of this landmark case was on March 28, 2023.

This workshop reviewed seven often overlooked landmark cases that established rights for birthright citizenship, public education, equal protection under the law, the Miranda Act, political asylum, civil disobedience, and bilingual education.

This event featured prominent Asian American studies luminaries who fought to include ethnic studies and AAPI studies in our schools along with a steward of Chinese American history. Standing on their shoulders, young advocates who are helping their communities learn more about Asian Americans joined us to share their experiences.

Speakers Info

Liana Szeto: Founding principal of Alice Fong Yu Alternative School in San Francisco

Laureen Chew, Ed.D.: Activist, retired professor of Asian American Studies at San Francisco State University, Elementary Education Department Chair, 2001-06; Former Associate Dean, College of Ethnic Studies, 2006-12 

Russell Jeung: Professor of Asian American Studies at San Francisco State University and a Co-Founder of Stop AAPI Hate

David Lei: Community advocate, Center for Asian American Media (CAAM) board member

Jaslene Lai and Ethan Su: Founding Board Member and Middle School Director, respectively, at AAPI Youth Rising, a student-led organization whose mission is to take small actions to make positive change in their communities.

Video Time Codes: 

0:00 Intro – Sandra Pan, Susana Liu-Hedberg – 1990 Institute  

3:29 Liana Szeto – Alice Fong Yu Alternative School 

8:45 David Lei – Chinese Americans in Civil Right 

19:01 Susana Liu-Hedberg – 1990 Institute resources and video shorts 

22:06 Jaslene Lai and Ethan Su, AAPI Youth Rising 

24:43 Advocate to Advocate: Conversation between Drs. Laureen Chew and Russell Jeung

Publish Date April 7, 2023
For Teachers Curated lesson plans and lesson guides

Episode 1, Lesson 4: The Fight For School Desegregation by Asian Americans, lesson plan (grades 7-12), Asian Americans Advancing Justice 

Episode 4, Lesson 3: The Fight for Ethnic Studies,  lesson plan (grades 7-12), Asian Americans Advancing Justice

I Want to Go to School: The Case of Tape v. Hurley, 2014, Chinese Historical Society

Equal Justice Under Law, lesson plan (grades 5-8, 9-12), by Linda Weber, Annenberg Classroom

Refugees / Asylum, lesson plan, Immigration History

Constitutional Law Lesson Plan: Do I Have a Right? Game, lesson plan (grades 5-12), BrainPOP

Teaching about Miranda Rights in Social Studies Classrooms, lesson plans, by David Childs, May 11, 2019, Democracy & Me 

Our History and Our Future, lesson plan (grades 5-12), The Asian American Education Project

Civil Rights Lesson Plan, study.com

Lesson Plans/Resources on the Chinese Exclusion Acts, National Council for the Social Studies

Untold Civil Rights Stories, lesson plans on Asian American civil rights issues for grades K-12, Asian Americans Advancing Justice Los Angeles and UCLA Asian American Studies Center

Teacher’s Toolkit | Call It What It Is – Racism Against Asian Americans, 2021, The 1990 Institute

Lesson Plan: Landmark Supreme Court Case: Yick Wo v. Hopkins (1886), March 16, 2018, C-SPAN

Citizenship, Immigration History

Racial Identity and American Citizenship in the Court, lesson plan (grades 5-12), Asian American Education Project 

Teaching Chinese Immigration in the 19th Century, lesson plans and resources, (grades 5-12) The Immigrant Learning Center

Reference Materials Right to Public Education – Tape v. Hurley (1885) 

The Fight Against School Segregation | Asian Americans, PBS LearningMedia

Tape v. Hurley, Casetext

Equal Protection Under the Law – Yick Wo v. Hopkins (1886)

Equal Justice Under Law: Yick Wo v. Hopkins, Annenberg Classroom

Yick Wo v. Hopkins, Casetext

Civil Disobedience – Fong Yue Ting v. United States (1893)

Fong Yue Ting v. United States (1893), Immigration History

Chinese Immigration, Exclusion and the Chinese-American Experience, by Deborah Samuel, Yale National Initiative

U.S. Immigration Policy: Contract or Human Rights Law?, by Victor C. Romero, 2008, Nova Law Review

A World Without Fong Yue Ting: Envisioning an Alternative Reality if the Dissenters Prevailed, by Chris Westfall, 2018, Georgetown Immigration Law Journal

Birthright Citizenship – United States v. Wong Kim Ark (1898)

United States v Wong Kim Ark – Immigration history

United States v. Wong Kim Ark, Casetext

United States v. Wong Kim Ark (1898), National Constitution Center

14.4 Primary Source: United States v Wong Kim Art (1898), National Constitution Center

Have your students heard of Wong Kim Ark?, by Adam Strom, Re-Imagining Migration

Who was Wong Kim Ark? How a son of immigrants helped define who is a U.S. citizen, by Leslie Berestein Rojas, January 19, 2011, Multi-American

Wong Kim Ark’s Legacy: why we must keep fighting for our courts, by Mariah Lindsay and Jane Liu, March 14, 2019, Alliance for Justice

Reconstructing Citizenship, National Museum of African American History and Culture

Defining Citizenship, National Museum of American HistoryWong Kim Ark, Stanford Libraries

Political Asylum – Public Law 29

“Will Let 300 Stay”: Framing Exceptance within the Context of Pershing’s Chinese and Public Law 29, by Anthony Irizarry, Penn State

Who were the Pershing Chinese?, Chinese American Heroes

Chinese, by Edward J. M. Rhoads, updated September 5, 2022, Texas State Historical Association

Asylum in the Midst of Chinese Exclusion: Pershing’s Punitive Expedition and the Columbus Refugees from Mexico, 1916–1921, by Andrew Urban, April 27, 2011, Journal of Policy History

Miranda Act – Ziang Sung Wan v. United States (1924)

The Triple Homicide in D.C. That Laid the Groundwork for Americans’ Right to Remain Silent, by Scott D. Seligman and Zócalo Public Square, April 30, 2018, Smithsonian Magazine

The Third Degree, by Scott D. Seligman

Wan v. United States, Casetext

A precursor of Miranda v. Arizona, by Paul Mark Sandler, July 13, 2021, The Daily Record

Miranda Act – Ziang Sung Wan v. United States (1924)

The Triple Homicide in D.C. That Laid the Groundwork for Americans’ Right to Remain Silent, by Scott D. Seligman and Zócalo Public Square, April 30, 2018, Smithsonian Magazine

The Third Degree, by Scott D. Seligman

Wan v. United States, Casetext

A precursor of Miranda v. Arizona, by Paul Mark Sandler, July 13, 2021, The Daily Record

Bilingual Education – Lau v. Nichols (1974)

Developing Programs for English Language Learners: Lau v. Nichols, U.S. Department of Education

How U.S. Schools Are Failing Immigrant Children, by Brentin Mock, July 1, 2015, CityLab

Languages, Law, and San Francisco, by Charlie Euchner, January 25, 1984, Education Week

Examining the Impact of Lau v. Nichols, by Mary Ann Zehr, November 01, 2007, Education Week

Third World Liberation Front

Remembering the Strike, SF State Magazine

The student strike that changed higher Ed forever, Code Switch, 2019 NPR

Recommendations Sources of information in the video 

Podcasts

Birth: Birthright Citizenship, Civics 101: A Podcast

Ziang Sung Wan vs The United States, June 13, 2022, Asian American History 101

Videos

United States v. Wong Kim Ark | The Chinese Exclusion Act, 2018, American Experience | PBS

Wong Kim Ark’s Fight for Birthright Citizenship || Our Composite Nation, 2022, New York Historical Society

Exclusion: The Shared Asian American History, 2023, The 1990 Institute

Education is Solidarity: The Third World Liberation Front, 2021, See Us Unite

Asian American Legal Cases that Shaped Civil Rights for All, presented by John Trasviña, 2022, The 1990 Institute  

The fight for birthright citizenship in America, 2018, Washington Post

Yick Wo and the Equal Protection Clause, 2018, Annenberg Classroom

AAPI Civil Rights Heroes Mamie Tape, 2019, Advancing Justice – Asian Law Caucus

Fong Yue Ting v. United States Case Brief Summary | Law Case Explained, 2021, Quimbee

Wong Sun v. United States Case Brief Summary | Law Case Explained, 2020, Quimbee

SFUSD Bilingual Education Lau vs Nichols SFGTV San Francisco, 2007, Rich Bartlebaugh

Scott Seligman: The Third Degree, National Committee on United States-China Relations

Redefine American | Asian Americans, PBS LearningMedia

Mitchel Wong talks family history with Pershing’s army, Chinese Exclusion Act, 2021, KVUE

Books

100 Americans Making Constitutional History: A Biographical History, edited by Melvin I. Urofsky, 2004, CQ Press: This book presents the key people behind landmark U.S. Supreme Court decisions including Fong Yue Ting and Yick Wo. 

The Third Degree, by Scott D. Seligman, 2018, University of Nebraska Press

I am an American: The Wong Kim Ark Story, by Marcha Brockenbrough, Grace Lin, and Julia Kuo, 2021, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Asian Texans: Our Histories and Our Lives, by Irwin A. Tang, 2008, The It Works

   

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