Asian American and Pacific Islander History Archives

Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month

Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month (AAPI Heritage Month) is an annual celebration that recognizes the historical and cultural contributions of individuals and groups of Asian and Pacific Islander descent to the United States.

Asian American Milestones: Timeline

The first major wave of Asian immigrants arrived at American shores in the mid‑1800s and Asian Americans have since played a key role in U.S. history, while also facing discrimination and exclusion. A diverse population, the nation’s 20 million‑plus Asian Americans have roots in more than 20 countries in Asia and India, according to the […]

Larry Itliong

Larry Itliong was a Filipino American labor leader who organized West Coast farm workers starting in the 1930s.

Hells Canyon Massacre

In late‑May 1887, around 30 Chinese laborers were mining gold in an isolated part of northeast Oregon, when the entire group was gunned down by a white gang of horse thieves. Initially referred to as the “Hells Canyon Massacre” or “Snake River Massacre,” and more recently as the “Chinese Massacre at Deep Creek,” the event […]

The Rock Springs Massacre

What began as a labor dispute between white and Chinese coal miners on September 2, 1885 turned into a bloodbath known as the Rock Springs Massacre that left 28 Chinese miners dead and 15 others wounded. Following the violence, white miners set 79 homes ablaze, effectively wiping out the Chinatown neighborhood of Rock Springs in […]

Angel Island Immigration Station

Located in San Francisco Bay, the Angel Island Immigration Station served as the main immigration facility on the West Coast of the United States from 1910 to 1940. Many immigrants from China or other Asian countries were detained there for extended periods thanks to the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882) and other discriminatory immigration laws. The […]

Makoto Hagiwara Popularizes the Fortune Cookie

It’s 1914 and visitors to the Japanese Tea Garden in San Francisco are about to have their fortunes told by a cookie.

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Kristi Yamaguchi’s American Story

Before Kristi Yamaguchi became an Olympic star, her family faced a challenging road both in war and at home in America.

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U.S. Immigration Timeline

White People of ‘Good Character’ Granted Citizenship January 1776: Thomas Paine publishes a pamphlet, “Common Sense,” that argues for American independence. Most colonists consider themselves Britons, but Paine makes the case for a new American. “Europe, and not England, is the parent country of America. This new world hath been the asylum for the persecuted […]

Chinese Exclusion Act

Chinese Immigration in America The Opium Wars (1839‑42, 1856‑60) of the mid‑nineteenth century between Great Britain and China left China heavily in debt. Additionally, floods and drought contributed to an exodus of peasants from their farms, and many left the country to find work. When gold was discovered in the Sacramento Valley of California in […]

Japanese‑American Internment

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States Government issued executive order 9066, which empowered the military to round up anyone of Japanese ancestry and place them in prison camps.

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History of San Francisco’s Chinatown

After the 1906 earthquake destroyed the city, plans to rebuild didn’t include a place for Chinese immigrants. Faced with the prospect of resettling to Oakland, Look Tin Eli employed white architects to create an even grander Chinatown.

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