The trials and triumphs of Asian-American history in Antioch will be the subject of an upcoming Antioch Historical Museum symposium.
The Asian American and Pacific Islander symposium, being held in honor of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month History, will be a 2 p.m. May 20 at the Antioch Museum, 1500 W. Fourth St.
Hans Ho, a retired Antioch chemist who previously worked at Lawrence Berkeley Lab, will facilitate the symposium.
Featured speakers include Dr. Bruce Quan Jr., a fifth-generation Californian and a retired law professor who practiced in China and California, and the author of “Bitter Roots”; Marsha Golangco, an environmental Feng Shui expert and longtime community advocate; Jean Pfaelzer, author of “Driven Out: The Forgotten War Against Chinese Americans” and a professor emerita at the University of Delaware; and UOP Professor Emeritus of biological sciences Richard Tenaza, author of “The History of Stockton’s Filipino Center Plaza.”
Ron Chan, whose father, Alfred Chan, is a Navy veteran who faced discrimination in Antioch and eventually got an apology from the city of Antioch, also will be on hand. Mayor Lamar Thorpe officially apologized to Chan and his family last year. Chan was denied service in an Antioch restaurant when he was 16 because he was Chinese. He will be donating his official apology proclamation to the museum.
Antioch in 2021 became the first American city to officially apologize to late Chinese residents and their descendents for the past mistreatment. Downtown’s Waldie Plaza, the former site of a Chinatown, was torched by an angry mob in 1876.
Antioch had never before acknowledged its past as a sundown town where Chinese were banned from walking the streets after dark, the mayor said. Remnants of tunnels the immigrants had built connecting to businesses and their homes can still be seen in some spots downtown from I Street to the waterfront.
The event is free but attendees are asked to reserve a spot at Eventbrite.
Source: www.mercurynews.com