JACL Back to School Weekly Feature! Week 3!
For the next 6 weeks, on Thursday or Friday, we’ll send you a short email that highlights one part of our education program. The Weekly Feature runs in conjunction with our Centennial Education Fund campaign that celebrates 100 years of JACL’s education work.
Week 3 of 6: Remembering JACL's History on Constitution Day
September 17th is celebrated as Constitution Day, in honor of the ratification of the United States Constitution by the Continental Congress in 1787. But this day holds another special meaning for Japanese Americans. 200 years later, on Constitution Day in 1987, then-Representative Norman Mineta was given the chance to be honorary Speaker of the House and introduced HR 442 - "The Civil Liberties Act" to the House Floor for a final vote.
The bill passed 243 to 141, and would go to pass in the Senate and finally be signed by President Ronald Reagan almost a year later. This was thanks in part to the hard work of not only JACL members, but many other community organizations and organizers, like NCRR and NCJAR, who helped to make Redress a reality.
Help Us Fund "Our League of Dreams"
Part of our Centennial Education Fund and upcoming resources is "Our League of Dreams", a groundbreaking, educational documentary that will chronicle JACL's history from 1929, to difficult wartime decision, Redress, and stopping AAPI hate today.
We need your help to meet our production budget goals, shoot interviews, and create clips that educators can use in their classrooms.
Today, the current rise in anti-Asian hate and violence across our country has given our project new meaning – to recognize and diagnose the history of racism and prejudice against Asian Americans, the very reason the JACL was formed, and delve deep into the personal and psychological impact on our communities.
Pacific Citizen Digital Archives
Another way JACL captures the history of the Japanese American community is through the Pacific Citizen Digital Archives where you can read our newspaper from its founding in 1929 up through May 2021.
Below, see our Digital Archives from September 1987 that report on JACL's strategy of launching H.R. 442 on Constitution Day to remind the nation of the Constitutional injustices during World War II on the document's 200th anniversary.
