By the late 1960s a new generation of political activists emerged in Berkeley from Vietnam War protests and protests in support of Farmworkers, Free Speech, and Civil Rights.  It was no accident that the Asian American Movement began in Berkeley on an iconic evening in May 1968, in Yuji Ichioka’s and Emma Gee’s cozy living room on Hearst Ave. There they, together with Floyd Huen, Richard Aoki, Victor Ichioka, and Vicci Wong, founded the Asian American Political Alliance (AAPA).  

AAPA (“aa-pa” as it was fondly called) sparked the emergence of a political movement that united Americans previously divided by ethnicity such as Filipino, Japanese, Korean and Chinese, who were stereotyped as “Oriental” or as part of a “silent minority.” AAPA originated and popularized the more comprehensive term, “Asian American.” Conceived as a national grassroots organization, they published the AAPA Newsletter, and quickly sprouted many chapters encouraging other Asian American individual and collective progressive activism.

In opposition to the possibility of future incarcerations of entire populations, such as what happened to the Japanese Americans during WWII, AAPA members fought to repeal the McCarran Internal Security Act authorizing emergency detention and deportation of alleged “subversives.”  They strengthened the international Third World Liberation Movement through their active support of the Black Panther Party, the Occupation of Alcatraz by Native Americans and other “anti-imperialist” struggles worldwide.

AAPA joined forces with African American, Chicano, and Native American groups in the 1969 Third World Strike at U.C. Berkeley for a Third World College, which helped spur the creation of ethnic studies and social justice programs nationwide. Many in AAPA moved into San Francisco’s I-Hotel to join tenants’ struggles areawide and battle to save Manilatown.  At U.C. Berkeley they established the first Asian Film Festival series and at UC Davis their efforts led to the History Department’s launching of an Asian American Studies program. In San Francisco their members were involved in the formation of the Asian Community Center (ACC), the Chinatown Co-op (a garment workers collective), Everybody’s Bookstore, Wei Min Bao bilingual newspaper, Community Educational Services (CES), the activist “May 4th Singers,” the first Chinatown Workers Festival, and Japantown’s Rodan newspaper.  In NYC, they establish a branch of the non-profit organization AAFE, Asian Americans for Equality.  Group members have joined progressive multinational organizations, contributed to community services, and run for political office.  

*This e-Plaque, submitted by founding members of the AAPA, contains supplemental information not contained in the plaque located at 2005 Hearst Avenue.