THE ABA DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION CENTER CELEBRATES - American Bar ...
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THE ABA DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION CENTER CELEBRATES
What is Asian American and
Pacific Islander Heritage Month?
• A celebration of Asians and Pacific Islanders in the United States
• In 1977, Rep. Frank Horton (NY) introduced a resolution that would proclaim the first ten days in May as Pacific/Asian
American Heritage week. Later that year, Senator Daniel Inouye introduced a similar resolution. Neither resolutions passed;
however, later in 1978, Rep. Horton proposed in House Joint Resolution 1007 that the President should proclaim a week in
May to celebrate Asian and Pacific Islander heritage
• In 1992, Congress passed Public Law 102-450 , which annually designated the entirety of May as Asian/Pacific American
Heritage Month
• The month of May was chosen in commemoration of the first Japanese immigrant arriving to the United States in May 7,1843
and the completion of the transcontinental railroad on May 10, 1869, which was mostly laid down by Chinese immigrants
• The month of May is a time to celebrate Asian and Pacific Island American culture as well as learn more of their history
• https://asianpacificheritage.gov/about/
National Association
of Asian American
Professionals
• Non-profit that develops and cultivates Asian and Pacific Islander
leaders
• Provides leadership training, professional networking, and
community service opportunities for Asian and Pacific Islander
Americans
• Largest and fastest growing Asian and Pacific Islander professional
association
• Mission: NAAAP inspires, cultivates, and empowers Asian and Pacific
Islander leaders for professional excellence to make meaningful
impact in our workplace and community
• Values: leadership, education, accountability, diversity
• Further information: https://www.naaap.org/about-naaap/
NAPABA
NATIONAL ASIAN PACIFIC
AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION
• The leading professional development organization and voice for 50,000 Asian and Pacific Islander
American attorneys, judges, law professors, and law students
• Serve as the national voice for the Asian Pacific American legal profession
• They seek to promote justice, equity, and opportunity for Asian Pacific Americans
• They further professional development, legal scholarship, advocacy, and community involvement
• Serve the interests of roughly 90 Asian Pacific American bar associations from the local, state, to
national level
• Further information: https://www.napaba.org/
Yuji Ichioka
• Historian born June 23, 1936
• Started the Asian American Political Alliance in 1968, where he coined the
term “Asian American,” when up to that point people of Asian ancestry were
referred to as Oriental or Asiatic
• Taught the first Asian American Studies course at UCLA
• Further reading: http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Yuji_Ichioka/
Peggy Nagae
• 2017 ABA Spirit of Excellence Award recipient
• Led the legal team for Yasui v. United States in a lawsuit to overturn a conviction for
the refusal to obey exclusion orders against Japanese Americans during WWII – this
was originally upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.
• Ms. Nagae presided as president and is currently co-chair of the Diversity Task Force
for the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association
• In 1996, President Clinton appointed her to serve on the Civil Liberties Public
Education Fund Board where funds were given to organizations and individuals with
the intention of preventing a repeat of the tragedy of internment camps.
• Further reading: http://diversitycollaborative.com/peggy-nagae/
John C. Yang
• John C. Yang is the president and executive director of Asian Americans
Advancing Justice.
• Yang leads the organization’s efforts to fight for civil rights and empower
Asian Americans to create a more just America for all through public policy
advocacy, education, and litigation.
• He has also served in the Obama Administration as Senior Advisor for Trade
and Strategic Initiatives at the U.S. Department of Commerce.
• Previously, he served on the ABA House of Delegates, and the ABA Rule of
Law Initiative.
• Further reading:
https://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/administrative/diversity-
inclusion-
center/commission_on_racial_and_ethnic_diversity/john_c_yang_bio.pdf
Dale Minami, Esq.
• Recipient of the 2019 ABA Medal
• Attorney who has spent his career fighting for Asian American civil rights
• Headed the legal team that overturned the conviction of Fred Korematsu
• Founded the Asian Law Caucus – one of the first public interest law firms for
low-income Asian Pacific Americans
• Brought to court one of the first class action employment lawsuits both by and
for Asian Americans (Blue Shield of California workers)
• Further reading: https://www.abajournal.com/web/article/dale-minami-to-
receive-aba-medal-at-the-2019-annual-meeting-in-san-francisco
Mia F. Yamamoto
• Recipient of the 2013 ABA Stonewall Award.
• Born in September 1943 in Poston, a Japanese internment camp in Arizona
• She volunteered to serve in Vietnam but became active in the anti-war movement after
witnessing wartime atrocities. She and many other protestors of Japanese descent
brought their Asian American perspective to the war after recently experiencing WWII
concentration camps.
• While attending UCLA, Mia was heavily involved in student activism and co-founded the
Asian Pacific American Law Students Association, demanding that the university hire
more faculty of color, provide ethnic studies courses, and applying resources to admit
more minority students
• After graduating from UCLA, she served as public defender for 10 years and frequently
represented queer and trans clients. She later opened her own criminal defense practice.
• Further reading: https://densho.org/mia-yamamoto/
Justice Sabrina
McKenna
• Judge Sabrina McKenna is the first openly LGBTQ judge to sit on the Hawaii
Supreme Court. She is a recipient of the 2021 ABA Stonewall Award.
• Judge McKenna has served on the Hawaii Supreme Court since 2011
• She co-chaired the Hawaii Supreme Court’s Committee on Court Interpreters
and Language Access in order to provide greater access to frequently
underrepresented groups in the justice system
• She was involved in the inclusion of gender identity and gender expression as
protected categories in the judiciary’s anti-bias and harassment policies.
• McKenna is currently working to make the Hawaii court rules and jury
instructions non-binary and now makes her opinions non-binary.
• Further reading: https://www.americanbar.org/news/abanews/aba-news-
archives/2021/02/hawaii-supreme-court-judge-sabrina-mckenna/Donald K. Tamaki
• 2020 ABA Spirit of Excellence Award recipient
• Co-founded the Asian Law Alliance, which represented thousands of poor
and low-income clients
• Was Executive Director of the Asian law Caucus in San Francisco from 1980-
1983
• Served on the legal team that reopened the 1944 U.S. Supreme Court case of
Fred Korematsu, successfully overturning the conviction for defying Japanese
internment
• Further reading: https://www.stoprepeatinghistory.org/don-tamakiTina Tchen
• Recipient of the 2018 ABA Margaret Brent Award
• A daughter of Chinese immigrants who rose to prominence, serving in the Obama
administration as the Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement in
2009, the Executive Director of the White House Council on Women and Girls, and
in 2011 as Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff to the First Lady
• Has spent her legal career advocating for women’s rights and mentoring young
women lawyers
• She currently serves as President and CEO of Time’s Up, the advocacy group
founded by powerful Hollywood women to further the interests of the #MeToo
Movement. She founded their key initiative, a legal defense fund for women who
experienced sexual harassment at work, regardless of their industry.
• Further reading:
https://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/administrative/women/TTchen_20
18BrentProg(pgs)71618c-5.pdfHiram Fong
• A child of Cantonese immigrants, he became the first Asian-American elected
to the U.S. Senate
• He became a member of the Territorial House of Representatives the same
year he started his law office. In 1948, he became Speaker of the House and
during this time was one of the key leaders in fighting for Hawaii’s statehood.
• Served as one of Hawaii’s first U.S. Senators
• First Asian American to run for President of the United States
• Further reading: https://senatorfong.com/Zainab Ahmad
• Pakistani-American prosecutor for the DOJ
• Specializes in investigating and prosecuting terrorism. As a DOJ prosecutor. In
April 2013, she served as a deputy chief of the national security and
cybercrime section in the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the
Eastern District of New York.
• Served on the Special Counsel for the US Department of Justice team with
Robert Mueller
• She was one of the team members responsible for handling the case against
Michael Flynn
• Further reading: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/05/15/taking-
down-terrorists-in-courtJohn Lim
• 2019 ABA Spirit of Excellence Award Recipient
• Managing partner of LimNexus LLP, a Los Angeles corporate boutique firm
that is minority owned
• As a leading real estate and corporate lawyer, Lim has empowered and
mentored numerous diverse lawyers and law students
• He actively supports public interest and law groups that serve the
marginalized
• Serves on numerous boards of nonprofit organizations
• Further reading: https://www.americanbar.org/news/abanews/aba-news-
archives/2018/09/california-attorney-john-lim-to-receive-aba-2019-spirit-of-
excel/Julie Su
• 2019 ABA Margaret Brent Recipient
• Daughter of Chinese immigrants who became a nationally recognized expert on
workers’ rights and civil rights
• Dedicated her legal career to serving poor and marginalized communities
• Served as lead counsel in 1995 in a federal lawsuit that held brand name
clothing manufacturers responsible for utilizing slave labor for their goods. The
case involved 80 Thai garment workers who worked under armed guard in a
California sweatshop. She succeeded in recovering $4 million in monetary
compensation for the workers, who were largely women
• She is currently the Secretary of the California Labor and Workforce
Development Agency
• Further reading:
https://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/administrative/women/su.pdfHon. Shiro Kashiwa
• First Attorney General of Hawaii to be appointed after it became a state in
1959. Became the first Japanese-American and member of the Hawaii bar to
represent the United States before the U.S. Supreme Court.
• First Federal Judge of Japanese American descent
• First Asian American judge on the Federal circuit
• U.S. Court of Claims Judge 1972-1982, and later Judge of the U.S. Court of
Appeals from 1982-1986
• Further reading: https://www.justice.gov/enrd/shiro-kashiwaHon. Tani Cantil-
Sakauye
• 2012 ABA Margaret Brent Award Recipient
• Currently the Chief Justice of California, serving prior in California’s appellate and
trial courts.
• One of the youngest people to hold judicial office in California
• She is the first Filipina American and the second woman to serve as California’s chief
justice.
• As Chief Justice, Judge Cantil-Sakauye has sought policy initiatives such as
decriminalizing minor traffic offenses, improving funding for courts and the bar, civil
discourse education for students, bail reform, and has emphasized the importance
that federal agents do not arrest undocumented immigrants at state courthouses.
• Further reading: https://www.courts.ca.gov/2664.htmA.B. Cruz III
• A.B. Cruz III is the current president of the National Asian Pacific American Bar
Association.
• President Cruz is a former Navy Admiral who served for over 33 years and
represented the United States internationally in multiple high-level
engagements.
• President Cruz has served as CLO, General Counsel, Chief Compliance and
Ethics Officer, CRO, and Corporate Secretary in industries such as biotech
pharma, telecommunications, media/entertainment, financial services, oil and
gas, education, and in the military.
• Learn more: https://www.napaba.org/page/board#presidentPatsy Mink
• 3rd generation Japanese American, born and raised in Maui
• Worked to fight against segregation policies while enrolled at the University of Nebraska
• She was refused the right to take the Hawaiian bar exam due to the loss of her residency
upon marriage to her husband, John Mink. She challenged the sexist statute and
eventually won the right to take the test. Nonetheless, no firm would hire her because she
was married and a mother. She later opened her own firm in 1953.
• Gained national attention in 1960 as she spoke in favor of the civil rights platform at the
Democratic national Convention.
• First Japanese American woman to serve in territorial House and became first woman to
serve in territorial Senate
• Became first woman of color and Asian American woman elected to Congress in 1964
• First Asian American woman to run for president in Democratic Party
• Further reading: https://www.womenshistory.org/education-
resources/biographies/patsy-minkDaniel Inouye
• Son of Japanese immigrants, became the highest ranking Asian American politician in U.S.
history (until Kamala Harris). He was the first Japanese American to serve in the U.S. House of
Representatives and the U.S. Senate.
• Recipient of the Medal of Honor in 2000 for his courage in Italy: Inouye served in WWII in the 442nd
Infantry Regiment. On April 21, 1945, he led his platoon in a heavily defended ridge near San
Terenzo. Three German machine guns opened fire. Lt. Inouye stood to attack and was wounded in
the stomach. He ignored his wound and successfully destroyed the first machine gun. He refused
treatment and rallied his men to successfully take out the second machine gun. Lt. Inouye passed out
from blood loss but later crawled toward the final bunker. 10 yards away, Lt. Inouye lost most of his
right arm at the elbow from a German grenade which failed to detonate. He shouted for his soldiers
to not run to his help, in fear that the grenade he caught could detonate. Finally, Lt. Inouye, severely
in pain and crippled, pried the live grenade out of the right hand he had lost, and throwing with his
left hand, took out the final bunker. After this, Lt. Inouye continued forward, killing at least one more
German before suffering his fifth wound of the day in the leg. He fell unconscious to the bottom of
the ridge. When he awoke to his concerned platoon, he ordered them back to their positions,
saying “Nobody called off the war!”.
• Served as U.S. Senator from Hawaii from 1963 to 2012. He was President por tempore of the
United States Senate (3rd in the presidential line of succession) from 2010 until his head, in
2012.
• Further reading: https://www.senate.gov/senators/FeaturedBios/Featured_Bio_Inouye.htmVice President
Kamala Harris
• Daughter of a Tamil Indian mother and Jamaican father. Her mother gave her
a Sanskrit name derived from Hindu mythology to help preserve her cultural
identity.
• In 2010, she became the first female and first African American Attorney
General in the State of California. She refused to defend Proposition 8, which
banned same-sex marriage.
• First Indian American to serve as a U.S. senator and second African American
woman. Additionally, she is the first woman, first Asian-American, and first
Black Vice President of the United States, making her the highest ranking
Asian American politician in US history.
• She took office as U.S. senator in 2017 and began serving on both the Select
Committee on Intelligence and the Judiciary Committee.
• Further reading: https://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/vice-president-
harris/Hon. Sri Srinivasan
• First federal appellate judge of South Asian descent.
• Chief United States Circuit Judge of the US Court of Appeals for D.C.
• After law school, Srinivasan served as a clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice
Sandra Day O’Connor.
• Served as Principal Deputy Solicitor General from 2011 to 2013, where he
argued 25 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court.
• Argued cases before Supreme court
• Further reading:
https://www.cadc.uscourts.gov/internet/home.nsf/Content/VL+-+Judges+-
+SSHon. Jacqueline
Nguyen
• As a 10 year old, she moved with her family from Vietnam to the United States
• First Vietnamese-American to serve as federal judge and the first Asian-
American female federal appellate judge.
• United States Circuit Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
• In 2016, it was widely thought she would be a potential Supreme Court
Justice nominee
• Further reading:
https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/JacquelineNguyen-
QFRs.pdfTammy Duckworth
• First Thai-American woman elected to Congress, first woman with a disability
elected to Congress, and the first Senator to give birth while in office.
• First person born in Thailand elected to office
• Duckworth is the second Asian American woman serving in the U.S. Senate.
She currently serves on the committee for the Armed Services; Commerce,
Science, and Transportation; Energy and Natural Resources; Environment and
Public Works; and Small Business and Entrepreneurship
• Former U.S. Army lieutenant colonel. She is a combat veteran of the Iraq War
and served as a helicopter pilot. She lost both of her legs and some mobility
in her right arm from the war and was the first female double amputee from
the war.
• Further reading: https://www.duckworth.senate.gov/about-tammy/biographyHon. William S.
Richardson
• Dec 1919- June 2010, Native Hawaiian, Chinese, And Euro-American Ancestry.
• He served in WWII in the 1st Filipino Infantry Regiment as the platoon leader with the
rank of Captain. After the war, he served in the Judge Advocate General Corps.
• Served as lieutenant governor under John A. Burns
• Chairman of the Democratic Party of Hawaii from 1956-1962 and President of the
Hawaii Bar Association from 1961-1962.
• Attorney, and former Chief Justice of Hawaii State Supreme Court from 1966-1982
• While in the Hawaii State Supreme Court, he recognized the state’s unique cultural and
legal history, incorporating precedent from the Kingdom of Hawaii in a case that
protected Hawaii’s water sources from private plantation ownership. He also
recognized the public’s interests in the environment and the rights of the indigenous
Hawaiian people.
• Further reading: https://www.law.hawaii.edu/about-us/william-s-richardsonJoan Haratani
• Joan Haratani is currently a partner at Morgan Lewis and is a former NAPABA
Board member
• In her dedication to promoting justice and equality, she leveraged her
position to open doors and mentor others while elevating women in the
profession.
• She became one of the youngest partners at Morgan Lewis and became one
of the first Asian American women in the United States to become a litigation
partner.
• She is one of the honorees of the 2021 ABA Margaret Brent Award.
• Further reading: https://www.morganlewis.com/bios/jharataniAngela E. Oh
• Partner at Oh and Barrera, LLP for a decade where she grew a state and
federal criminal defense practice and frequently represented juvenile
offenders
• Nationally recognized expert on race relations
• Spokesperson for the Korean American community during the 1992 LA Riots
• After the LA Riots, she served on the Special Counsel to the Assembly Special
Committee on the Los Angeles Crisis
• In June 1997, President Bill Clinton appointed her to the President’s Initiative
on Race
• Further reading: https://www.advancingjustice-
aajc.org/index.php/bio/angela-e-oh;
https://clintonwhitehouse4.archives.gov/textonly/Initiatives/OneAmerica/BIO-
AO.htmlLearn more about the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association’s
Hate Crime Resources:
https://www.napaba.org/page/HateCrimeResources
For more information on Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, visit:
https://asianpacificheritage.gov/You can also read
