1850’s Migration to Gold Mountain The first Asians to migrate to the United States were the Chinese in the mid-19th century to work in the gold mines and railroads. 1850 People vs. Hall This appealed murder case established that Chinese […]
Poland, the seventh largest country in Europe, occupies an area of 120,727 square miles—some-what larger than the state of Nevada. Located in east-central Europe, it is bordered to the east by Russia and the Ukraine, the Czech Republic and Slovakia […]
Irish Immigrants in the United States By Kevin Kenny Irish immigrants had a rough start in the United States, stuck in urban poverty and taunted by some of their neighbors. They and their descendants overcame the obstacles and prevailed. Kevin […]
More Italians have migrated to the United States than any other Europeans. Poverty, overpopulation, and natural disaster all spurred Italian emigration. Beginning in the 1870s, Italian birthrates rose and death rates fell. Population pressure became severe, especially in Il Mezzogiorno, […]
Born in Ulm, Germany, the young Einstein was dissatisfied with the restrictive schools in Germany. At the age of 16 he moved to Switzerland and graduated from the Federal Institute of Technology. In 1902 he became a clerk with Swiss […]
The ice cream brand Häagen-Dazs was invented in 1959 by a Russian immigrant, Reuben Mattus, at his kitchen table and manufactured at his family ice cream factory, Senator Frozen Products, in the Bronx. While Reuben handled the marketing and devised […]
Vladimir Kosmich Zworykin (Russian: Влади́мир Козьми́ч Зворы́кин, Vladimir Koz’mich Zvorykin; 1888 – July 29, 1982)was a Russian inventor, engineer, and pioneer of television technology. Educated in Russia and in France, he spent most of his life in the United States. […]
Robert Charles Gallo is an American biomedical researcher. He is best known for his role in the discovery of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) as the infectious agent responsible for acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) and in the development of […]
Jane Addams (September 6, 1860 – May 21, 1935) was a pioneer American settlement activist/reformer, social worker, public philosopher, sociologist, author, and leader in women’s suffrage and world peace. She created the first Hull House. In an era when presidents […]
Born in New York in 1930, gay rights activist and community leader Harvey Milk made history when he became one of the first openly gay officials in the United States in 1977, when he was elected to San Francisco’s Board […]
The legendary Stonewall Inn is the birthplace of the modern Gay Rights movement. On June 28th, 1969, the patrons of the Stonewall Inn fought back against what had become regular, tolerated, city sanctioned harassment by the police department. For the […]
Legendary heavyweight boxing champion, Muhammad Ali, is a devout Muslim. In a December 2015 statement, he told NBC News, “I am a Muslim and there is nothing Islamic about killing innocent people in Paris, San Bernardino, or anywhere else in […]
Founder of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, Patron of Christian Teachers. John Baptist de La Salle was born into a world very different from our own. He was the first son of wealthy parents living in […]
Jose Antonio Vargas is a journalist, filmmaker, and immigration rights activist. Born in the Philippines and raised in the United States from the age of twelve, he was part of The Washington Post team that won the Pulitzer Prize for […]
Tani Gorre Cantil-Sakauye is a Filipino-American jurist, is the 28th Chief Justice of California. Nominated by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger for California’s highest judicial office on July 22, 2010, and retained in office by California voters on November 2, 2010, she […]
Maya Lin was born on October 5, 1959, in Athens, Ohio. She received her bachelor’s degree from Yale, where she studied architecture and sculpture. During her senior year she won a nationwide competition to create a design for the Vietnam […]
Minoru Yamasaki was born on December 1, 1912 in Seattle, Washington. He graduated from from the University of Washington, Seattle and became an instructor in architectural design at Columbia University. In 1945 he moved to Detroit and built numerous iconic […]
In California, January 30 was officially Fred Korematsu Day. It is important to honor and remember Korematsu but I believe it is also a time to look back at some of the other Japanese Americans who also fought for the […]
Ho Feng-Shan (traditional Chinese: 何鳳山; simplified Chinese: 何凤山; pinyin: Hé Fèngshān, also spelled “He Fengshan”;born September 10, 1901 in Yiyang, Hunan; died September 28, 1997 in San Francisco) was a Chinese diplomat in Vienna who risked his own life and […]
Patsy Matsu Takemoto Mink (竹本 まつ Takemoto Matsu?, December 6, 1927 – September 28, 2002) was an American politician from the U.S. state of Hawaii. Mink served in the U.S. House of Representatives for a total of 12 terms, representing […]
Born on October 7, 1955, in Paris, France, Yo-Yo Ma is a cellist and songwriter of Chinese descent. The child prodigy attended the Juilliard School and continued to excel throughout his adult life, producing more than 75 albums and winning […]
Margaret Moran Cho is an American comedian, actress, fashion designer, author, and singer-songwriter. Cho is best known for her stand-up routines, through which she critiques social and political problems, especially regarding race and sexuality. She has created music videos and […]
According to the U.S. census, there are approximately 9 million people living in America who are of Asian descent. Twenty-three percent of that are of Chinese ancestry; 20% are Filipino; 12% are Asian Indian; and Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese each […]
Let us remember That we are in the Holy Presence of God Please pray that the day will come when no one will die because of religious disagreements, that no one will die because of their beliefs, that none […]
Prayer for Tolerance and Understanding September 24, 2007 The title used for tonight’s prayer service, “As I have loved you,” comes from what is sometimes known as Jesus’ great “High Priestly” prayer. The words are said to his disciples at […]
