2022

James Hirabayashi, Lane Ryo Hirabayashi

Left: Lane Ryo Hirabayashi. Photo from the Los Angeles Times, by Jake Fabricius Photography. Right: James Hirabayashi. Photo from Nichi Bei Weekly Report Japanese American, Ethnic Studies, Activism, Museum Work James Hirabayashi, Lane Ryo Hirabayashi (1926-2012), (1952-2020) Father and son, James Hirabayashi and Lane Hirabayashi were anthropologists who often collaborated, but also pursued distinct areas […]

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Him Mark Lai

Photo courtesy of Chinese Historical Society of America Historian, Master Archivist, “Dean of Chinese American Studies” Him Mark Lai (1925-2009) Born in San Francisco Chinatown in 1925, Him Mark Lai was a pioneering self-taught scholar, whose extensive research and archives have been a taproot for generations of students and researchers of Chinese American history. With

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Chang-Su Houchins

Photo from The Korea Times Korean American, Museum Work, Material Culture Chang-Su Houchins (1925-2009) Chang-su Cho Houchins was a scholar and a museum specialist who contributed to making East Asian culture accessible to the American public. Born in 1925, in Pyongyang, Korea, she studied anthropology at Japan Women’s University in Tokyo during WWII. After coming

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Stephen E. Henderson

In Search of Blueprints: The Making of an African American Literary Critic … Stephen E. Henderson : a Symposium on African American Literary and Intellectual Thought. Program in African American Culture, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, 1993. African American, Cultural Activism, Literary Theory Stephen E. Henderson (1925-1997) Dr. Stephen Henderson was an HBCU (historically Black

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Frank Bonilla

Photo from the Voces Oral History Center, Moody College of Communication, The University of Texas at Austin. Puerto Rican, Sociology, Activism Frank Bonilla (1925-2010) Dr. Frank Bonilla was an academic researcher and early pioneer of Puerto Rican Studies, serving as the first director of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at the City University of

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James Baldwin

Photograph by Allan Warren taken in Hyde Park, London, 1969 African American, Literature, Cultural History James Baldwin (1924-1987) A prolific writer, activist, cultural theorist, James Arthur Baldwin was born on August 2, 1924, in Harlem, New York, to Emma Berdis Jones, a single mother. His mother married David Baldwin, a laborer and preacher, and they

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Teodoro Vidal Santoni

Photographer unknown; promotional image used in many publications. Puerto Rican, Material Culture, Folklore, History Teodoro Vidal Santoni (1923-2016) A self-taught historian, Teodoro Vidal Santoni uncovered more than four centuries of Puerto Rican culture, traditions, and popular art, and raised them to international recognition.  Born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Vidal Santoni attended the

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Yuri Kochiyama

Yuri Kochiyama speaks at an anti-war demonstration in New York City’s Central Park around 1968. Courtesy of the Kochiyama family/UCLA Asian American Studies Center. Human Rights Activist, Community Convener, Social Justice Mentor  Yuri Kochiyama (1921-2014) Yuri Kochiyama, née Mary Yuriko Nakahara, was an iconic activist. Revered as an ancestor by many communities, her endeavors are

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Samuel Clifford Adams, Jr.

Image of Samuel C. Adams, Jr. from Black Past, blackpast.org Sociologist, Ambassador, Folklorist Samuel Clifford Adams, Jr. (1920-2001) Samuel C. Adams, Jr. was born in Waco, Texas in 1920 to Samuel Clifford Adams, a laborer, and Sarah Catherine Roberts Adams, a schoolteacher. He grew up in the historic Freedman’s town in Brazos Bottoms of the

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Alixa Naff

Image from NC State Khayrallah Center for Lebanese Diaspora Studies, https://lebanesestudies.ncsu.edu/awards/scholarly/Naff.php Arab American, History Alixa Naff (1919-2013) Dr. Alixa Naff was a pioneering historian widely known as the founder of Arab American Studies. She not only documented the lives of the first Syrian and Lebanese Americans, but also illuminated the experiences of first generation non-European

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