Famous Chinese-Americans in
Politics, Law and Civil Rights
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江月桂
March Fong Eu
b. 1922, Oakdale, CA
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Politician (Democrat). She was elected to the
California legislature four times before being elected to the post of Secretary
of State in 1974, thus becoming the first Asian-American woman to hold a state
elected office. She was re-elected to that office five times. She also served
as ambassador to Micronesia. |
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鄺友良
Hiram L. Fong
b. 1906, Honolulu, HI
d. 2004, Honolulu, HI |
Politician (Republican). He served in the
Hawaiian Territorial Legislature for 14 years. After Hawaii became a state in
1959, he was elected as one of its first two senators, thus becoming the
first Chinese- American US senator. He served in that capacity until 1977.
Fong also led very successful family businesses.
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何鳳山
Feng-Shan Ho
b. 1901, Hunan
d. 1997, San Francisco, CA |
Diplomat. Dr Ho recieved a PhD in political economics from the University of
Munich. Dr. Ho was initially the First Secretary
of the Chinese Embassy to Austria but following
the German Anschlus, he became the Consul General. It was at this time that anti-Semitism boiled to
the surface and Jews desperately needed to
find
refuge in any country that would take
them. Unfortunately, most did not. Against
the orders of his superiors, Dr.
Ho decided to issue visas to any Jew who
would ask, which in no time caused long queue
to form in front the Chinese consulate.
Although he knew that most of the visa recipients
would not necessarily be traveling to Shanghai,
which was then under Japanese occupation,
the visas made it possible for Jews to leave
Austria legally. After his Vienna assignment
ended, he served in the Middle East and South
America. In 2000, Israel posthumously awarded
him the title of "Righteous Among the Nations". |
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More about this book |
李文和
Wen Ho Lee
b. 1939, Taiwan |
Victim of racial profiling. After obtaining his PhD
from Texas A&M, he
joined the Los Alamos National Laboratory
in 1959. He worked as a
physicist until 1999, when he was fired with allegations that he was
a spy. He was subsequently charged
with a 59-count indictment and kept
in solitary confinement for nine
months. At the end of this period, the
prosecution failed to provide the
alleged evidence and suddenly agreed
to free Lee. The presiding judge
issued a unusual apology and laid the blame
on the "top decision makers of the Executive Branch, especially the
DOJ and the DOE" of the Clinton Administration.
He explained his ordeal in My Country
Versus Me: The First-Hand Account by the Los Alamos Scientist Who Was Falsely
Accused. |
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駱家輝
Gary Locke
b. 1950, Seattle |
Politician (Democrat). He started his career
as prosecutor. He was elected to the Washington State House of
Representatives and served as Chief Executive
of King County before being elected
Governor of the State of Washington in
1996, thus becoming the first Chinese American state governor. He was selected by the
Democratic leadership to give the televised
national Democratic response to the
President Bush's 2003 State of the Union
speech, a task normally reserved for
a US senator.
He served two terms as governor and declined to run for a reelection
despite his high popularity. |
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