From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry : The Killing of Vincent Chin and the Trial that Galvanized the Asian American Movement
$19.95
Author: Paula Yoo
America in 1982. Japanese car companies are on the rise and believed to be putting American autoworkers out of their jobs. Anti-Asian American sentiments simmer, especially in Detroit. A bar fight turns fatal, leaving Vincent Chin-a Chinese American man-beaten to death at the hands of two white men, autoworker Ronald Ebens and his stepson Michael Nitz.
From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry is a searing examination of the killing and the trial and verdicts that followed. When Ebens and Nitz pled guilty to manslaughter and received only a $3,000 fine and three years' probation, the lenient sentence sparked outrage in the Asian American community. This outrage galvanized the Asian American movement and paved the way for a new federal civil rights trial of the case. Extensively researched from court transcripts and interviews with key case witnesses-many speaking for the first time-Yoo has crafted a suspenseful, nuanced, and authoritative portrait of a pivotal moment in civil rights history, and a man who became a symbol against hatred and racism.
- many saw race/civil rights in a Black/white dichotomy - the Black police officer who arrested the murderers had no box to check for Chin's ethnicity
- Bias crimes for teens, but no book about this subject for young readers
- Author after several unanswered emails got an off the record interview with one of the killers who never did jail time - Simon was holding his breath as he read.