Excerpted from Chinese Historical Society of Southern California’s Gum Saan Journal 2016. For more information, contact http://www.chssc.org. This issue on ethnic pioneers contains the stories of You Chung Hong, Hiram Kwan, Albert Lum, Betty Tom Chu, Marguerite Chung Geftakys, Mia Yamamoto, Mike Eng, and George Go, A Grocer in Pasadena.
Attorney Mia Yamamoto’s father, attorney Elmer Yamamoto (2nd from right), at Poston Concentration Camp, Arizona, January 1943.
FOREWORD by Susie Ling, Editor
When I was waiting to take my citizenship test in the 1980s, I marveled at how the officer seemed to mispronounce every single name he called. How do you mispronounce Wong? Lopez? Or Kim? Lines to LA’s Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) office were incredulously long and basic information was tricky to come by. In his interview with Gum Saan Journal, immigration attorney Mike Eng explained that INS was being deliberately difficult; it was a 1980s form of racism. I didn’t realize this until 25 years later. Mike Eng and his longtime collaborator, Stewart Kwoh, helped establish the Asian Law Collective in 1974, the Asian Pacific American Legal Center in 1983, and Asian Americans Advancing Justice in 1991 to challenge such racism. Despite their own important contributions, Mike and Stewart stood on the shoulders of other giants. This issue of Gum Saan Journal begins to explore the connections between the stalwarts that used the legal profession to bring about progress in Southern California.
Mike got into UCLA School of Law partly because his predecessor, Mia Yamamoto, demanded that the school accept more Asian American students. Mia formed the first Asian law students organization and then worked with (Judge) Dolly Gee and others, in the Asian Concerns Committee that became the Asian Pacific American Bar Association (APABA) by 1998. The coalescing of Asian American allies has been a key to gaining social progress. In the 1980s, Dolly was one of the Southern California Chinese Lawyers Association’s (SCCLA) representative to that Asian Concerns Committee.
It was in 1976 that Albert Lum became the founding president of SCCLA, the first Asian American bar association. Albert got the idea of a Chinese American bar association after attending a party for Justice Elwood Lui given by Judge Delbert Wong. We paid tribute to Judge Delbert Wong in the 2004 issue of Gum Saan Journal. Albert worked for the largest Chinatown law firm: Kwan, Quan, Cohen and Lum, founded by Hiram Kwan.
Hiram joined the California Bar in 1953 and also helped the two pioneering women, Betty Tom Chu and Marguerite Chung Geftakys, get their starts in the legal field. Hiram grew up in the tightknit Chinese American produce market world of Los Angeles. When he was five years old, Hiram attended the wedding of You Chung Hong near the Garnier Building, the community center of Old Chinatown.
Y.C. Hong was the first Chinese American admitted to the California Bar in 1923. While a student at USC Law, Y.C. struggled financially and had to depend on sympathetic classmates to lend him their textbooks. Despite his trail blazing practice headquartered in Chinatown, Y.C. was denied membership in the Los Angeles Bar Association. For fifty years, Y.C. Hong used his legal expertise to forward Chinese American civil rights. However, Y.C. should not have been the first California attorney of Chinese descent.
Our community recently learned that by 1888, Hong Yen Chang earned a law degree from Colombia University and was admitted to the New York Bar – becoming probably the first Chinese American lawyer in the United States. But he was denied acceptance to the California Bar in 1890 as he was considered a “Mongoloid”. 125 years later, the Asian Pacific American Law Students Association of UC Davis – under the guidance of Professor Gabriel Chin – petitioned the California Supreme Court to posthumously admit Hong Yen Chang to the California Bar. These young lawyers were successful in 2015.
The last story of this issue of Gum Saan Journal is on Arnold Go, proprietor of George’s Market in Pasadena. Ideally, this feature should have been included in Gum Saan Journal’s Chinese Grocers Edition of 2006. But that’s okay. Sometimes, you realize things later. We are continuously bringing better understanding and re-envisioning our history.
Thinking Aloud 
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