New Yorkers to Commemorate 40th Anniversary of Vincent Chin's Murder

The Minkwon Center for Community Action and the Greater Flushing Chamber of Commerce invite New Yorkers to commemorate 40th Anniversary of the murder of Vincent Chin on Thursday, June 23, 5pm, at the Free Synagogue of Flushing. This commemoration is part of a series of educational outreach activities organized by the Flushing Hate Free Zone campaign, which seeks to bridge the racial divide and proactively prevent growing incidents of hate and violence in our community.

The event will begin with a screening of the documentary film, “Who Killed Vincent Chin?” which recounts the murder of Vincent Chin, a 27-year-old Asian-American engineer, by two white autoworkers in Detroit who mistook him for a Japanese national. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as a "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" documentary.

Following the screening, Pastor Dan Sadlier of Mosaic Covenant Church, will lead a prayer and candlelight vigil in memory of Vincent Chin and the many recent Asian American victims of hate crimes– a trend that has only increased during the COVID-19 pandemic in neighborhoods like Flushing Queens.

The event will conclude with a panel discussion featuring Vincent Chin’s cousin, Annie Tan, a school teacher and activist; Nelson Mar, a public interest attorney and President of the 318 Restaurant Workers Union, an independent union representing mainly Chinese immigrant restaurant workers in the NYC area; Elizabeth R. OuYang, a civil rights attorney, educator and community activist who led the fight for Justice for Private Danny Chen, a 19-year old American soldier found dead in Afghanistan in 2011 after weeks of racial maltreatment and hazing by his superiors; Mitchel Wu, Director of Queens Community Services at the Chinese-American Planning Council (CPC) and member of the Citywide Council on English Language Learners.

"Vincent Chin’s murder is critical to understanding today’s ongoing hate crimes and racist violence against Asian Americans," stated Hailie Kim, Housing Organizer at the Minkwon Center for Community Action. “Vincent Chin’s death was a moment that brought together the Asian American community 40 years ago and we need to come together as strongly today as we did back then.”

The forum, which will be held at the Free Synagogue at 41-60 Kissena Blvd in Flushing, New York, is free and open to the public. For more information and to register in advance, visit flushing4all.eventbrite.com. This forum is sponsored by the Flushing Hate Free Zone, Minkwon Center for Community Action, Greater Flushing Chamber of Commerce, La Jornada New York Food Pantry, Asian Americans for Equality, and the Flushing Interfaith Council.

"Many Asian Americans like myself were not only shocked by the murder of Vincent Chin but also horrified by the utter lack of justice from the American judicial system for Vincent, his family, and our community," stated John Choe, Executive Director of the Greater Flushing Chamber of Commerce. "No one familiar with the murder of Vincent Chin and failure of our legal system to provide accountability forty years ago would be shocked by today’s surge in violence inflicted upon Asian Americans today."

This forum is part of an educational outreach effort organized by the Flushing #HateFreeZone Campaign during Immigrant Heritage Month.