Race, Religion, and Civil Rights - (Asian American Studies Today) by Stephanie Hinnershitz (Hardcover)

About the Book

Stephanie Hinnershitz reveals the unsung legacy of civil rights activism among foreign and American-born Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino students, who formed crucial alliances based on their shared religious affiliations and experiences of discrimination. Using archival sources that bring forth these students' authentic, passionate voices, Race, Religion, and Civil Rights is a testament to the powerful ways they shaped the social, political, and cultural direction of civil rights movements throughout the West Coast, from Californian college campuses to Alaskan canneries.

Book Synopsis

Histories of civil rights movements in America generally place little or no emphasis on the activism of Asian Americans. Yet, as this fascinating new study reveals, there is a long and distinctive legacy of civil rights activism among foreign and American-born Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino students, who formed crucial alliances based on their shared religious affiliations and experiences of discrimination.

Stephanie Hinnershitz tells the story of the Asian American campus organizations that flourished on the West Coast from the 1900s through the 1960s. Using their faith to point out the hypocrisy of fellow American Protestants who supported segregation and discriminatory practices, the student activists in these groups also performed vital outreach to communities outside the university, from Californian farms to Alaskan canneries. Highlighting the unique multiethnic composition of these groups, Race, Religion, and Civil Rights explores how the students' interethnic activism weathered a variety of challenges, from the outbreak of war between Japan and China to the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.

Drawing from a variety of archival sources to bring forth the authentic, passionate voices of the students, Race, Religion, and Civil Rights is a testament to the powerful ways they served to shape the social, political, and cultural direction of civil rights movements throughout the West Coast.

Review Quotes

"An engaging narrative that takes up the intersection of race, religion, and civil rights and that includes subjects and themes that often have been overlooked or not been taken into account comparatively."-- "American Historical Review"

"Hinnershitz's study is...a welcome addition to the historiography of Asian American activism, emphasizing their place in the long and 'wide, ' in Mark Brilliant's formulation, history of the Civil Rights Movement." -- "Pacific Historical Review"

"Hinnershitz's work is timely and important to consider, especially given the current landscape of Asian international student populations on many of our college campuses and their subsequent developing identities as racialized bodies."-- "History of Education Quarterly"

"An innovative contribution to Asian American studies and 'long civil rights movement' historiography ... Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above."-- "CHOICE"

"Hinnershitz takes an innovative approach to the people whom Americans generally regarded as non-American other. This is a welcome innovation in the research on the civil rights movement."--Liping Bu "author of Making the World Like Us: Education, Cultural Expansion, and the American Century"

"With increasing numbers of Asian international students on U.S. campuses, this timely study convincingly shows how such students have long been central to Asian American history and civil rights movements."--Anna Pegler-Gordon "author of In Sight of America: Photography and the Development of U.S. Immigration Policy"

About the Author

STEPHANIE HINNERSHITZ is an assistant professor of history at Valdosta State University in Valdosta, Georgia.