Objectives
- Discuss the background history of DC’s Chinatown and how the Chinese came to be established in a distinct area of Washington.
- Describe the political and social climate in Washington, DC, and the rest of the nation in April 1968 regarding the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War.
- Explain the challenges facing the Civil Rights Movement between M.L. King’s advocacy of
non-violence and the increasing anger and frustration among Blacks that had often led to riots and violence in major American cities in the mid-’60s. - Describe the demographics of Washington, DC in the 1960s and how Chinese Americans found ways to navigate a path between White and Black.
- Explain how the experiences of African Americans and Chinese Americans were similar and
different in this era. - Discuss the impact the riots had on the relationship between the African American and Chinese American communities following M.L. King’s assassination. What were the consequences, short and long-term, of the riots on their communities?
- Discuss what can be learned from Washington’s experiences in 1968 and how it is relevant to us today.