Name:
Righting an Historic Wrong?
Date:
Class:
DIRECTIONS: Read the following article. As you read, annotate for
important information (summarize in the margins as you read) and highlight at
least 6 words that you struggle with. After you read, fill out the attached Meaning
of Words sheet on the words you highlighted. Finally, respond to the prompt at the
end of this document.
Chinese immigrant denied California law license gets one 125 years late
by Howard Mintz
Pictured is Hong Yen Chang, who more than a century ago, was denied a law license by the California
State Supreme Court because of various anti-Chinese and anti-immigrant laws on the books in
California. Although he was admitted to the Bar in New York State, he was denied the same credential in
1890 in California and died without ever being granted the license he sought. By virtue of the efforts of
the UC-Davis law school and family descendants, Cheng will have his law license granted posthumously
by the very same California State Supreme Court, seeking to right a wrong. (Courtesy the Ah Tye Family)
Hong Yen Chang's case has lingered as a black mark in California legal history since the late 19th century,
a Chinese immigrant's tale of being refused a law license simply because he was Chinese.
Nearly 125 years later, Chang could hardly have imagined how much has changed since anti-Chinese
provisions in federal and California law denied the Columbia Law School graduate the right to be a
practicing lawyer.
His family tree of descendants is now filled with lawyers. A group of Asian-American law students has
been fighting for his cause for the past few years. And the California Supreme Court -- which refused him
a law license in the 19th century -- now has three Asian-American justices, two of them Chinese.
On Monday, calling Chang's plight a "sordid chapter" in state history, the state Supreme Court
posthumously granted him a license to be a California lawyer.
The decision came as a relief to Chang's descendants, who have worked alongside a UC-Davis law school
group to rectify what has long been considered a byproduct of federal and state laws meant to
discriminate against Chinese immigrants.
"This case has always stuck in our craw," said Rachelle Chong, Chang's grandniece from San Francisco
who was the first Asian-American to serve on the Federal Communications Commission and the
California Public Utilities Commission. "It always bothered us this case was in the books."
Name:
Righting an Historic Wrong?
Date:
Class:
At the time, a combination of federal laws barring Chinese nationals
from legal recognition and California law refusing law licenses to noncitizens blocked Chang's path to a
law license. The federal Chinese Exclusion Act, an 1882 law that remained on the books until the 1940s,
is still regarded as perhaps the most hostile to any single minority group in U.S. history.
More than a century later, a California Supreme Court with two Chinese-American justices -- Goodwin
Liu and Ming Chin -- has given Chang a different outcome.
"Even if we cannot undo history, we can acknowledge it and, in so doing, accord a full measure of
recognition to Chang's pathbreaking efforts to become the first lawyer of Chinese descent in the United
States," the state Supreme Court observed.
Chang, according to records provided by the UC-Davis law clinic, came to the U.S. to attend Yale under
an educational program backed by the Chinese government. He later returned to the country to attend
Columbia, and was able to get his law license in New York through a special act of that state's
legislature.
But his law career stalled when he moved to California planning to provide legal services to the growing
Chinese community. Instead, he wound up a successful banker and a diplomat, but died in Berkeley in
1925 without ever getting his California law license.
Last year, a group of UC-Davis law students and professors asked the state Supreme Court to overturn
that decision long after Chang's death; both the State Bar and Legislature passed resolutions backing the
effort. That resulted in Monday's ruling.
Gabriel "Jack" Chin, the UC-Davis law professor who led the effort, said the original 1890 state Supreme
Court ruling denying Chang's law license has been "notorious among legal scholars," particularly AsianAmericans.
He enlisted a group of law students to work on getting Chang's posthumous law license after he arrived
at the school in 2011. There is precedent for states to address such past discrimination in law licenses:
Washington state in 2001 granted one posthumously to a Japanese immigrant denied in 1902, and
Pennsylvania did the same for an African-American denied admission in 1847 because he was black.
"There's this ugly history, and we don't live in that world anymore," Chin said.
The California Supreme Court agreed.
Name:
Righting an Historic Wrong?
Date:
Class:
"It is past time to acknowledge that the discriminatory exclusion of
Chang from the State Bar of California was a grievous wrong," the court wrote.
Chong, one of four family members who've become California lawyers, told this newspaper the family is
"thrilled" the state Supreme Court reversed its own 1890 ruling. She discovered the old Supreme Court
ruling, along with a cousin working on a book about Chang, while in law school in the early 1990s.
Chang and his wife did not have children, so other descendants felt it was important to play a role once
the law clinic took up the cause.
"We feel we were the only family left to try to clear up this historic wrong," she said.
Chang and his wife did not have children, so other descendants felt it was important to play a role once
the law clinic took up the cause.
"We feel we were the only family left to try to clear up this historic wrong," she said.
Write the vocabulary “roadblocks” you come across as you are reading. Then complete the
worksheet to figure out a guess definition based on the schema and context clues.
Roadblock: What
word was confusing?
Schema: Part of
Speech? Recognizable
word parts?
Context Clues: What is it describing?
What other words are in in the sentence that
can help you identify its meaning?
Guess Definition
Schema: Part of
Speech? Recognizable
word parts?
Context Clues: What is it describing?
What other words are in in the sentence that
can help you identify its meaning?
Guess Definition
1.
Roadblock: What
word was confusing?
2.
Name:
Righting an Historic Wrong?
Date:
Class:
Roadblock: What
word was confusing?
Schema: Part of
Speech? Recognizable
word parts?
Context Clues: What is it describing?
What other words are in in the sentence that
can help you identify its meaning?
Guess Definition
Schema: Part of
Speech? Recognizable
word parts?
Context Clues: What is it describing?
What other words are in in the sentence that
can help you identify its meaning?
Guess Definition
Schema: Part of
Speech? Recognizable
word parts?
Context Clues: What is it describing?
What other words are in in the sentence that
can help you identify its meaning?
Guess Definition
Schema: Part of
Speech? Recognizable
word parts?
Context Clues: What is it describing?
What other words are in in the sentence that
can help you identify its meaning?
Guess Definition
3.
Roadblock: What
word was confusing?
4.
Roadblock: What
word was confusing?
5.
Roadblock: What
word was confusing?
6.
What is your opinion on the events of this article? Build off of your opinion to write a thesis statement
below that you would be able to defend in class. This should be a one-sentence thesis statement. If you
are stuck, consider the title of this homework and the title of the article.
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