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CALIFORNIA STATE POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY, POMONA

MINORITIES AND POLITICS:

Understanding the Common Cause of Their Rise in Political Power

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements

For the degree of Bachelor of Arts in Political Science

By

Nam Kyu Kang

March 2016

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ABSTRACT

United States’ politics are no longer ruled by old, white males like it once did. Today, the

politics of the United States are run by faces of all different kind of ethnic and cultural

backgrounds. However, the minorities had to endure years of discrimination and years of

their livelihood becoming a backseat to that of their white counterparts, before getting to

where they are now. Minorities are no longer the backseat of this country, making

themselves relevant to this country’s political world. This paper will attempt to analyze

the common factor that caused the ethnic groups, African-American, Chicano-American,

and the Korean-American, to seek out and obtain the political power that was necessarily

to protect their livelihood.

Word count: 116

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

To God and to my family for being my number one fan since day one.

To my brothers of XPO…I salute you for your never ending support.

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Introduction

45 African-American members. 37 Hispanic-American members. 13 Asian-

American members. These numbers represent the number of minorities that served in the

House of Representative during the 113th United States Congress (United States 2014).

Today in United States, it is not uncommon to see minorities be politically involved,

sharing their voices for concern. If a citizen from a third world country or a citizen

suffering oppression from their own government was to enter the United States, they

would probably see this country as a haven for minorities and for the weak. But could

that be said the same for United States 50 years or even 20 years ago? Minorities getting

politically involved have been a recent trend, being that this country was established 240

years ago. The rise of minorities and their political power really took off during the last

century. Naturally, we must then ask ourselves what happened in the last century that

caused this exponential rise of minorities getting involved in American politics?

Government exists for one reason. Government is established to serve its citizens.

Citizens are supposed to depend on their government to protect their rights not only as

lawful citizens of a nation, but also rights as a human being. However, there have been

incidents where the government fails to provide security for its citizens. Other times,

there have been incidents where the government intentionally turns their heads on its own

citizens’ cry for help. Sadly, the government of the United States also shares its dark past

when it comes to turning their heads on its own citizens’ cry for help. The three minority

groups here in the United States that have been a victim to such treatment are the

African-Americans, the Chicano-Americans, and the Korean-Americans. These three

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minority groups all had to endure years of discriminations and being treated as a second

class citizen compared to their white counterparts. The minorities soon realized that their

wellbeing was being ignored by the government. From simple things such as not being

able to use the same restrooms with the white folks to their call for plea being ignored

while their businesses were burning down from a riot, the minorities finalized realized

that their government would not make the effort to protect them. Thus the question

becomes: Does the lack of efforts from the government to protect the livelihood of the

minorities in the United States often lead to the rise of political power of the minorities?

My argument to that question is the United States government’s failure to make the

minorities’ safety and their wellbeing a priority, led to specific incidents where the

minorities rose to gain the necessary political power to protect themselves and their

livelihood. This thesis attempts to argue how the minorities felt like they had to take the

matter into their own hands and gain the political power in order to protect themselves

since their own government would fail to do so. More specifically, there have been

specific incidents in history that caused the minorities to react. Each minority group

endured very specific events pertaining just to them that made them rise in political

power. For African-Americans, it was the Civil Rights Movement, for Chicano-

Americans it was the Delano Grape Strike and lastly, for the Korean-Americans it was

the LA Riots of 1992.

While there could be other factors that push the minorities to be involved

politically, I strongly believe that minorities get politically involved due to the lack of

security from the government. Lack of security could cover broad topics, but more

specifically for this thesis paper, we look into basic human needs that are not being

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protected by the government. For all three minority groups, they faced different needs

that were being ignored by the government. African-American had their very basic needs

as human beings ignored by the government. During the mid-20th century, African-

Americans were told that they were not equal to that of their white counterparts. They

could not legally use the same bathroom and legally had to seat on the back of the bus.

Emphasis here is legally. Government made segregation legal; showing that the

government endorsed treating the African-Americans different all due to their colors. For

Chicano-Americans it was a little different experience. While they were not legally

treated differently, they were taken advantage of due to their status in the country. Many

of the Chicano-Americans came to this country through the Braceros program. Due to

their status in the country, they were paid well below the work that they provided for the

farm owners. Their living conditions were horrible as their bathrooms were nearly non-

existent and young children who could barely talk were forced to work. While complaints

were made, the local governments were endorsed and sponsored their campaign for re-

election thus the local government turned their heads to the farm workers. Lastly,

Korean-Americans saw their business and home burn down as police and fire department

ignore their 9-1-1 call. For hours they called, as the rioters took over the streets, yet their

calls were ignored. 9-1-1 responded to protect the streets of white community, despite the

fact that they were not being affected by the rioters. With these clear evidences of

government failing to protect the minorities, it was only matter of a time before the

minorities rose to protect themselves.

Literature Review

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The topic that will be studied within this paper will be about racial and ethnic

minorities in the United States and their rise in political power. To be more specific, the

research will be conducted to study what causes the push for minorities to gain their

political power. I argue that, the United States government’s failure to make the

minorities’ safety and their wellbeing a priority, led to specific incidents where the

minorities rose to gain the necessary political power to protect themselves and their

livelihood. In order for us to prove the validity of this statement, we must ask ourselves,

“Does the lack of effort from the government to protect the livelihood of the minorities in

the United States often lead to rise of political power of the minorities? “This topic is

important to study because if the hypothesis is true, the government needs to realize that

they have a lot of work to do within their domestic affairs to bring about balance in the

political realm. If the government continues to be unbalanced politically, minorities’

livelihoods will continuously be overlooked. The government needs to constantly change

and evolve so that every citizen of this nation will be listened to with the same regard.

The government should establish new public policies that would encourage minorities to

be healthily involved in U.S politics, and perhaps discourage violence and turmoil. The

literature examines three different areas: one studying African-Americans and their rise

in political power, another studying how Chicanos farm workers fought to gain their

political power, and lastly, how the Korean-Americans gained their political power. The

paper examines these groups in ascending order, starting from the oldest of the minorities

groups in the United States to the youngest.

African-American’s violent rise to political power

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The first minority group that will be covered are the African-Americans. African-

Americans are the oldest minority group in the United States. They first arrived to the

United States in 1619, along with the colonists (Eyerman, 2002). The colonists would

make a stop in Africa from Europe to purchase slaves to work their new lands in America

before establishing their lives in the New World. From the first Africans that arrived in

America, it would be a long, cruel road ahead before they would be able to establish

themselves socially and politically. Through this history, African-Americans have faced

some violent events that has taken away their livelihood. When their livelihood was

threatened, the government must have failed to protect African-Americans. Eyerman

(2002) brings to surface the violent past of the African-Americans by revisiting the

history of slavery in the United States. He shows how the cultural trauma of African-

Americans faced since the time of slavery, and how that caused the African-Americans to

question their identity. Despite being an everyday citizen of this country, African-

Americans continued to feel like they were second class citizens, failing to be equal with

their white counterparts. He continues to state, “In this emergent identity (African-

Americans) forged through trauma, slavery does not correspond to an experience, only to

a point of origin…and continues to shape African American identity today” (Eyerman,

2002). The novel, “Violence”, states “Blood and anger in the people often times lead to

up rise. Whether that is in violent or non-violent way, changes will come” ((Zizek, 2008).

Zizek claims through this novel that when people are oppressed and angry, it is only a

matter of time before they rise, and that changes will be inevitable. If one were to look at

the history of the African-Americans in America, it is not a pretty one. It stays pretty

much the same violent and oppressing story until the 19th century. Civil war breaks out in

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United States, and with the victory of Abraham Lincoln and the Union Army, slavery was

abolished. Yet the story of the African-Americans sees little change. Despite the

abolishment of slavery in the United States, black citizens do not get to enjoy the same

liberties that a white citizen would enjoy. Here is where the research takes off.

African American’s violent rise to political power (Deny of their livelihood)

After the 1960s, the United States arose as a completely different nation. The

economy was flourishing and the United States was in its prime. Yet despite this “golden

image” that the United States portrayed, the country’s inner image was anything but

golden. United States’ citizens were being abused and mistreated in every neighborhood

across the States. The United States adopted a concept of “Jim Crow Laws”, where

African-Americans were discriminated against due their skin color. To obtain equality in

their own country, African-Americans started to organize themselves and started what is

now called the “Civil Rights Movement.” According to Green (1991), the Civil Rights

Movement was “African-American people’s struggle for social, economic and politically

equality”. Lawson (2011) defined the Civil Rights Movement as a movement that awoke

the moral conscience of the nation. African-Americans were being treated like second-

class citizen to whites all because of skin color. The government of the United States

denied the African-Americans the very same freedom they preached, “freedom, life and

liberty”.

The worst part of discrimination against African-Americans was that the law

enforcement and the government made sure this way became the way of life in the United

States. During this time, a fraternal organization in Tennessee called the Ku Klux Klan or

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“KKK” gained prominence in the United States. These “KKK” members burned black

churches, burned a cross on the lawns of black owned homes and even killed innocent

African-Americans. Yet authorities failed to react. According to Rachal (1999),

“Mississippi law enforcement was remarkably inept at catching local whites who

assaulted shot and tried to run over COFO (Council of Federated Organization- civil

rights movement committee in Mississippi) members…no one was ever convicted for any

of the church burning…COFO saw the local law enforcement as openly hostile”. This

illustrates how the government failed to protect the livelihood of black people. Black

churches were being burned; some black minorities were even killed. Yet the authorities

did not react in an appropriate manner. Rather, they were aggressive and made African-

Americans feel unsafe. Knowing that the government would not protect their livelihood,

the African-Americans marched.

Allen (2010) interviewed an individual who was involved in the Civil Rights

Movement. The interviewee recollects how African-Americans formed coalitions, and

church leaders organized different committees to battle segregation and hostility

throughout the south. Church leaders came together to form the Southern Christian

Leadership Conference and peacefully marched on and demonstrated to show the world

how they were being denied their given liberties and their livelihood (Allen, 2010).

African-American professionals came together, to form the Scholarship, Education and

Defense Fund (CORE-SEDF), which was a tax-exempt affiliation that carried out its

educational and legal defense efforts to promote the Civil Rights Movement. This

organization would tackle legal matters, winning small cases. Their strategy was to win

enough of the small racial issue cases to build the creditability to their cause. They would

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win small victories, and slowly started to make legal grounds against segregation (Jong,

2013). At this time, the Civil Rights Movement’s “sister”, the Black Power Movement

ran a more militant and radical operation. Joseph (2008) studied the Black Power

Movement and wrote, “often dismissed as the civil rights era’s “evil sister”, black

power…represented one of the most important social and political movement of the 20th

century…Black power militants aggressively confronted political, education and cultural

institution to promote racial pride and equal citizenships” (Joseph, 2008).

It was clear that the African-Americans took matters into their own hands and

established coalitions, committees, legal defense councils, and even militants; to protect

their livelihood that was denied by their very own government. Ultimately it is difficult to

say whether the Civil Rights Movement was a success. While it forced the American

government to strike down all the discriminatory laws in place, and protect the equality

amongst its citizens, it failed to bring up failing communities. However, the Civil Rights

Movement definitely did its job in making African-American more politically involved

and more powerful (Santoro, 2015).

Chicano Rise in Political Power (Delano Grape Strike)

Next to African-Americans, Chicano-Americans are the second oldest of the

minorities in this group. If one were to look at the history of the Hispanics in America, it

is actually quite different from that of African-Americans. Chicano-Americans fought

their battles on the west in the early to mid-1900s. With rich soil and perfect weather

conditions, rich and powerful farm owners pioneered grape production in California. By

mid 1900s, California saw its grape planation expand exponentially. In order for this to

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happen, the farm owners needed farm hands to work the soil and tend to the grapes.

Luckily for the farm owners, there was a large group of Chicano minorities that came to

California looking for jobs to help raise their family back home. Without education and

any social status, Chicanos were in the mercy of the farm owners and the stewards that

directly dealt with the farm hands.

During this time, the United States government passed a series of laws and held

diplomatic agreements with the Mexican government to sponsor manual laborers into

United States from Mexico. This program was called the Bracero program. This

agreement guaranteed basic human rights (such as sanitation, adequate shelter and food)

to the temporary contract laborers from Mexico. However, the reality was different than

the agreements. Despite being promised fair wages, the farm owners made sure their

money would come back into their own pockets. The farm owners proceeded to charge

farm workers with everything, from transportation to housing to farms, and even food. To

make the matter worse, the braceros were often not paid in a timely manner. The

stewards, who oversaw the braceros, often made “mistakes” when they were inputting the

hours the braceros worked, docking their pay (Jenkins, 1977).

Martinez (2000), a Project Director in Denver Unified School District stated, “the

Delano Grape Boycott was California grape farm workers’ struggle for basic human

rights. In 1960 grape workers were making $2.00 a day, working up to 12 hours a day.

These workers did not have access to drinkable water or any type of bathroom…children

and adults alike were exposed to poisonous pesticides”. Steinbeck’s “Grapes of Wrath”

exposed readers to the harsh living conditions for these farmers. The protagonist in the

story reveals how his family was torn apart from sickness and abusive behavior from of

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farm owners. These workers were being denied basic human rights. Kushner (1975) tried

to communicate how Chicano-Americans were being denied their basic human rights. He

called the relationship between the Chicano farm workers and farm owners “slavery”.

With earnings that would barely keep their family from starving, many farmers got sick

from sanitation problems. The bathrooms were not cleaned; if they were lucky enough to

have bathrooms. Drinkable water was not provided to the farm workers, and many died

from bacterial infections after consuming the dirty water. Kushner (1975) wrote, “farm

workers were robbed of 25 years of the lives…being cheated of wages and living

conditions”.

At the time, there were no labor unions put in place to protect Chicanos.

Government at the time ignored these people and their struggles. The government turned

their eyes away from these struggles as the farm owners were likely to be white. Garcia

(2007) dived into the matter of the strike itself. Garcia explains what led to the boycott,

how the boycott was conducted and what ultimately occurred as result from the boycott

itself. Garcia does a great job explaining how Chicano-Americans fought for social

justice in their efforts to keep the boycott going (Garcia, 2007). United Farm Workers

(UFW) led the charge to make sure Chicano Americans were protected and represented

well. Jenkins (1977) claims that the UFW did make a difference to the lives of the farm

workers. By 1965, farm wage rates rose slightly and few public welfare benefits were

extended in California. More importantly, the UFW made sure these “temporary farm

workers” became short-term workers who could stay in the United States without

worrying about leaving the country after the contract was over (Jenkin, 1977).

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The government failed to protect Chicano-Americans from being abused by the

powerful farm owners. Despite being aware of the inhumane conditions farm workers

were working in, the government decided to look the other direction to keep supporting

the farm owners. Knowing that the government will not step in to save them, Chicano-

Americans created labor unions that would allow them to fight and preserve their basic

human rights.

Korean American Experience (LA Riots of 1992)

Unlike African-Americans or the Chicano-Americans, Koreans-Americans do not

hold deep roots with the United States. Even to this day, the majority of the Korean-

Americans here are third generation, meaning their grandparents were the first ones to

have settled in the United States. Korean-Americans are a young ethnic minority in

America, yet their rise to political power. While it took over two centuries for African-

Americans to gain their political power, for Korean Americans it came in two decades.

The story of Korean-Americans ascension into power began with the 1992 LA

Riots. After four white police officers were exonerated from any charges after the beating

of Rodney King, African-Americans became enraged. Boyarsky (1992), who was a writer

for LA Times, interviewed a Korean immigrant who was shot at the scene of the riot. The

man was Jin Moo Chung. He was protecting his store when his black neighbor shot

Chung. Chung was unconscious until he arrived to the hospital. According to Chung, this

riot was a result of political outrage. Enraged by the court ruling, African-Americans took

their anger onto the streets. Chung stated that the Koreans were at the receiving end of

the political outrage with no political ground to gain (Boyrasky, 1992). During the

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insurgency, Korean-Americans requested help from the police. Oh (2010) writes, “When

the city police was called, there was no effective response. When the county sheriffs were

called, there was no effective response”. The city police did not move to protect the

Korean-American stores from being looted. It did not stop the fires spreading across

Koreatown. Rather police focused on white-majority communities, in case the looting

reached that area. Despite their plea for help, the authorities failed to adequately respond

to protect Korean immigrants.

Oh (2010) states the, “reason for the mass destruction visited upon Los Angeles in

1992…was total failure by local leadership to recognize that the economic and

demographic shift was causing deep rifts in the community”. The city government failed

to recognize that the communities were drifting apart due to cultural differences. The city

failed to pay attention to the minority-majority cities and create necessary public policy

to make sure that the tensions were not running high. Yet it could be that it was this

trauma, this sudden and swift destruction of their homes that led to such a swift rise for

Korean-Americans (Kim, 2012). It is quite surprising to see how fast Korean-Americans

reacted to the situation. Kim (1995), an expert in the field of Orthopsychiatry conducted

research in 1995 to see how the Korean Americans thought of themselves after the riot.

Due to the fact that a large amount of Koreans had the education to work for a company,

rather than owning stores, many left Koreatown and settled in Orange County. However,

all the pressure fell onto the shoulders of their children. The 1.5 generation, who were

born in Korea but raised America, were furious. Despite having their parents leave

Koreatown to settle elsewhere, the 1.5 generation came back to fight for what was taken

from them. They took it upon themselves to stand up and fight back (Kim, Chong, 1995).

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Seeing how their plea for aid was denied, the 1.5 generation Korean Americans

took it upon themselves to organize the community; to make the community more

politically aware, so that such tragedy would never occur again. Lee (2015), who studied

the growth of 1.5 Korean-Americans stated, “Since the riots, Koreatown has also become

more integrated as one political district, facilitating resident’s political involvement and

coalition work in LA…with the creation and emergence of Koreatown Youth and

Community Center, Koreantown Immigrant Workers Alliance and national Korean

American Service and Education Consortium” (Lee, 2015). 1.5 generation Koreans knew

that to grow stronger, the community had merge into one, one political voice and power.

They started building necessary centers to provide services that benefit Korean

immigrants in the area. The Koreans realized that without any political power, they

would not be able to secure their regrowth. Thus, KADC or the Korean American

Democracy Committee, and KARA, Korean American Republican Association, Koreans

started making footholds in American politics (Park, 1996). With the emergence of the

two party-based Korean Associations in the community, it made it more plausible for

Korean Americans to gain that power to protect themselves.

This paper at the end will analyze all three different ethnic groups and their

violent and cruel past. After analyzing how their simple basic rights were being denied

and the government failed to protect them; it would clearly show how the minorities had

no other choice but to rise on their own to protect themselves.

Methodology

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This thesis paper is designed to study the catalyst for minorities’ rise in political

power. My purpose in designing this research was to see how the lack of interest from the

government to protect their citizens due to their skin color or their status in the states

served as a catalyst for the minorities’ rise to political power. More specifically, I was

interested in studying the different ways the minorities groups rose to political power. For

that reasoning, I chose the three different minority groups in this research. I chose

African-Americans, Chicano-Americans and Korean-Americans because of their time

here in the United States. African-Americans are one of the oldest minority groups here

in the United States. Chicano-Americans are relatively in the middle compared to that of

the African-Americans and the Korean-Americans. Korean-Americans are one of the

youngest minority groups here in the United States, being that they only started arriving

to the United States in the 20th century. With these minority groups in chronological order,

I wanted to study how the differences in their time here in the United States had an effect

on how they react to the government’s lack of efforts. I started my research with case

studies on each individual minority group. My main purpose of the case studies was to

measure how politically involved each minority group became after their specific events.

After researching my case studies, I decided to proceed with interviewing experts in the

specific minority groups. Through their expert opinions, I was able to determine whether

or not my thesis would be successful or not.

Case Studies

For African-Americans, the specific event I decided to research on was the Civil

Rights Movement of the 1960s. The reason I decided to use this event in history to

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measure the success of my thesis was due to the nature of the event. Civil Rights

Movement of the 1960s was a direct result of the government failing to protect the

livelihood of its minority citizens. In this case, it was actually the government being

proactive in creating the havoc for the African-Americans. African-Americans were

legally segregated from the white community, not being able to use the same restroom or

even attend the same school. By being legally segregated from the white community, it

didn’t take too much for someone to see the quality of the service and the education the

African-Americans were receiving. In order for myself to measure the success of my

thesis and its argument with the African-Americans, I decided to use student involvement

in the rally. In order for myself to research this topic, I had to refer to political science

journals and political science blogs to see how important the youths are in politics. Then I

proceeded to study academic work of Dernoral Davis from CSU Northridge. In her essay,

When Youth Protest: The Mississippi Civil Rights Movement, 1955-1970, I was able to

really study how important was the black youth movement during the Civil Rights

Movement.

Once I was done conducting my research on African-Americans, I then started to

study the case studies for the Chicano-Americans. To start off, I was just narrowing my

research to Delano Grape Strike and the farmers’ movement. Delano Grape Strike was

chosen because of the way government chose to look away from the problem caused by

the white land owners for their sponsorships and for their funding for their reelection

campaign. However, after conducting various interviews, I was able to find correlation

between the Delano Grape Strike and the Mexican Youth Movement of the 1960s. To

start my research, I went into the UFW or the United Farm Workers main homepage.

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There, I was able to study the rise of the farmers’ movement. Led by Caesar Chavez, the

United Farm Workers were able to inspire the young Mexican generations. This

inspiration ultimately helped flame the rise of the student movement throughout

California. On M.E.Ch.A’s homepage, I was able to study the timeline of all the Mexican

student organizations and how that correlated with the Delano Grape Strike.

Lastly, for the Korean-Americans I studied news articles and political journals

that related to the LA Riots of 1992. LA Riots of 1992 was chosen to measure the success

of my thesis due to the significance this event played in Korean-Americans’ and their rise

to political power. Majority of the newspapers such as LA Times were used to show how

the police and the fire department failed to respond to the plea call of the Koreans during

the LA Riots (Chang, 2012). One of the sources that played the biggest role in proving

the success of my thesis was by Professor Edward Park from University of Southern

California. His essay, Political Formation of Korean Americans in Los Angeles: Visions

of Political Power, 1992-1996, provided all the necessary information that was needed to

prove how Korean-Americans became politically involved after the LA Riots of 1992.

Interviews

For my second method, I proceeded to conduct interviews and also collect

interviews from various sources that would have enough creditability to support my

thesis. For African-Americans, I was fortunate enough to have an access to interviews of

actual students who partook in the student movement through CNN. Student leader

activists such as Judy Tarver-Young and Larry Russell shared with the readers of their

experiences as student activists and how the youth movement during the Civil Rights

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Movement made differences needed to help the African-American community gain that

political power needed to defend themselves.

For Chicano-Americans, I was very fortunate to interview Professor Huerta from

Cal Poly Pomona. I wanted to interview an expert in Chicano-American experience, and

fortunately enough, Professor Huerta from the Ethnic and Women’s Studies here on

campus was available for an interview. The following is the interview transcript that took

place on February 17th, 2016;

1. Prior to the Delano Grape Strike, how politically involved were the Chicano

Americans?

a. The Mexican origin has a deep root of resisting. In such ideas, such as the

Aztecs with the Spaniards and such, our people always have been

organizing to resist. People don’t really understand that Chicano-

Americans always have resisted through organized rallies because it has

not been as publicized as the African-Americans but even back to the

1800s, Mexicans have been fighting for themselves. Look at the League of

Lulac. They have been proactive in uniting the Latino people for the

common cause since the 1920s.

2. In your expert opinion, how did the Delano Grape Strike serve as a catalyst for

Chicano American’s involvement in American’s politics?

a. At the time, that was an agricultural struggle. Most of the Chicano and

Mexican people who participated in the strike were either first generation

Latinos with no education here in the United States or older generations.

Now the biggest impact was on the youths. Most of the Chicano and

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Mexican future lived in the cities, with their parents back in the farm

lands. For the youths, they could not relate to the experience of the

farmhands. However, with the pride of being part of Mexican heritage, the

youth started to organize collegiate organizations after partaking in the

strike.

3. In what different ways did the Chicano-Americans get involved politically after

the Delano Grape Strike?

a. Like I mentioned before, let’s focus on the students perspective. Despite

the fact that they were not in touch with the older generations of Latinos,

they traveled to the farmlands to support their older generation of Latinos.

After seeing the differences they can make with political organizations,

they traveled back to their respective campuses and started to organize

their fellow students. One of the biggest organizations took place in

UCSB.

4. In your expert opinion, do you believe that the Delano Grape Strike caused the

Chicano-Americans to get more involved more politically?

a. Yes definitely. It allowed the younger generations of the Mexicans to get

involved politically, especially with the students of the UCSB leading the

way. It definitely created the roadmap for the future.

5. Finally, do you believe that the government failed to protect the livelihood of the

minorities in the Delano Grape Strike?

a. I definitely do believe that the government failed to protect the citizens.

Unlike other movements during the 1960s, Delano Grape Strike was more

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on the local level. Farm owners during the time were white and rich. They

supported the local government officials of their re-elections and such.

Not only that, police brutality was very real. Often times, police would

brutally beat the strikers and few even ended up dead.

For Korean-Americans, unfortunately I was not able to interview the professor

that was scheduled to hold the interview with me. However, he did end up sending me a

documentary called the Koreatown, 20 Years After the LA Riots. In this documentary, I

was able to collect interviews from politicians that were involved during the LA Riots.

The interviews of the politicians allowed me to really measure the success of my thesis.

More specifically, the redrawing of Los Angeles Koreatown boundaries caused a havoc

amongst the Korean-Americans that really rallied the Koreans to be involved politically.

Result

African-American

African-Americans are one of the oldest minority groups here in the United States.

I was aware that the African-Americans already had some political establishment in the

United States prior to the Civil Rights Movement of 1960s. So I decided to measure the

success of my thesis by studying the student movement during that time. According to

Vinod Kumar in his political journal article, he mentions that, “Politics is science to

manage the country or state. Youth is young blood of nation and active workers of nation”

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(Kumar, 2009). As the member of the young generation, they become the portal to

changing whatever is left of the world. These young generations are the ones who will be

working for the government and its agencies, paving the new road for new students

(Barisic, 2014). If the younger generations of a civilization were to be more politically

involved, that would insure the future generation of its people to be more politically

involved, being able to defend for their rights. That is what the African-American youth

realized and got involved politically. The black leaders of the Civil Rights Movement

realized how the youths could re-spark the momentum. This strategy would be less

disruptive to the Black families, since the parents could continue to work and earn money

for the family while the students and the youths could serve the necessary jail times for

the movement (Role of Young People in the Civil Rights Movement, 2001).

African-Americans were legally segregated from their white counterparts. The

law enforcements would beat African-Americans who entered a restaurant that served

only white folks. African-Americans would be arrested and put in jail if they refused to

give up seats for the white folks. The African-Americans knew that they were being

treated like a second class citizen, and for that they rose. When the Southern Christian

Leadership Conference or the SCLC was formed under the leadership of Martin Luther

King Jr, the students all across the south rallied behind him. With his leadership, the

students decided to organize their own committee, doing independent works that would

benefit the cause. With such intentions, the students formed the Student Nonviolent

Coordinating Committee or the SNCC in April of 1960s. Student Nonviolent

Coordinating Committee soon became fiercely independent of the Southern Christian

Leadership Conference and organized their own rally, such as the Freedom Rides (James,

21

1981). Mississippi became their haven, and they really established deep roots in the state.

One of the reason Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee stood out from the rest of

other organizations was that it worked right within the cities, small towns and rural areas

of the South where the development of local leadership was a key aspect of its political

program.

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee also gave the birth to one of the

most infamous activist group during the Civil Rights Movement; the Black Panther Party.

In 1965 to 1966 in Lowndes County, Alabama., SNCC’s worked with farmers and youths

in the area to form the original Black Panther Party (Azikiwe, 2010). However, SNCC

was the origin for another movement that took place in the 1960s. While this movement

was not publicized as the Black Panther Party, it served the same purpose when it was

originated. The movement was called the New Left Movement. Madeleine Davis defines

the New Left Movement as, “In the United States the New Left grew out of student

socialist activism…where it generally avoided traditional forms of political organization

in favour of strategies of mass protest, direct action and civic disobedience” (Davis,

2015). New Left Movement focused on actual actions rather than political idealism.

Being that they were a little more radical, they partook in protests such as the Free

Speech Movement which took place during 1964 on the campus of University of

California, Berkeley (Davis, 2015). New Left Movement represented the latest

manifestation of left-leaning political activism, and it became popular amongst the

college students all across the country. In state of Georgia, numerous schools established

chapters of national and regional student political organizations, such as the Democratic

Society and the Southern Student Organizing Committee or the SSOC (Huff, 2015). The

22

highlight of the New Left Movement could be what happened after the Civil Rights

Movement however. New Left Movement ideals from the Civil Rights Movement soon

became a worldwide radical protest practices and the movement spread all throughout

Europe in 1968.

Youths that served in the Civil Rights Movement became one of the spearheads in

revolutionizing America. Seeing how their own government was treating them, they

became enraged and rallied under their leader, Martin Luther King Jr. Soon the youths

realized how much power they actually held, and formed their own organization, the

SNCC. SNCC became so influential that two different movements branched from it. The

first being the infamous Black Panther Party, and the second being the New Left

Movement. New Left Movement led by students all across the country, in various

campuses, would soon become global and ignite the social activist movement in Europe.

Chicano-Americans

Chicano-Americans actually became most interesting of the three minority groups.

Initially, I was just planning on measuring the success of my based on formations of labor

unions that rose from the Delano Grape Strike. However, that quickly changed as I

conducted my interviews and learned that the youth movement of the Chicanos during

the 1960s could also be used to measure the success of my thesis. Once the farmers

realized that they were not being protected by the government, they decided to take it to

their own hands and rally together. In 1959, farmers grouped up together to form the

Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee or the AFL-CIO (The Rise of the UFW).

23

The farmers’ movement really took off in 1962 when a young Chicano named Cesar

Chavez joined the movement. When Cesar Chavez joined the movement, the AFL-CIO

soon became the National Farm Workers Association or the NFWA. Soon, the NFWA

became the United Farm Workers when the Filipinos joined the strike with the Chicanos.

United Farm Workers was first and foremost a union during the time. The farmhands

who arrive to the United States through the Braceros program knew that they were being

abused by the rich farm owners. They were being paid well below the works that they

were putting in, they did not have any sanitary restrooms, and the farm owners were

charging them for every little things that were necessary to survive. The Chicanos were

making $2 an hour, and being charged $0.25 per rides from and back from the farm. Not

only that, they had to ensure they could feed their children, and pay for their education.

When their children were not in school, they were forced to work. During the time, there

weren’t really strict enforcements on child labor, thus the rich farm owners could use the

Chicano children’s extra hand for free. Under the leadership of Cesar Chavez, the

farmhands united and the Delano Grape Strike was born. With the unionized organization,

the Chicanos were able to raise their income, and provide a safer environment to raise

their family in. The Delano Grape Strike became such significant part of the Chicano

history because it resulted to the very first industry-wide contracts for farm workers,

including increase in pay, providing sanitary restrooms out in the field, and providing

safe water to drink for the workers. It could be said that this boycott was the first of its

kind to bring a multimillion dollar agriculture powerhouse to its knees. According to

Duane Campbell, a professor from Sacramento State, “Delano Grape Strike totally

changed labor politics and Latino Politics…it inspired the events of September and it had

24

an impact on the international level with the grape boycott that followed after. Thousands

of people of different races and the ethnicities devoted their lives to activism and

nonviolent protest. The strike and boycott awakened Latinos, the sleeping giant of

California politics. It triggered the Chicano movement and the creation of bilingual

education department” (Magagnini, 2015). However, this wasn’t the only way to

measure my thesis’s success.

Chicano youth at the time went to school and lived in the cities. Majority of the

second generation Chicano-Americans were not really in touch with the roots of their

ancestors. Being raise in the city, the youths had little to no experience when it came to

farm work. When they heard of the Delano Grape Strike, the Chicano-American youths

rallied behind Cesar Chavez. One of the reasons behind the success of the Delano Grape

Strike was due to ethnic unity. To the Chicanos, it didn’t really matter where everyone

was from, or where their roots traced back to. The only thing that mattered to them was

that their fellow Chicanos were being abused by the white folks and they must come

together to protect themselves. The Chicano youths realized what they could do with such

political power when they came together. Delano Grape Strike served as a catalyst for the

Chicano youths to go back to their respective campus and start their own political

movement. The 1960s saw exponential rise in Chicano-American student organizations,

all throughout California. Aurelio Salazar, who specialized in studying the history of

Mexican student organizations, gave her readers a timeline of Mexican student

organization formation. After the news of the Delano Grape Strike, East Los Angeles

Community College saw the very first student organization called the Mexican American

Student Association or the MASA. By May 13th of 1967, students at Loyola University

25

organized the United Mexican-American Students or the UMAS. When the students in

Northern California heard of the organizations happening in the south, they rallied to

form the Mexican-American Student Confederation or the MASC. By 1968, Los Angeles

High School saw its very first Chicano based unionized organization called the Chicano

Coordinating Committee on Higher Education or the CCCHE. Their purpose was to

develop a statewide network of community and campus activist who would apply

political pressure on campus administration to further expand equal opportunity programs

for the Chicano-Americans (Salazar, 2016). The youths realized that if they wanted to

protect themselves from being abused like how the older generations Chicanos were

abused, they needed an education. Thus they rallied behind CCCHE.

Chicano-Americans’ experience was a bridge gap. It started off just being a

simple farmers’ movement, where the farmers were standing up against the powerful

white farm owners. However, the Delano Grape Strike inspired the Chicano youths to get

involved more politically. They gave rise to numerous different student organizations

throughout the state of California. Also with formations such as the CCCHE, the

Chicano-Americans ensured the education needed for the future generations of Chicanos

to thrive and never be abused again.

Korean-Americans

Lastly, the youngest of the minority group Korean-Americans were left. Korean-

Americans really had an interesting rise to political power as well. Prior to LA Riots of

1992, Korean-Americans just referred to themselves as Koreans. This was due to many

26

Koreans at the time were immigrants, and could not adjust well to their new environment.

The Korean roots in general were more secluded and they did not welcome foreigners too

well, thus majority of the Koreans stuck to their community upon their arrival to the

United States (Bates, 2012). Due to their lack of incorporating themselves to their new

environment, the Koreans had very little allies in LA City Hall, Sacramento or

Washington D.C. Their lack of political clout became apparent as their business were

looted and burned down by the rioters during the LA Riots (Chang, 2012). According to

Elaine Kim, who studied the psychological attitude of the victims of the riot, “When the

Korean in South Central and Koreatown dialed 911, nothing happened. . . . How

betrayed they must have felt by what they had believed was a democratic system that

protects its people from violence. . . . What they had to learn was that, as in South Korea,

protection in the U.S. is by and large for the rich and powerful. If there was a choice

between Westwood and Koreatown, it is clear that Koreatown would have to be

sacrificed” (Nopper, 2006). To make the matter worse, when media questioned Chief

Daryl Gates about the lack of protections to the Koreans after the riot, he answered,

““There are going to be situations where people are going to go without assistance . . .

That's just the facts of life. There are not enough of us to be everywhere” (Lee, 2015).

These statements make a strong case to my thesis that the minority citizens believed that

United States was a country that promoted democracy, and protected all its citizen

equally. However, the reality was far from what they have expected. They realized that

like any other country in this world, the government protects the wealthy and the

powerful. This is when the Koreans realized that they could no longer keep quiet and

keep to themselves.

27

According to Shelly Lee, political scientist who specializes in Asian-American

history, “the crisis of LA paved the way for the ascent of new leaders who could work the

government agencies, speak to the media, and become deeply engaged with the U.S race

relations” (Lee, 2015). It may have been the nature of the incident, or maybe it was the

deeply rooted mentality of the Koreans, but the Koreans did not place complete blame on

the government. Rather they blamed themselves for what they saw as their self-imposed

isolation in their suffering. With that on their mind, the Korean Americans decided to

engage with mainstream politics and affairs. After the riots, Koreatown soon became an

integrated political district, with local agencies facilitating residents’ political

involvement and collation works all throughout Los Angeles. In 1992, Koreans reacted

immediately to rebuild and started to hold post-riot meetings to inquire about the

necessary needs to rebuild their ruined city. To achieve their goals, a flurry of new

organizations such as Koreatown Youth and Community Center, Koreatown Immigrant

Workers Alliance or the KIWA, and National Korean American Service and Education

Consortium, emerged (Lee, 2015). With this sudden awakening of political activism in

Koreatown, organizations such as Korean American Democratic Association (KADA)

and Korean American Republican Association (KARA) emerged, spearheading the

political involvement in local and state level government. With leaders like Angela Oh

and Jay Kim, the Koreans also sought out alliance from various other minorities near

their home. With formations such as Multicultural Collaborative (MCC) and the Asian

Pacific Americans for a New Los Angeles (APANLA), Koreans really integrated

themselves to their new identity. At this point in their history in America, the Koreans no

28

longer referred to themselves as “Koreans” but coined the new term “Korean-

Americans.”

All their efforts to become more politically involved in their local community

came to a challenge when Los Angeles City Council tried to divide Koreatown in process

of remapping the city. With this sudden rise in Korean political involvement, the City

Council felt sudden threat, and attempted to divide Koreatown to divide the voting

powers of the Koreans. In David Kim’s documentary, Koreatown, 20 Years After, Kim

informs the audience, “Contrary to their wishes to be moved in whole to Councilman Eric

Garcetti’s 13th district, a district that contains Thai Town and Historic Filipinotown,

which would have given the community a better opportunity to elect a council

representative of its own, the new map annexed most of Koreatown’s lucrative business

core into City Council President Herb Wesson’s 10th district, which ensured that

Koreatown will remain a captive minority within that district with no chances of electing

a representative responsive to the needs and wishes of the Korean American community”

(Kim. 2012). While the city council attempted to divide the Koreans so that they will

hold no political influence in the government, hundreds of Koreans filled the meeting,

protesting. Standing behind their political leaders such as Angela Oh, Grace Yoo and

Aaron Yi, the Korean immigrants petitioned the redrawing of the boundaries to keep

Wilshire Center Koreatown into one boundary.

Korean-Americans’ rise to political power really proved the success of my thesis.

Koreans learned that their government will not protect the weak. So they took the matter

into their own hands and sought to build the political power needed to protect themselves.

With forming of organizations such as the Korean American Democratic Association and

29

the Korean American Republican Association, the Koreans found their voice in the

American politics.

Conclusion

Today in United States, we see all colors of faces in the American politics. In

some states, like California, minorities have become the majority. It wasn’t an easy road

for the minorities. Like African-Americans, Chicano-Americans and the Korean-

Americans, the minorities faced challenges. The challenges came from their own

government. African-Americans were legally being segregated from their community,

and often beat and harassed by the law enforcement. Chicano-Americans were rounded

up and placed in inhabitable living conditions, with no restrooms and dirty water that

often got them sick. Many times, their little children’s were forced to work in the fields

for free and were abused by the rich farm owners. And the local government turned their

hands, because their main source of support for their campaign came from these rich farm

owners. Korean-Americans saw the businesses that they have built with their own two

hands burn to the grounds because the police and the fire department rushed to protect

Westwood. The Korean-Americans lacked the influence in their local government to be

heard when they cried for help. There is one common component amongst these three

minority groups. The government failed to protect the minorities and their livelihood. The

government purposely treated them like second class citizens. The minorities soon

30

realized that they could no longer be silent. They realized that their own government did

not protect them. So they took the matter into their own hands. And they rose.

African-Americans already had some political influence in the country. Thus they

swiftly formed various organizations under their leader, Martin Luther King Jr. This

inspired the young African-Americans. The youths are the future of the nation, and the

youths of African-American community paved the way for their next generation. They

swiftly formed their own organization such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating

Committee, and started their own boycotts. This movement led to formations of famous

groups such as the Black Panther Party. It also led to the formation of worldwide

phenomenon, the New Left Movement. Chicano-Americans did not stand idly by either.

The farmers quickly formed the United Farm Workers union. They sought to increase pay

and provide more habitable living situations for the Chicano farm workers. This inspired

the Chicano-American students all throughout the state of California. Students started

forming their own political organizations to help raise awareness of the Mexican heritage

to their communities. Organizations such as Chicano Coordinating Committee on Higher

Education fought to create equal education opportunities for the Chicanos. Korean-

Americans soon followed their fellow minorities as they saw their businesses burn down

right before their own eyes. The local government ignored their plea for help due to the

fact that the Koreans lacked the influence in their community. To gain that necessary

political power, Koreans grouped up to form the Korean American Democratic

Association and Korean American Republican Association to start gaining the influences

in the American politics. Even when the Los Angeles City Council tried to disperse the

Korean-American’s voting power, they rallied behind their leaders and petitioned.

31

When the government fails to protect the livelihood of the minorities, the

minorities rose. They gained the necessary political power needed to protect their

livelihood. This course of action ultimately formed the American Politics that we know

of today.

32

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