“Rocky Chin for City Council Election” poster

Rockwell “Rocky” Chin is a civil rights attorney and activist, born in Washington D.C. in 1947. In the 1970s, he became involved with the Asian American Movement when he joined the New York City-based arts collective Basement Workshop. He continued to advocate for the empowerment of minorities, particularly Asian Americans in New York’s Chinatown, and helped spearhead the foundation of the Asian American Bar Association of New York (AABANY) in 1989. He also served as one of AABANY’s directors. In 1992, Congress passed legislation that officially designated May as Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. That same year, Rocky helped to coordinate the first city hall conference on Asian-Pacific Americans (APA), which attempted to address political issues vital to the APA community. Later, he ran for New York City Council in 2001, but lost to opponent Alan Gerson. From 2007-2015, he served as director for the Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity at the New York State Division of Human Rights, and he currently serves as an AARP New York Executive Council Member.