Part 3: Activism in the 1960s-80s and Political Identity

The mural was significant because it engaged a specific emerging identity: one of a young, original Chinatown made of Chinese Americans with a specific and enterprising political identity that came of age alongside the Civil Rights Movement. 

Chinese and Black solidarities had been growing the last decade, as political self-awareness had begun to rise both inside and outside the Chinese community. 

Voices that had been historically suppressed by language discrimination and access, positionality, and space were now highlighted in an important way that was given an important platform to speak for themselves and reckon with their own place. Its specific space-oriented focus on Washington D.C. also helped to parallel the concentrated Asian American movement on the West Coast. 

“Our outrage at being ignored as long-time contributors to America is only compounded by the continued lack of sensitivity to the Asian community. We hope and demand that in the future The Washington Post and other newspapers exercise better judgement when writing about a community of which they are neither a member nor well informed.”

Political identity was becoming less and less insular, and Chinatown became a site of inquiry for the city as a whole.  The Beautification agenda operated heavily in Black neighborhoods as well as Chinatown, with Lady Bird Johnson herself appearing to promote her work in the public eye. 

Chinatown was a major site of work for Lady Bird Johnson’s 1960s Beautification agenda. Believing the mental health of a nation was highly reliant on aesthetic beauty, Lady Bird Johnson aimed to use Washington D.C. as her “front yard” example of this broader nationwide effort. Chinatown became an experimental ground for a series of infrastructural improvements, including the installation of public art and an increase in greenery, amongst other changes. 

These issues were not merely approached as a cosmetic bandage on issues of racial inequality and redlining, but as a method of streamlining resources for improving overall quality of life: clean water, air, and environments. The degree to which this agenda contributed to the gentrification of the area that continues today is unclear, but not insignificant. 

Chinatown was also impacted by the unrest following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in April 1968. Civil unrest affected the entire city, and residents reported rioting, burning, and looting of many businesses and storefronts. All businesses, including Chinese, were asked to close early out of respect. Harry Chow, longtime Chinatown resident, lived in the neighborhood through the unrest. His family ran a laundromat. 

As he recounts, a young woman entered the store warning that businesses on their Chinatown block were going to be destroyed. Another friend advised that they should place a sign reading “soul brother” in front of their store, signaling solidarity with the protestors.  Their business was untouched throughout the night. Another business operated by Chinese immigrants was a grocery store in the historically Black Shaw neighborhood. 

The owners, close with the surrounding Black working-class community, also found their store untouched throughout the unrest. Windows and street fronts were marked with large X marks in soap to signify that the businesses were to be spared. 

Following the events of May 1968, however, the neighborhood was “essentially shut down for a week.” Many residents felt unsafe, hurt, and scared, with some citing the unrest as a reason to close their businesses, and move out of the city into the suburbs of Northern Virginia and Maryland. The population, already dwindling by the mid-60s, “didn’t know how to fit in.”