University of Illinois Press The Fight for Asian American Civil Rights: Liberal Protestant Activism, 1900-1950

From the early 1900s, liberal Protestants grafted social welfare work onto spiritual concerns on both sides of the Pacific. Their goal: to forge links between whites and Asians that countered anti-Asian discrimination in the United States. Their test: uprooting racial hatreds that, despite their efforts, led to the shameful incarceration of Japanese Americans in World War II. Sarah M. Griffith draws on the experiences of liberal Protestants, and the Young Men's Christian Association in particular, to reveal the intellectual, social, and political forces that powered this movement. Engaging a wealth of unexplored primary and secondary sources, Griffith explores how YMCA leaders and their partners in the academy and distinct Asian American communities labored to mitigate racism. The alliance's early work, based in mainstream ideas of assimilation and integration, ran aground on the Japanese exclusion law of 1924. Yet their vision of Christian internationalism and interracial cooperation maintained through the World War II internment trauma. As Griffith shows, liberal Protestants emerged from that dark time with a reenergized campaign to reshape Asian-white relations in the postwar era. Review "The Fight for Asian American Civil Rights expands our understanding of civil rights by illuminating the contribution of liberal white leadership to Asian American equality."--Jon Thares Davidann, author of Cultural Diplomacy in U.S.-Japanese Relations, 1919-1941 "This illuminating study documents how liberal Protestant activists mobilized against racial discrimination and engaged in interracial coalition-building. Recommended." -- Choice   "YMCA officials with experience as Protestant missionaries in Japan led the defense of Asian Americans in the first half of the twentieth century. Griffith illuminates several decades of anti-racist organizing and writing by a dynamic group of Y leaders, culminating in the group's climactic and courageous defense of Japanese Americans during World War II. This is a substantial research achievement that broadens our understanding of ecumenical Protestantism and of the history of civil rights."--David A. Hollinger, author of After Cloven Tongues of Fire: Protestant Liberalism in Modern American History From the Author Sarah M. Griffith is an associate professor of history at Queens University of Charlotte. About the Author Sarah M. Griffith is an associate professor of history at Queens University of Charlotte.