The Asian American Civil Rights Movement: The Yellow Power Movement

The African American movement was a great inspiration to the Asian Americans, and the growing success of the African Americans fueled the Asian Americans into starting their civil rights movement–The Yellow Power movement. 1960s was the decade of the African American civil rights movement, leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr. displayed courage and patience in the fight against the injustice in the United States of America. The actions of the courageous African American men and women fueled the animosity Asian Americans felt against the injustice they were receiving and caused a new civil rights movement to arise: The Asian American Civil Rights Movement, or the Yellow Power Movement. During 1966, the Black Panther Party (BPP) was created
In the may of 1968, the half-a-dozen or so people who responded to the phone calls gathered in the “AAPA home” or Ichioka and Gee’s apartment. The members agreed unanimously on the name Asian American Political Alliance (AAPA) for the historic independent organization. The name of the organization was chosen really carefully, the term Asian Americans was actually not in use during that time. Oriental was commonly use to refer to Asian Americans, and to fight that the term Asian Americans was chosen. One of the founding members of the AAPA was also a member of the Black Panther Party, and his name was Richard Aoki. He soon became the spokesperson of the AAPA and developed close ties with the BPP and the Red Guards–an Asian American organization modeled after the Panthers.” The AAPA soon rapidly spread throughout the USA and created an avenue of activism that allowed other Asian Americans to play roles in the fight against inequality. The AAPA also participated in the Third World Liberation Front Strikes at San Francisco State College and UC Berkeley. The AAPA allowed the Asian Americans to fight against oppression, and rename and liberate