Righting Historical Wrongs: Connecting Black Reparations to Japanese American Redress
February 21, 2021 | 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
Signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942, Executive Order 9066 called for the incarceration of 120,000 Japanese Americans during WWII. Every year, the Japanese American community in Chicago comes together to commemorate EO9066 as a reminder of the fragility of civil liberties in times of crisis and the importance of remaining vigilant in protecting the rights and freedoms of all.
Day of Remembrance 2021 features an address from writer John Tateishi and Alderman Robin Rue Simmons. Tateishi was JACL’s Redress Director, developing the organization’s redress strategy, and Executive Director, guiding the organization’s response to 9/11 and anti-Muslim violence. Ald. Rue Simmons represents Evanston’s 5th Ward and helped pass the nation’s first reparations bill, which uses cannabis taxes to address historic and ongoing anti-Black racial discrimination. Josina Morita, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District, will lead a follow-up discussion.
About the Speaker
John Tateishi
John Tateishi, born in Los Angeles in 1939, was incarcerated from ages three to six at Manzanar, one of America's ten World War II concentration camps. He studied English Literature at UC Berkeley and attended UC Davis for graduate studies. He played important roles in leading the campaign for Japanese American redress, and as the director of the Japanese American Citizens League, he used the lessons of the campaign to ensure that the rights of this nation's Arab and Muslim communities were protected after 9/11.
