MichiganRadio

Michigan Asian Americans, lawyers honor Chin FERNDALE, MI (Michigan Radio) - Members of Michigan's Asian American community remembered Vincent Chin Wednesday.

Two unemployed auto workers beat the Chinese-American man to death outside a Highland Park bar in 1982. The men yelled racial epithets, and blamed Asians for taking their jobs.

A Wayne County Circuit court judge sentenced both killers to probation, and neither ever spent time in prison.

Frances Wang, with the group Michigan Citizens for Justice, says Chin's killing spawned a pan-Asian American civil rights movement.

"After the Vincent Chin case they realized that, for example, calling a Korean person by a Chinese epithet or a Chinese person by a Japanese epithet it matters," Wang says. "Then, there wasn't this sort of understanding. But it matters."

The Chin case also had important legal ramifications. Experts say it bolstered the case for minimum sentencing guidelines, and allowing victim impact statements in court.

The Michigan State Bar Association dedicated a "legal milestone" plaque in Ferndale that honors Chin. It's near the site of a former Chinese restaurant where he worked as a waiter.

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