Roland Hwang, Richard Mui and others unveil the new Vincent Chin honorary street sign.
Local lawmakers joined Asian American leaders on Cass and Peterboro Monday to unveil a street sign above Peterboro Street honoring the late Vincent Chin.
Chin was a 27-year-old Chinese American who was beaten to death in 1982. He was killed by auto workers who blamed Chin for industry layoffs, in what advocates say was a racially motivated hate crime.
His death sparked a Asian American civil rights movement in Detroit.
“What happened to him on June 19, 1982 was definitely tragic and just such an awful occurrence… He was beaten four times with a baseball bat. His last words were ‘It’s not fair,'” said Roland Hwang, 75, an attorney who helped create American Citizens for Justice after Chin’s death.
The group met for the first time to discuss Chin’s murder in 1982. Two years ago, Hwang and other Asian American activists like Richard Mui tried to convince the city to halt the demolition of 140-year-old Chinese Merchants Association building at 3143 Cass Ave. Olympia Development razed the structure in July, 2023.
Lawmakers, including State Sen. Stephanie Chang, council member Gabriela-Santiago-Romero, who represents Chinatown within District 6, and Mayor Mike Duggan, spoke on stage underneath a tent set up on Peterboro outside of Craig’s Coffee and the Peterboro restaurant.
Chang spoke about the importance of educating future generations about Chin’s life, which prompted a broader fight for justice. She said she’s excited for visitors to pass by the sign and ask, “Who was Vincent Chin?”
“During these increasingly challenging times where the Trump administration is using fear mongering and unlawful scare tactics to create division in our communities,” Santiago-Romero said. “Too many communities, including our Asian American community are continuing to experience violence and harassment.”
An emcee noted that getting Chin’s name on the sign required City Council to approve a change to its symbolic street name ordinance which prevented non-residents from having their names above street signs. Chin lived in Highland Park before his death.
Rev. Horace Sheffield III of the Detroit Association of Black Organizations told the crowd his father called him in tears after he heard the news of Chin’s murder. His father, Horace Sheffield Jr., was an influential UAW leader, who helped Black and other minority members attain leadership positions within the union.
He highlighted Hwang’s commitment to supporting causes involving his Black neighbors.
“I’m just proud, even though we had the Detroit Association of Black Organizations, that my friend Roland understood that injustice anywhere was a threat to justice everywhere,” Sheffield said.
Duggan said on stage he was angry and frustrated after hearing about Chin’s death and the lack of charges from Bill Cahalan, the county prosecutor at the time. Cahalan resigned a year after deciding to give Chin’s killers probation due to public outcry. Duggan was a law student at UofM in 1982, and said Chin’s murder.
“A new prosecutor, John O’Harris was elected in 1984, and one of his first hires was a young graduate of University of Michigan law school — it was me,” Duggan said. “He would tell me how tormented he felt that the Wayne County prosecutor’s office had been part of such a miscarriage of justice.”
The audience Monday afternoon was made up of mostly stakeholders from organizations involved in the revival of the block, which at one time was the city’s second Chinatown, with restaurants and a recently demolished community center, which also served as a free health clinic.
Today, residents of the area are mostly transplants living in apartment buildings off Woodward on Charlotte and Peterboro. There are two longtime homeowners in the area who live next to the Detroit Shipping Co. restaurant, but neither were in attendance.
They can expect to see a more active block in coming months.
Midtown Inc. last year received $1 million in state funds for streetscape improvements on Peterboro and Cass. Details for the upgrades or when they are set to take place have not yet been made public.
Separately, a developer who transformed the long abandoned Chung’s restaurant is still seeking users to populate the renovated space on Cass and Peterboro.
The Detroit Chinatown Vision Committee, led by local archivist Francis Grunow, is hosting the first ever Chinatown block party on July 26.
