"Remembering 1882-Fighting for Civil Rights in the Shadow of the Chinese Exclusion Act" is on display at King Library, March 9 – April 30, 2013. "Drawn from photographs, newspaper commentaries, political cartoons, and other objects in CHSA's collections, the "Remembering 1882" exhibit provides a flavor for the intrigue, passion and poignancy of this dramatic chapter in American history." The exhibit is presented by the Chinese Historical Society of America on the 125th Anniversary of the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act.

Did you know that, in 1852, Chinese people comprised 20 percent of California's population and joined the Fourth of July parade in San Francisco? You may explore the history and impacts of the Chinese exclusion laws and the people's struggles for equal protection through this exhibit, as well as through books such as:

• Strangers from a Different Shore: a History of Asian Americans by Ronald Takaki
• Defining America Through Immigration Policy by Bill Ong Hing
• Angel Island: Immigrant Gateway to America by Erika Lee & Judy Yung
• Asian American Dreams: the Emergence of an American People by Helen Zia
• Chinese American Voices: From the Gold Rush to the Present edited with introductions by  Judy Yung, Gordon H. Chang, and Him Mark Lai
• Driven Out: the Forgotten War Against Chinese Americans by Jean Pfaelzer

For online resources related to this subject, here are a few worthy ones:

• Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation
• California Historical Foundation
• Library of Congress: The Chinese in California, 1850-1925
• A Bill Moyers Special: Becoming American-The Chinese Experience

Looking forward to seeing you at the Library!

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) (P.L. 101-336) is the most comprehensive civil rights legislation adopted to prohibit discrimination against people with disabilities. Public and private businesses, state and local government agencies, private entities offering public accommodations and services, transportation and utilities are required to comply with the law as quoted on en.wikipedia.org.

San Jose Public Library:

• San Jose Public Library Policies for Disability Services
• San Jose Public Library Policies for ADA Workstations and Adaptive Equipment
• Social Workers in San Jose Public Library
• Collections for Disability in San Jose Public Library

Additional Information:

• International Disability Center
• Benefit for people with disability 
• State disability insurance 
• National organization on disability 
• Disability community 

Girls Like Us: Fighting for a World Where Girls Are Not for Sale, an Activist Finds Her Calling and Heals Herself is an account of a human being in high spirit.   After surviving a period of being a victim of the commercial sex industry, she broke free of her pimp and her past, went to college and a graduate program, and founded a nonprofit organization - GEMS, Girls Educational and Mentoring Services - to help other girls who endure the same circumstances.

Chapter 4 "Recruitment" details how young girls are recruited into the trade, and explains "why the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 and its reauthorizations in 2003, 2005, and 2008 have all supported a definition of child sex trafficking where children under the age of eighteen found in the commercial sex trade are considered to be victims of trafficking without requiring that they experienced 'forced, fraud, or coercion' to keep them there."

Rachel's book is indeed a significant contribution to the motto "Human Trafficking: Fight It.  Expose It.  End It."

Although not available in the SJPL system, Somebody's Daughter:  The Hidden Story of America's Prostituted Children and the Battle to Save Them can be requested via the LINK+ system with a SJPL library card.

This book tells stories of girl victims of the sex trafficking trade from many different angles; it gives us the points of view of the judge in "Courtroom 18", the police officers, the social workers, and the activists who all work together to try to rescue and help these young victims.  It mentions the sin cities Las Vegas, New York City, Phoenix,  and Dallas as urban cities where this trafficking epidemic is found to happen.

Guy Jacobson, founder of Priority Films and RedLight Children Campaign (RLC), and his Priority Films partner, the Israeli actress Adi Ezroni were bestowed by Condoleezza Rice with the "Global Heroes" Award in the U. S. Department of State Trafficking In Persons (TIP) Report 2008 to recognize their efforts trying to rescue young children who are victims of the global sex trade, lots of whom are under the age of 6.  Read more about it on the U. S. Department of State page (under the paragraph of "United States").

Late January marks the first anniversary of the death of noted author and social activist Howard Zinn. He was 87 when he died of a reported heart attack while swimming during some traveling with his daughter.

Dr. Zinn always looked to me to be the impish grandpa each child deserves. As a mentor, he appeared to live a full life, working on social issues important to him through his research, writing and activism.

As we enter yet again another U.S. Presidential election year, let’s take another look at Howard Zinn his legacy, and the revisionist history that he leaves us.

Perhaps the book he is most widely recognized for is A People’s History of the United States, first published in 1980 and now a commonly used text in high school history courses! According to the New York Times, this book had a first printing of just 4,000 copies and was no conventional historical account, concentrating instead on "what he saw as the genocidal depredations of Christopher Columbus, the blood lust of Theodore Roosevelt and the racial failings of Abraham Lincoln."

This seminal work spawned a sequel: The Twentieth Century: A People’s History as well as versions written for young people: A Young People’s History of the United States, Volume 1 and A Young People’s History of the United States, Volume 2.

Dr. Zinn, a contemporary of left-wing activist and MIT professor Noam Chomsky, “made an amazing contribution to American intellectual and moral culture,” according to Chomsky. “He’s changed the conscience of America in a highly constructive way. I really can’t think of anyone I can compare him to in this respect,” Professor Chomsky said in the Boston Globe online upon Dr. Zinn’s death.

A little bit about Howard Zinn, courtesy of the Boston Globe online: Born in New York City in 1922, he attended New York public schools and was working in the “Brooklyn Navy Yard when he joined the Army Air Corps where he worked as a bombardier in World War II, receiving the Air Medal and attaining the rank of second lieutenant. It was during this time that Zinn courted his soon-to-be wife through the mails before marrying in 1944. After the war, he worked a series of menial jobs before entering New York University on the GIP Bill, working nights in a warehouse loading trucks. He was awarded masters and doctoral degrees in history from Columbia University.

In 1956, Dr. Zinn joined the faculty at Atlanta’s Spelman College, becoming chairman of the history department. During this time he became active in the civil rights movement, serving on the executive committee of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and participating in numerous demonstrations.

In 1964, Dr. Zinn joined the staff at Boston University, becoming full professor in 1966 where the focus of his activism became the Vietnam war. He spoke at many rallies and teach-ins, drawing national attention when he and the Rev. Daniel Berrigan went to Hanoi in 1968 to receive three prisoners released by the North Vietnamese.

In 1988, Dr. Zinn took early retirement to concentrate on speaking and writing, including writing for the stage. On his last day at BU, he ended class 30 minutes early so he could join a picket line and urged the 500 students attending the lecture to come along. A hundred did so.

Dr. Zinn’s memoir, You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train is available through your local library in both book and DVD formats.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Kathryn Stockett was born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi and writes about the civil rights movement in the South.

The Help is about a young white woman in the early 1960s in Mississippi who becomes interested in the plight of the African-American maids that every family has working for them. She writes about the mistreatment, abuse and heartbreaks of working for white families during this time.