Chinese Immigrant Hong Yen Chang is Granted a Posthumous Law License Madana Kloss

Chinese Immigrant Hong Yen Chang is Granted a Posthumous Law License Madana Kloss

Hong Yen Chang

Hong Yen Chang was the first Chinese immigrant to be a licensed law practitioner in America. In 1890, Chang, eager to start his law practice in San Francisco, took the California State Bar Exam. However, even though Chang passed the Bar Exam, he was denied a California law license. At the time, only US citizens could become lawyers. Unfortunately, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was still in effect, so Chang was unable to apply for US citizenship. 

In 2011, 85 years after Chang's death, a group of UC Davis law students organized to posthumously grant Chang a Califronia law license. The students got a law firm to bring this case to the Supreme Court of California pro bono (free of charge). On March 16, 2015, the decision to award Chang a California law license posthoumously was unanimously agreed on by the California Supreme Court Justices. Additionally, the State Supreme Court released a nine page court document that validated Chang as a lawyer and apologized for the government's xenophobic actions.

This is similar to the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, which apologized and compensated for Japanese internment during World War II.

source links:

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/chinese-immigrant-denied-law-license-gets-one-125-years-later-n325636

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-chinese-lawyer-20150316-story.html

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/mar/17/chinese-immigrant-granted-posthumous-law-licence

http://www.courts.ca.gov/opinions/documents/S223736.PDF