Asian Pacific American Heritage Month

May is Asian Pacific American (APA) Heritage Month—a celebration of Asian and Pacific Islanders in the United States.

“APA Heritage Month was first established in 1977 when Representatives Frank Horton and Norman Mineta and Senators Daniel Inouye and Spark Matsunaga introduced resolutions asking the President to declare the first ten days of May (the month when the first Japanese immigrants arrived in the U.S. in 1843) as Asian/Pacific Heritage Week. In 1978 President Carter made it an annual event and in 1990, President George H.W. Bush proclaimed the entire month of May to be Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.”

Read more: http://www.asian-nation.org/heritage.shtml#ixzz0ehAQ7McE

Asian Pacific American Heritage Month is celebrated with community festivals, government-sponsored activities, and educational activities for students. This year’s theme is “Lighting the Past, Present, and Future.”

http://www.infoplease.com/spot/asianhistory1.html

• Asian Pacific American Heritage Month — Exhibits, images, learning resources, and other cultural materials from the Library of Congress, Smithsonian Institution and national institutions.
• Celebrate APA Heritage Month — “Article on the history, meaning, and ways to celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage” from Asian-nation.org
• Facts for Features: Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month — “Facts for Features and Special Editions consist of collections of statistics from the Census Bureau’s demographic and economic subject areas intended to commemorate anniversaries or observances or to provide background information for topics in the news.”
• Asian Pacific American Heritage Month — A “sampling of images documenting Asian Pacific American artists from the Peter A. Juley & Son Collection” from the Smithsonian’s Flickr set.
• Who’s who of Asian Americans — A listing of prominent Asian-Americans from Asian-American.net

Snapshots of Asian America: Asian American Activism in the 1960s and ’70s, a Look at the Movement’s Spirit and LegacyAn exhibit marking Asian American activists from KQED.

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Activities for Kids

Asian Pacific American Heritage — Teaching resources and activities from Scholastic.com
• Asian-Pacific-American History – Teacher ResourcesPrintables, lesson plans, games, quizzes, puzzles, music and literature resources to celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage Month
• Celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage Month! — Resources from the Educationworld Website.