A commemoration of the death of Vincent Chin will take place Monday, June 23, from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Chinese American Museum, 425 N. Los Angeles St., Los Angeles.

In June 1982 in the Detroit area, Chin, a 27-year-old Chinese American draftsman, was killed in a racially motivated assault by two white men, Chrysler plant supervisor Ronald Ebens and his stepson, laid-off autoworker Michael Nitz. Ebens and Nitz attacked Chin following a brawl at a strip club in Highland Park, where Chin had been celebrating his bachelor party with friends in advance of his upcoming wedding.

Against the backdrop of anti-Japanese sentiment in the U.S. at the time, due in part to the influx of Japanese-made autos, Ebens and Nitz allegedly assumed Chin was Japanese, and a witness described them using anti-Asian racial slurs as they attacked him, ultimately beating Chin to death

Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Charles Kaufman sentenced Ebens and Nitz to three years’ probation and a $3,000 fine, but no jail time. This lenient sentence sparked nationwide protests by Asian American civil rights organizations, which led to Ebens and Nitz being tried on federal civil rights charges. Ebens was convicted, but the conviction was overturned on appeal.

Speakers at the commemoration will include Aki Maehara, professor of Asian American history at East Los Angeles College, who was the victim of an apparent hate crime earlier this year; Michelle Myers, poet, community activist and professor of Asian American studies; and Robim Toma, executive director of the Los Angels County Commission of Human Relations, which issues an annual report on hate crimes.

Featured performing artists: arianna lady basco, Ashley C. Lanuza, jason chu, MADIMA, MaJiK and Taz Ahmed.

Participating organizations include Chinese American Museum, El Pueblo Los Angeles, National Conversation on Race, Our Shared Future: Reckoning with Our Racial Past (Smithsonian), Bank of America, La Plaza de Cultura y Artes, Japanese American National Museum, Chinese American Citizens Alliance (L.A. Lodge), Chinese Historical Society of Southern California, Los Angeles Cuonty Human Relations Commission, Palms Up Cademy, UCLA Asian American Studies Center, Asian American Education Project, Latino and Latina Roundtable of San Gabriel and Pomona Valley, Commnity Build, Asian American Press Club of the U.S.