Civil rights & activism
Vincent Chin
1955–1982 · draftsman, hate-crime victim
Chinese American draftsman from Highland Park whose 1982 beating death by two autoworkers, and the killers' lenient sentences, sparked the Asian American civil rights movement.
- Born
Guangdong, China- Died
Detroit, Michigan
aged 27- Birth name
- Vincent Jen Chin
- Detroit years
- 1961–1982
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Chin was born in Guangdong province in 1955 and adopted from an orphanage in 1961 by David and Lily Chin, who raised him in Highland Park, the city inside Detroit, and later in Oak Park. He worked as an industrial draftsman at Efficient Engineering and waited tables on weekends at the Golden Star restaurant in Ferndale. On June 19, 1982, at his bachelor party at the Fancy Pants club in Highland Park, he was taunted by Chrysler supervisor Ronald Ebens and his stepson Michael Nitz, a laid-off autoworker, who blamed Japanese carmakers for Detroit's job losses and apparently took Chin for Japanese. After a fight they hunted him down outside a nearby McDonald's on Woodward, where Ebens beat him with a baseball bat. He died four days later at Henry Ford Hospital. When a judge sentenced the killers to probation and a fine of about 3,000 dollars, outrage united Asian Americans nationwide and led to the first federal civil rights trial for a crime against an Asian American. He is buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Detroit.
Highlights
- Beaten on June 19, 1982; died June 23 at Henry Ford Hospital
- Killers received probation and a fine, no jail time
- Case led to the first federal civil rights trial for an Asian American victim
- Catalyst of the Asian American civil rights movement
- Buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery, Detroit
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 4
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Buried here · 1982
Forest Lawn Cemetery (Detroit)
Cemetery where Vincent Chin is buried, later joined by his parents.
Related place · 1982
Henry Ford Hospital
Hospital where Chin died on June 23, 1982, four days after the attack.
Related place · 1982
Fancy Pants club (Highland Park)
Closed
Woodward Avenue strip club in Highland Park where the confrontation began during Chin's bachelor party.
Memorial
Vincent Chin memorial marker (Ferndale)
Memorial marker in Ferndale, where Chin worked on weekends, recalling his killing and its legacy.