On Monday the Californian Supreme Court granted Hong Yen Chang his law license. Hong Yen Chang's life
story is impressive:
Chang came to the United States in 1872. He earned an undergraduate degree from Yale in 1879, and a law degree from Columbia Law School in 1886.
A year after graduating from law school, New York state blocked Chang from practising law, citing the fact that he was not a citizen.
When a judge made him a naturalized citizen, and New York State passed a law allowing him to reapply, Chang became the first Chinese American lawyer in the United States.
This was all in 1888.
Chang then moved to California, where anti-Chinese sentiment was strong. Many Chinese had immigrated to California during the Gold Rush and eventually began to compete with natives for jobs, spurring anti-Chinese laws.
The California Supreme Court found Chang qualified to practice law but said the New York judge erred when it naturalized him. That was impossible under the Chinese Exclusion Act, the court said.
The 9 page decision is a short history of Chang and racism in America. It is an acknowledgement of mistakes made and the need to learn from them.
It concludes:
Even if we cannot undo history, we can acknowledge it and, in so doing, accord a full measure of recognition to Chang’s pathbreaking efforts to become the first lawyer of Chinese descent in the United States. The people and the courts of California were denied Chang’s services as a lawyer. But we need not be denied his example as a pioneer for a more inclusive legal profession. In granting Hong Yen Chang posthumous admission to the California Bar, we affirm his rightful place among the ranks of persons deemed qualified to serve as an attorney and counselor at law in the courts of California.
The ruling can be read
here.