CITY HALL STEPS — HUNDREDS OF ASIAN NEW YORKERS JOINED CITY COUNCILMEMBER SUSAN ZHUANG on Tuesday, April 8, in presenting the Council with a resolution for Chinese American Railroad Workers Memorial Day.
The resolution, which has wide support in City Hall, would select May 10 as the date for the holiday, as it marks the anniversary of the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad in 1869. The day would also honor the memory of more than 12,000 Chinese-American railroad workers, who were responsible for building large parts of the system, giving their labor — and sometimes their lives — to lay the tracks of that and later lines, some of which remain in use today.
Several Chinese-American leaders in New York City joined Councilmember Zhuang on the front steps of City Hall: This included Kimlau Post 1291 American Legion L.T. Kenny Wong; Joe Luo, Cantonese USA; Stanley Ng; Hunter College Professor Vivian Louie; Museum of Chinese in America President Michael Lee; the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, the Lin Sing Association, and the Hoy Sun Ning Yung Association.
The American Legion’s Wong said, “I’m a descendant of a Transcontinental Railroad worker. My great-grandfather came to America in 1860. He was recruited as a Chinese laborer.”
✰✰✰
