UMass Boston Asian American Studies Program

enormous appreciation to Linh-Phương Vũ and Ngọc-Trân Vũ for co-leading the 1975 Vietnamese Diaspora Commemoration Initiative and to UMB AsAmSt Prof. Sơn Ca Lâm and all of our faculty, staff, alumni and students who have contributed to this ongoing community process!!. Tommy Lam, 24, works with the 1975 project, which is attempting to build a monument to the Vietnamese community in Fields Corner. He said a 2019 trip back to his father’s rural homeland opened his eyes to how far his family has come. “I was able to see the whole rice fields and really understand the root of where I am, and the privilege that I have to be born in America, given the opportunity and just kind of live that American dream,” Lam said. “My dad coming to America at 18 with the shirt on his back and nothing else, it’s crazy how much we’re able to grow.”. Saturday’s event at Boston College High School was a multigenerational affair, showcasing how much the war continues to affect Vietnamese families around Boston. Son Ca Lâm, a professor at the UMass Boston Asian America Studies Program, pointed out the dozens of young volunteers who scampered to set up and staff the various exhibit areas around the high school. ”It is not just the older generation who are sort of commemorating the ... displacement and their fleeing from the homeland,“ Lâm said, ”but the younger generation is also trying to carry on the torch and honor those stories and that experience and remembering where we come from.”

For some members of the Vietnamese community, Saturday’s commemoration was an opportunity to connect with a time their families don’t like to talk about. Kelly Tran, 22, is a senior at UMass Boston and one of the artists who installed an exhibition to amplify oral histories of the diaspora community. She said that growing up, she had not been exposed to much of her Vietnamese history. “A lot of my family members are very secretive or reluctant to tell the full story to me and my siblings,” she said. Tran knows both of her grandparents fought in the war, and were imprisoned for years in brutal Viet Cong “re-education camps.” Tran said her coursework in the Asian American Studies Program has given her further insight to her Vietnamese heritage...

print and audio link from WGBH:

50 years later, Boston's Vietnamese community honors those who re-rooted here At gatherings around the city, Vietnamese Americans spoke of the importance of preserving the stories and the legacy of the generation that arrived in the U.S. as refugees from a brutal war.

A Quincy man received an 18-month prison sentence on Wednesday for committing a hate crime, federal prosecutors said. John Sullivan, 78, had previously pleaded guilty to one count of violating the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, Acting US Attorney Joshua S. Levy said in a statement. On Dec. 2, 2022, Sullivan encountered an Asian American family with three children under 12 outside a post office in Quincy. He yelled at the family to “go back to China” and threatened to kill them, prosecutors said. Sullivan then hit an adult member of the family with his car, federal prosecutors said. The man landed on the hood and remained there as Sullivan drove about 200 feet, prosecutors said. Sullivan slammed on his brakes, causing the man to slide off the car, and then hit him again. The impact caused the man to fall face-first into a 10-foot-deep construction ditch. He suffered multiple injuries and a concussion.

Sullivan was “fueled by his hate of Asian Americans,” Levy said. “Every single man, woman and child living in Massachusetts has a fundamental right to be free from acts of hate and violence,” Levy said in the statement. “The conduct here is truly despicable and this office will dedicate whatever resources are needed to vigorously prosecute these types of hate crimes.” Sullivan was indicted by a federal grand jury in February 2023. It was the first time the US attorney’s office in Massachusetts had prosecuted someone under the Shepard-Byrd Hate Crimes Prevention Act. Although federal guidelines recommend a sentence between 37 and 46 months, prosecutors recommended a two-year sentence due to Sullivan’s age and health, according to court records.

“A run-of-the-mill trip to the post office turned into a nightmare for this Vietnamese man when John Sullivan decided to target him because of the color of his skin and the country of his ancestors,” said Jodi Cohen, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston division. “There is no way to undo the damage Mr. Sullivan caused with his hateful, repulsive, and violent behavior, but hopefully today’s sentence provides some measure of comfort.”

Quincy man sentenced to 18 months in prison for anti-Asian hate crime - The Boston Globe John Sullivan, 78, had previously pleaded guilty to one count of violating the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, prosecutors said.