The Chinese Connection

Document Type

Video

Publication Date

4-19-2012

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Disciplines

American Politics | Journalism Studies

Abstract

The Chinese experience in Mississippi is one of remarkable success. Some came to this country to work in the cotton fields, on the levees, or on the railroads, but quickly moved to small grocery stores, especially in the Delta. At first, they were barred from the all-white public schools. But they assimilated and in town after town, high school valedictorians were often Chinese.

The panel that will discuss that evolution includes:

  • Chat Sue of Austin, Texas, a political science professor and college administrator who was born in China and immigrated to Clarksdale. He was a student at Ole Miss in 1962, when rioting accompanied the enrollment of the university's first black student, James Meredith
  • Frieda Quon of Olive Branch, a retired library science professor who is working to develop the Mississippi Delta Chinese Heritage Museum in Cleveland. A member of the first class of Chinese-American students allowed in the Greenville public schools in 1948, she was also at Ole Miss during the Meredith crisis
  • Ruby Joe, a retired internist from Canton, who was valedictorian at Hernando High School in 1967, long after overt discrimination against the Chinese had ceased. A graduate of the University of Mississippi Medical School, she is married to David Joe, a physician and chemical engineer
  • Martin F. Jue of Starkville, a worldwide manufacturer of ham radio equipment and electronics, who grew up in the back of a small grocery store in Hollandale, one of the few towns to allow Chinese to attend white public schools. His great grandfather helped build the Transcontinental Railroad across America in the late 1860s.
  • Moderated by Bill Rose.

Relational Format

video recording

Extent

1:02:37

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