The month of May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. This month was chosen to celebrate the first Japanese immigrants to the United States. In 1978, President Jimmy Carter signed into law the celebration of Asian/Pacific American Heritage Week.  In 1990, Congress expanded this celebration to a month. Throughout  the month of May, all Americans have the opportunity to  recognize and celebrate the achievements and contributions of Asian and Pacific Americans with community festivals, government-sponsored activities, and educational activities for students.  At a time when the Asian American and Pacific  Islander (AAPI) community has become the target of surging hate crimes and discrimination, this important month-long celebration could  not have arrived sooner.

On April 30, 2021, President Biden wrote a proclamation on Asian American and Native Hawaiian / Pacific Islander Heritage Month. We encourage everyone to read the President’s message, which touches upon his own administration’s roots in the AAPI community and  the wrongful acts of bigotry that too many Americans have recently directed at Asians and Asian Americans.

As we have said before, at Wong Fleming, we have a long history of celebrating and highlighting our differences. We learn from those differences and they make us stronger.   We are proud to have two partners who have served as presidents of the New Jersey chapter for the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) and one partner who has  been awarded NAPABA’s Trailblazer Award.