Overview
Seattle's International District: The Making of a Pan-Asian American Community traces the journey of early Asian immigrants to Seattle, describes their early settlements, and chronicles the evolution of the International District from its early times to the present. It covers the ebb and flow of the area, the struggles to preserve it, internal and external conflicts, and the important forces, government policies, events, and people who have shaped the District.It is a story about the movement of the Chinatowns, the heydays of the 1920s, Filipino immigrants and union organizing, the internment of Japanese Americans, the decline of the District and how it fought back, the changing social and political structure of the neighborhood, the areaís residential and commercial revitalization, and its emergence as a present-day pan-Asian American community.
Doug Chin has been a civil rights and community activist since the 1960s and, in the 1980s, was the International District Coordinator for the city of Seattle. He has been a board member for many community agencies in the District, including the International Examiner. He is a second-generation Seattle native and has written many articles on the history of Chinese Americans and the International District.