Illinois House, Senate pass bill requiring schools to teach Asian American history

If Pritzker signs the Teaching Equitable Asian-American History Act bill, Illinois will become the first U.S. state to mandate Asian American history, according to Reuters.

Elementary and high school teachers would reframe their teaching about the challenging era in Asian American history around the “wrongful incarceration of Japanese Americans” and the “heroic service of the 100th Infantry Battalion and the 442nd Regimental Combat Team” during World War II.

Illinois state Rep. Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz, a Democratic Party co-sponsor of the bill, told Reuters in April: “Asian Americans are a part of the American fabric but we are often invisible.”

The Legislature’s passing of the bill comes after a year in which Asian American hate crimes have more than doubled, according to data from Stop AAPI Hate.

In May, President Joe Biden signed the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, a bill that would help the Justice Department track and report anti-Asian hate crimes.

Biden remarked at the signing of the bill, “Just days after the mass shooting in the Atlanta area, Vice President (Kamala) Harris and I — we went down to Atlanta to meet with Asian Americans and the community across Georgia. It was a raw and emotional visit we had.”

“We heard how too many Asian Americans have been waking up each morning this past year genuinely — genuinely — fearing for their safety just opening the door and walking down the street, and safety for their loved ones. The moms and dads who, when they let their kids out the door to go to school, were worried.”

“My message to all of those of you who are hurting is: We see you. And the Congress has said: We see you. And we are committed to stop the hatred and the bias.”