VC Receives California Civil Liberties Grants for Community Projects

Visual Communications is pleased to announce that we are a recipient of the California Civil Liberties Grant for a fiscally sponsored project and a VC Archives project.

Sacramento, Calif. – Nearly two dozen projects across the state involving multiple cultural communities and age groups have received $1.1 million in grants from the California State Library to educate Californians about their civil liberties.

The Civil Liberties Public Education program was created in 1998 to use the incarceration of US citizens of Japanese American ancestry during World War II as a springboard to understanding Californians’ civil liberties and the impact of those liberties being usurped.

“Fear and bigotry were the root cause of internment in World War II. Both are still around,” said Greg Lucas, California’s state librarian. “Better understanding past mistakes and connecting them with current events helps make sure we remember we’re always stronger together.

“Civil Liberties projects can play an active role in meaningful learning and discussion about the issues – and results of the past two years of funding for this program are available online for all to use and learn from.”

The current round of grants is the final of a series funded through a three-year, one-time allocation of $3 million in the budget approved in June 2017.

Previous projects funded by the program can serve as educational tools. Among past projects funded through the program are an interactive online experience of the hardships and decisions for Japanese Americans during World War II, documentaries and podcasts from public broadcasting organizations and nonprofits, to performing and visual arts programming, to teacher’s guides and lesson suggestions with primary source materials and articles. There’s a Science, Technology, Engineering, Math project involving Minecraft. A comprehensive list is available on the California Civil Liberties program website.

History of the California Civil Liberties Program

Prior to World War II, California was home to more Japanese Americans than any other state. In the wake of Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, wartime hysteria led to President Franklin Roosevelt’s signing of Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942, which put more than 120,000 Japanese Americans into relocation camps for more than 18 months.

When the state Legislature created the California Civil Liberties Public Education program in 1998 it said the program’s purpose was “to sponsor public educational activities and development of educational materials to ensure that the events surrounding the exclusion, forced removal, and internment of civilians and permanent resident aliens of Japanese ancestry will be remembered so that the causes and circumstance of this and similar events may be illuminated and understood.”

Members of the media may contact Alex Vassar at alex.vassar@library.ca.gov. A list of funded projects follows. The State Library website is at www.library.ca.gov.

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Visual Communications Media (Revisiting: Robert Nakamura) - “Revisiting: Robert Nakamura” will offer a long-overdue appreciation of the pivotal works of director Robert A. Nakamura — a key figure in the development of Asian Pacific American cinema. Complementary programs and activities tied to director Nakamura’s key works will be presented. Works include WATARIDORI: BIRDS OF PASSAGE (1976) and HITO HATA: RAISE THE BANNER (1980), both of which will be restored for public presentation. These presentations educate the public about the confinement experience and its aftermath in celebrating and interrogating the Japanese American experience during the 20th Century.

Visual Communications Media (fiscal sponsor for Wayne Collins documentary) - Filmmakers will produce a documentary about intrepid California attorney Wayne M. Collins. Collins fought tirelessly on behalf of Americans of Japanese ancestry during WWII by helping restore U.S. citizenship to 5,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry who renounced under duress as a result of the government's imposition of a "loyalty oath" while they were incarcerated and consequently held under martial law at the Tule Lake Segregation Center (with some deported to Japan). In his commitment to defending the rights of those forcefully detained, Collins also worked on behalf of others denied their Constitutional rights under Executive Order 9066. Influential cases that Collins worked on include those of Fred Korematsu and Mitsuye Endo, Japanese Americans who fought for their civil liberties after Execuitive Order 9066.