I remember when I started teaching at City College of NY on 145th Street on the West Side of Manhattan in 1984. I was teaching in the Urban Legal Studies program started by W. Haywood Burns, and my “Asian Americans and the Law” class had no Asian Americans in it. I was not in Betty’s program, but she was generous with everyone teaching Asian American courses, so I reached out to her. After talking, I realized that I needed to have my students do oral histories of Asian Americans in their lives - fellow students, restaurant and laundry workers, or anyone they could think of. Once they did that, my classroom discussion was more lively and more rooted in the realities of the Asian American experience. I continue to include oral histories in every class that I have taught in the last 39 years.

Betty’s passing reminds me that a huge number of the early leaders of Asian American Studies were women. I’m sure Betty would appreciate it if you would not only read her books and include her in your college and K-12 classrooms, but also include other sheroes of the early movement such as Dr Setsuko Nishi (CUNY Grad Center and Brooklyn College) and Dr Shirley Hune (Hunter College, UCLA, UMD, and GWU in DC).

One of Betty’s many brilliant projects over the years was to start a CUNY-wide Asian American center. Please check out their events and resources at www.aaari.info

Thank you Betty. Your vision and efforts live on in everyone who worked with you over the many decades.