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Fighting for Justice: Fred Korematsu

Thursday, September 28, 2017
7:30 p.m.

Kepler's Books
1010 El Camino Real
Menlo Park, CA 94025

ACLU Northern California presents a special evening reflecting on the life and work of Fred Korematsu. Korematsu defied the governments WWII orders that all Japanese Americans leave the west coast to be incarcerated. The ACLU-NC represented Korematsu all the way to the Supreme Court.

Now, when the lessons of Fred Korematsus life are even more important to remember, Laura Atkins and Stan Yogi will speak about their new book for children, Fred Korematsu Speaks Up, which tells the story of Fred Korematsu and the imprisonment of Japanese Americans, linking that injustice to the struggles of other groups.

With politicians citing the WWII incarceration of Japanese Americans as a precedent for a Muslim registry, Fred Korematsus story of defiance is especially relevant now for all people in America, especially young ones, to understand.

Laura Atkins is a childrens book author and editor who grew up in an activist family and participated in social justice work herself, with a focus on diversity and equity in childrens books. She taught creative writing at the National Centre for Research in Childrens Literature (NCRCL) in London, where she also received her M.A. in childrens literature. She received an M.F.A. in writing for children and young adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts.

Stan Yogi is the coauthor, with Elaine Elinson, of Wherever Theres a Fight: How Runaway Slaves, Suffragists, Immigrants, Strikers, and Poets Shaped Civil Liberties in California. He managed development programs for the ACLU of Northern California for fourteen years.