usc law family
LIVING— and protecting— THE AMERICAN DREAM Alumnus You Chung Hong (LLB 1924, LLM 1925) helped thousands of families, becoming the nation’s foremost Chinese attorney By Julie Riggott Upon graduating high school in 1915, Hong started an English-language school for Chinese immigrants and worked as a bookkeeper for Chinese restaurants. He moved to Los Angeles in 1918 to find employment to help support his mother, nieces and nephew. He found work as a translator for the Immigration Service, where he met a Japanese interpreter who was attending USC’s law school. He convinced Hong of the advantages of a law degree. In 1920, Hong enrolled in USC’s four-year night program, working during the day and attending law school Hong (1898-1977) spent his life fighting for immigrant rights at night. He borrowed textbooks from classmates. Still, he excelled, passing the bar in 1923. and the repeal of the Chinese As a Chinese American, he faced obstacles, including not Exclusion Act of 1882, the first being admitted to the Los Angeles Bar Association in the U.S. law to base immigration 1920s, when he set up his practice. In the 1930s, he couldn’t restrictions on ethnicity. even buy a home for his family. Hong’s impact on Chinese “In those days, Chinese were not allowed by realtors Americans cannot be overstated, considering that he helped more in great part and by some statutes to own property,” says Nowland, who is of counsel at Best Best & Krieger LLP. than 7,600 immigrants reunite “His close friend purchased the house he wanted in what is with their families. His legal now known as Koreatown and then resold it to him.” work and political and civic Hong gave a voice to the Chinese community. Before engagement leave an impressive he was 30, Hong testified before the U.S. Senate Hearing legacy of hard work, perseverance and dedication. Committee on immigration laws. He befriended politicians “My father’s life certainly is a role model in that you can achieve things from very little,” says his son Nowland Hong and lobbied the government for immigration reform in Washington, D.C. ( JD 1959). “Other Chinese people saw that you could be a When he was 28, he was elected president of the Los lawyer, you could be successful.” Angeles chapter of the Chinese American Citizens AN AMERICAN DREAM STORY Alliance, a civil rights organization of which Nowland Y.C. Hong’s father came to California to work on the was also president. His activities there built upon his Transcontinental Railroad and in the borax mine in Death immigration work. “In the early years, when my father Valley. He died in 1903 when Hong was only 5, leaving his first joined, they were seeking to unite families because mother as sole caretaker for him, an infant brother and his husbands and fathers were here in the United States and sister. She worked as a cigar roller and seamstress in San their wives and children were in Southern Francisco and didn’t speak English. China mostly.”
You Chung (Y.C.) Hong (LLB 1924, LLM 1925) became the first Chinese American admitted upon examination to practice law in California while he was still a student at the USC Law School and later became the nation’s foremost Chinese attorney.
Y.C. Hong in the late 1930s with a young Nowland Hong.
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USCLaw magazine
