Monterey Park Bruggemeyer Library Presents:

Monterey Park Bruggemeyer Library presents an exhibit on the legal history of Chinese-American women, “Herstory: Chinese-American Women, 165 Years of Struggle and Success,” September 1-30 in the main lobby located on the first floor of the library.

The exhibit presents the stories of ordinary people who fought for their rights, and in doing so, helped to shape a new world for Chinese Americans and the rest of the world. The exhibit features the legal cases fought in the U.S. Supreme Courts and the supreme courts in various states. These legal cases present a rare look of Chinese-American women’s history going back to1885 when the California State Supreme Court ruled that Chinese-American children had a right to public education and to attend public schools.

“Herstory” is a traveling exhibit that has toured the National Museum of History (Taipei, Taiwan), the Historic Public Meeting Hall (Tainan, Taiwan), Chicago Public Library, San Francisco Public Library, Los Angeles Public Library, Hawaii State Public Library, and others. The exhibit is provided to the Monterey Park Bruggemeyer Library by curator, Chang C. Chen, Ph.D., J.D., who is dedicated to the documentation of the legal history of Chinese Americans. The public was invited to a reception on Sunday, September 10 in the Friends Room where they met with Dr. Chang C. Chen and to hear her story of why and how she collected photographs, personal stories and the timeline of legal history for the exhibit and her book, “Herstory: The Legal History of Chinese American Women.”

The exhibit is part of the library’s “Global Citizens: One World, Many Stories” ongoing programming sponsored through a Library Innovation Lab grant from California Humanities to engage the community in a variety of programs that support diversity and family history. “Library Innovation Lab: Exploring New Ways of Engaging California’s Immigrant Communities” is a new statewide competitive grant program offered by California Humanities.

For more information about free programs, contact the library at 626-307-1368 and/or follow on Twitter @MontereyParkLib

The Monterey Park Bruggemeyer Library is the city’s public library located at 318 S. Ramona Avenue, Monterey Park, CA 91754. Library hours are Sunday 1-5 p.m.; Monday and Tuesday 12-9 p.m.; Wednesday and Thursday 10 a.m.-6 p.m.; Friday and Saturday 10 a.m.-1 p.m. For more City of Monterey Park news and information, please visit the city website at www.MontereyPark.ca.gov.