| Lily Chin | |
| Birth Date: | 1920 |
| Birth Place: | Heping, China |
| Death Place: | Farmington Hills, Michigan |
| Known For: | Activism for Asian-American rights |
Lily Chin (; 1920–2002) was a Chinese-American activist known for her attempts to seek legal proceedings for the death of her adopted son, Vincent Chin.
Born in Heping, China, Lily Chin emigrated to the United States in 1948. She married David Bing Hing Chin and adopted Vincent, their only child, from China in the 1960s.
See main article: Killing of Vincent Chin.
In the 1980s, the popularity of Japanese automobiles in the United States led to job losses and anti-Japanese sentiments among Americans.
About to be married in a few days, Vincent celebrated his bachelor's party in bar in Detroit with his friends. Ronald Ebens Ebens and his stepson Michael Nitz, two unemployed Anglo American auto workers in the bar, thought Vincent was Japanese and an altercation ensued. They blamed him for the layoffs in the American auto industry and said racial slurs to him. They were ejected from the bar, but chased Vincent down and killed him by hitting his head with a baseball bat.
The two men who killed Vincent were found guilty, but only received a probation and a $3,000 fine.
The leniency of the sentence sparked outrage among Asian-Americans. Chin spoke across the United States in rallies and demonstrations. With Chin as their moral conscience, a civil rights movement formed among Asian-Americans to seek a trial against the two killers, which resulted in the federal government pursuing a civil rights trial for an Asian-American for the first time.
The 1984 federal civil rights case against the men found Ebens guilty of the second count and sentenced him to 25 years in prison; Nitz was acquitted of both counts. Ebens' conviction was overturned in 1986.[1]
A civil suit against Ebens and Nitz settled out-of-court. Nitz was ordered to pay $50,000 to the Chins. Ebens was ordered to pay $1.5 million to the family, but stopped making payments in 1989.[2]
Chin's role in the movement was documented in the movie Who Killed Vincent Chin?, an Academy Award nominee.
She established a scholarship in Vincent's memory, to be administered by the Americans for American Citizens for Justice.[3]
After Ebens' acquittal, Chin returned to her hometown in Guangdong, China, in September 1987, reportedly because her home in Oak Park, Michigan, reminds her of the sad memories of her son. She was diagnosed with cancer in 2001 and returned to Michigan for treatment. She died in Farmington Hills, Michigan, in 2002 and was buried in Detroit with her husband and son.