Chinese American Has Found a Home at the NAACP
Peter Leung, 57, is the first-ever Asian American chapter president in the national organization, a group better known for serving the African American community
When Peter Leung, 57, first attended a national convention of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) he may have looked like an anomaly to many of the African American attendees — and there were admittedly a lot of shocked double takes — but for the first generation Chinese American he felt right at home.
For the past six years Leung has been an active member of the NAACP and in 2000 became the first Asian American to serve as a local chapter president in the organization’s 97-year history. And today, he is still the only AA to have ever taken on this role.
“People couldn’t believe it. I shocked them,” said Leung with a chuckle. “Historically all the chapter presidents have usually been all Blacks. There has never been an Asian.”
Leung currently serves as a first vice president of the Eugene/Springfield, Oregon Branch of the NAACP and has been asked to take on the chapter’s presidency later this year, a task he is considering but has yet to commit to.
Leung made history when he became the first AA chapter president for the NAACP’s Corvallis, Oregon Branch in 2000, a position he was asked to take on by local members of the NAACP.
“It was not a surprise. He’s really dynamic, a real politician, in a good way. Everyone knows him,” said Esmeralda Allen, current Corvallis chapter president who worked with Leung as the membership chair. “I love the man. He’s a beautiful person, a wonderful and admirable man.”
As the former chair of the Oregon Commission on Asian Affairs, Leung has worked with and developed close relationships with both the local Hispanic and Black communities, finding a kinship based on similar needs and issues.
So for Leung, a former restaurant entrepreneur and current expert on U.S.-China relations, getting involved in the NAACP was a natural and easy fit.
“When I served on the Oregon Commission on Asian Affairs I noticed that we had the same issues. I did a lot of work with the local Hispanic and Black communities,” he said. “I was in the paper all the time; there was name recognition. So the local branch of the NAACP thought I would be the perfect person.”
Leung believes the NAACP has been an excellent training ground for furthering his work in the civil rights arena. In the NAACP, he has managed to find his voice and outlet for his activism.
“I could relate to other minorities. My voice could be heard and I could make effective change,” said Leung.
“Peter gives his all. Once he takes something on he gives 100 percent,” said Allen.
Leung was born and raised in Hong Kong where he was an outspoken student activist fighting for equal rights and the rights of the underprivileged. In 1972 he came to the U.S. to attend schools in both the U.S. and Canada, earning degrees in computer science and sociology and a Masters in social psychology.
Ironically, Leung has never been active in the various AA civil rights groups like the Organization of Chinese Americans (OCA) and the JACL but in the future he hopes to be able to work with these various groups.
“The NAACP has been a training ground for working with the Asian American community,” he said. “I would love to work in other Asian American organizations. It’s probably time that I do that and I’m looking forward to doing that.”
Leung believes AAs in general have been slower to take on and be concerned about human and civil rights issues. He sees the AA community’s focus centered more on economic development issues. He also sees too many factions within the AA community and hopes in the future the community will learn to work together.
“The problem is that not too many Asians are involved in civic issues and civil rights issues,” he said. “Asians are more content in a relative sense in what they have, what they have earned. Civil rights are not as big of an issue.
“It’s an unfortunate situation,” said Leung. “Asians have the ability to make changes but we need to work together.”
His latest efforts within the NAACP have been to develop a closer relationship between the local NAACP chapter in Oregon and China through various events such as annual cultural exchange trips to China and student exchange programs.
Leung recently returned from one of his many trips to China where he toured the country with a delegation of local NAACP representatives working to develop closer ties with the Pacific nation.
“This is something that has never been done in the past,” he said.
Leung believes the younger generations within the AA community are becoming more informed about civil rights issues, something he has consciously tried to pass on to his children.
His three sons were with him on the recent trip to Henan, China. His youngest son Aaron, 11, is already working on a paper about China’s educational system to present to state officials.
“My boys, especially the youngest one, are good on political issues. [Aaron] will be a youth leader for the NAACP leadership here.”
For now, Leung plans to stay involved with the NAACP while at the same time bringing concerns of the AA community to the table.
“My mission is to unify Asians,” he said. “We can do the same things as the NAACP.”
Print This Article-
Email This Article