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The Archival Collections at the University of Hawaiʻi School of Law Library: People Against Chinatown Evictions

A portal to the archival collections being preserved at the University of Hawaiʻi School of Law Library.

Finding Aid

Summary

People Against Chinatown Evictions (PACE) was a community organization that came into being in the1970s in response to Honoluluʻs urban renewal policies that threatened to evict and displace low and moderate income residents in Chinatown, Honolulu.  PACE was formed out of Third Arm, a community service organization that aimed to fill the social needs of residents and workers of the Chinatown area.  

Provenance

This collection of PACE papers was transferred to the University of Hawaiʻi School of Law Library from the Center for Oral History at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.  These papers were originally brought to the University through Joy Wong, a former PACE organizer, to Ethnic Studies Professor Davianna McGregor, former PACE member and Director of the Center for Oral History.  The Associate Director of the Center for Oral History contacted Ellen-Rae Cachola, the Archives Manager at the University of Hawai’i School of Law Library, to preserve the PACE papers.

 

Series 1: Housing Surveys 1977-1980, Box 1

This box includes Housing Surveys from 1978 related to interviews of tenants and residents of businesses and buildings in Chinatown slated for eviction due to planned demolition to redevelop the area. Lists of housing survey interviewees names are listed.  In addition,  the Aloha Hotel Resolution of 1977, and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Resources grant program information are included.   1977-1980

Buildings and businesses listed  were:

  • 1108 Maunakea
  • 1130 Maunakea
  • 1161 Maunakea Street
  • 1189 River St.
  • 1189
  • 143 N. Beretania
  • 4-A
  • 6-Pack Liquor
  • Aloha Hotel + Wentoles Hale
  • Cebu
  • City Villa
  • C.Q. Yee Hop
  • Crystals
  • Dance Hall 78
  • Fong's Building
  • Golden Wall
  • Hocking Hotel
  • Komeya Hale
  • Lai Fong Building
  • Lau's Place
  • Loo Chows
  • Maunakea Hale
  • Old Lau's Place
  • R-H
  • Riverside Tailor Shop
  • Roosevelt Hale
  • Tan Sing Dramatic Association
  • Ted's Barbershop
  • Wimpy's + Esquire
  • Wing Coffee
  • Wong's
  • Yee Yee Tong Building
  • Block A
  • Block 2
  • Block 4
  • Block 5
  • Block 6
  • Block 7
  • Block 8
  • Block 10
  • Block 12

Series 2: PACE Records 1971-1980, Box 2

This box includes records created or accumulated by the People Against Chinatown Eviction (PACE) organization. It includes records such as petitions, workshop documents, law suits, court documents, hearing documents, resolution and ordinances, writ of eviction, committee documents, building complaint reports, meeting minutes, memorandums, grant proposals, letters (negotiations, residents), correspondence, photos, surveys (small businesses), news articles, flyer invitations, Revolutionary Communist Party, celebration committees, slogans/skits/chants/songs, testimonies. 1971-1980

Organizations listed include:

  •     Smith-Beretania Housing Project
  •      Headrick Development Inc.
  •     Honolulu City Council Planning and Zoning
  •     U.S. Department of Housing and Community Development, Department of Land Utilization,
  •     Hale Mohalu
  •     Maunakea Hale
  •     4-A, Catholic Action,
  •     Opihi Alliance in a Nuclear Free Hawaii
  •     American Friends Service Committee
  •     International Association of the Machinists and Aerospace Workers
  •     U.P.W.
  •     Micronesia Support Committee
  •     Windward District Samoan Community
  •     Laie Samoan Community
  •     Nanakuli Samoan Community
  •     City Arts.  

Individuals mentioned were:

  •     George Akahane
  •     Frank Fasi

Series 2: PACE Records 1974-1980, Box 3

This box includes records created and accumulated by PACE for their operational purposes: steering committee chronological reviews, papers, agendas, outlines, time tables, organizing plans, and meeting notes; letters of correspondence between residents, legal teams, and government officials; eviction orders; court documents; ordinance; testimonies; maps of Chinatown; newsletters and mailing lists, newspaper clippings, and essays. 1974-1980

Buildings and businesses mentioned were:

  •     Fong Building
  •     Pauahi Project
  •     Smith-Beretania
  •     Kaka'ako Special Design District
  •     1130 Maunakea Street
  •     1189 River Street
  •     4-A N. Hotel
  •     Angeline's Barbershop
  •     Balalongs and Naboras
  •     Block B Businesses
  •     Clinic
  •     Fong Building
  •     Hale Mohalu
  •     Lai Fong Tenants
  •     Maunakea Hale
  •     Nieveres Tailor Shop
  •     Pauahi Hale
  •     Pauahi Project
  •     Roosevelt Sweatshop
  •     Ted's Barbershop
  •     Lau's
  •     Department of Public Works
  •     Honolulu City Council

Individuals mentioned:

  •     Wayson Chow Attorney at Law
  •     Patrick K. Lau
  •     Barry Chung

Series 2: PACE Records 1839-1989, Box 4

 

This box contains various types of documents reflecting PACE office, research, and outreach activities.  There are flyers from other social movement actions like Save Our Surf,

keiki (children) field trips, pamphlets, newspaper articles, eviction reports,research files, meeting notes, committee notes, summary reports, meeting agenda, rental application forms, correspondence, court documents, survey, PACE celebration, filing cabinet inventory, contact lists of other community organizations, conference, maps; City and County of Honolulu organizational chart; DIA Newspaper.  

 

Chinatown hotels, buildings, and places mentioned were  

  •     1189 River St.
  •     4A-N. Hotel St.
  •     45 N. Pauahi St.
  •     Dalisay
  •     Kakaako


Organizations mentioned were the

  •     City and County of Honolulu
  •     Department of Housing and Community Development
  •     Hawaii District Young People’s Convention
  •     Honolulu Community Action Program
  •     Honolulu Redevelopment Agency
  •     National Lawyers Guild
  •     Palama Settlement
  •     Palama International Church
  •     Susannah Wesley Center
  •     United Methodist Church

This box contains information reflecting research and teaching about Hawaiʻi land, demographics, and political-economic histories, which may have informed, or were products of, PACE tenant organizing and housing advocacy efforts.  Examples include articles and syllabi related to Hawaiian culture, land, population, legal and political-economic issues. For example, topics on the people and demographics of Hawai’i, land tenure history, the Bakke decision, the baking sector, the Big Five, military resource management, oceanography, and American influence in Hawaiʻi are covered. 

Other records include PACE records on the building condition criteria for the Honolulu Redevelopment Agency, Kewalo Lunalilo-Auxiliary, Kokea project, Halawa Valley, Trustees of the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Estate,  Third Arm Meeting Records, PACE resident membership, information on organizing against redevelopment in Chinatown, the Chinatown Citizens Committee, Smith Beretania Apts parking problems, maps of Chinatown, committee reports, Kalihi Palama, urban renewal, tenant roster, Bakke Humanities, Great Mahele 1848, Kuleana Act of 1850, PACE goals, Community Development Block Grant Program, HUD Fact Sheets on Housing Programs, Correspondence N. King Street Properties - Ota Camp, Chinatown, and Catholic Charities.

 

Series 3: Media, Box 5

This box contains ektachrome slides, pictures, CDs, documents and buttons.  The images in the slides, pictures and CDs include digitized documents and images from Tai-Anne, John Witeck, Diane Fujimura, Sandy,  PACE Slides, Ed Greevy, Joy regarding topics such as the Teddi Duncan Apartments, Chinatown Demolition, City Hall Demos, Chinatown people doing PACE work, 4-A Residents, Lauʻs Building, Fabric Factory,Third Arm, Defend Waiahole-Waikane. Images relate to Chinatown building conditions, social advocacy, solidarity with other eviction sites, organizational pamphlets, and slideshows which may have been used for organizationʻs visual communications.

n.d.