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The Promise of America

Bill Lann Lee, former assistant attorney general for civil rights in the Clinton administration

Bill Lann Lee was born in New York City. His parents, William and Pui Jen Lee, were poor immigrants from China who operated a Chinese hand laundry. Though both spoke English poorly, they encouraged their sons, Bill and Ernest, to study hard.

Lee graduated from Yale University and Columbia University Law School, and became a civil rights lawyer. His brother, Ernest, went to New York University and seminary, and became a minister.

For the last three years, Lee was the highest-ranking Asian American in law enforcement as assistant attorney general for civil rights.

AsianWeek: What supports did you have growing up that helped make you successful?

Bill Lann Lee: My parents instilled in Ernest and me the importance of family, hard work, justice and patriotism, values that were important to them as immigrants to a new country that was often unwelcoming to them. My father, William Lee, had volunteered for the U. S. Army Air Corps during World War II. Although he spoke broken English in a unit of whites, he found himself treated as an equal and that there were no bigots in the fighting in the jungles of New Guinea. Because of his wartime experience, the promise of America shone brighter than the ugliness of later mistreatment.

AW: Who were your most influential role models?

BLL: I would have to say that my father was my most important role model for most of my childhood. His patriotism and belief in the American dream as a promise of equality and fairness are the source of my idealism. He taught mostly through example. In particular, I remember that he responded with dignity to racial taunting. He dressed poorly and spoke with a heavy accent that was easy for people to mock. But I was proud when he would confront those who tried to denigrate and demean.

AW: Throughout your career, you’ve been a civil rights activist. What experiences as a child and young adult led you toward this path?

BLL: My father told me that after he was mustered out of the Army, he went to look for an apartment back in New York City. He was often the butt of racial taunting before the war, but he hoped things would be different after. But he found that he was turned down for apartments because he was a “Chinaman,” even when he was still in his Army uniform. Rather than being embittered, he drew from the experience that the reality of America needed to be brought into alignment with its promise, that what he had experienced in his Army unit should be the norm.

But my dad could get very angry. I remember that he told one of his best customers at the laundry that I was going to Yale. The customer expressed disbelief that a laundryman’s son could get into such a college. My father responded by throwing the customer out of the laundry, telling him that he was just as good as the customer. He also told him to take his dirty laundry elsewhere.

AW: How did you get involved with the NAACP Legal Defense?

BLL: I first encountered the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the law firm the Late Justice Thurgood Marshall used to head, as a law student. I got a job there as research assistant for Jack Greenberg, who had succeeded Justice Marshall as Director-Counsel. I was a lawyer for LDF for 17 years. Jack has been a mentor to me for my entire career. He taught me that a passion for justice will get you nowhere unless you master your craft, prepare your case and work harder than your opponent.

AW: Being Asian American in a traditionally black institution, did you encounter any misunderstandings?

BLL: LDF has actually been a multiracial organization for most of its history, although that has mostly meant black and white. I was the first Asian American lawyer, but there were others later.

I did not have any problems with fellow lawyers or staff, many of whom I still keep up with. Nor did I have any problems with clients who were mostly African Americans from the South. The clients reminded me of my parents, good people seeking equal opportunity.

However, in the early 1970s when I first started traveling in the South, I found that for many people in the small towns and cities where I had cases, I was one of the first Asian Americans they were encountering in the legal context. Blacks thought I must be white because I was not black; whites thought I must be black because I was not white.

My father told me that he had had a similar experience 35 years before. He did his basic training in Jacksonville, Florida. He was Chinese in an otherwise white unit of the then-racially segregated Army. Some of the locals thought he must be black because he wasn’t white. That meant a constant round of fights on the weekends because my father went with his buddies to “white” facilities.

AW: What are some issues that blacks and APIs have in common?

BLL: I believe that blacks, Asian Americans and members of other groups on the margins of our society have many common issues growing out of the common experience of being on the margins: poverty, educational needs, social service needs are examples. That is not to say that all members of groups encounter the same issues. There are differences, as well, because there are differences in our histories.

Asian Americans and black Americans often encounter similar problems of discrimination or exclusion. Hate crimes are an example. Joseph Ileto of Los Angeles, Calif., and Woon Joon Yoon of Bloomington, Ind., are Asian Americans recently killed in hate crime incidents by self-avowed white supremacists. The essential facts in their cases do not differ from the hate-motivated killing of Joseph Byrd, the black man from Texas. We also face similar issues in housing discrimination, the right to vote, racial profiling and other police misconduct.

AW: What do you think is the state and future of race relations?

BLL: Black History Month reminds us that race is still an unsolved problem. But the race line is not just a black-white issue. We always assume that African Americans have been waging the struggle for equality longer than Asian Americans. It is interesting to note that the first legal efforts to invoke the 14th Amendment in the United States Supreme Court were made by the Chinese laundry guilds and immigrant associations in the 19th century. Not only is the struggle of the two communities often a common struggle for civil rights, it is one that has been going on for as long in both communities.

Race relations are only as good as how we respond to the next crisis. Better yet, we need to work so that we don’t just go from crisis to crisis.

To do that, Asian Americans have a lot to learn from our own history and the struggles of others, notably African Americans. We need to join in common cause so that we do not fight alone for what is important to our community. We also need to make sure that the government is playing its part with vigorous law enforcement by the Civil Rights Division and other agencies.

AW: Do you think the African American and Asian American communities will build stronger ties in the future or will they move further apart?

BLL: It is my hope that African Americans and Asian Americans will work together on the many issues of common concern. We have a common experience of having lived on the margins of our society and overcoming adversity. We can form powerful coalitions and enlist others, as well. I learned in Washington that Asian American organizations often were able to advance the interests of their constituents better because they worked in coalition with like-minded groups. In particular, OCA, JACL and other Asian American organizations, in my opinion, have been able to accomplish more working on many civil rights issues such as racial stereotyping as part of the Leadership Conference for Civil Rights than had they been working alone.

AW: Can you respond to the criticism that your affirmative action agenda as assistant attorney general discriminated against some Americans?

BLL: My agenda has been a law enforcement agenda. I do not believe any American has been discriminated against because the Division vigorously enforced congressional civil rights enactments.

Some people have said that the Division’s position of support for appropriate affirmative action programs was wrong. They usually do not know that such programs have been lawful for many years and that the Division merely defended affirmative action programs passed or approved by Congress. The courts in fact usually accepted the Division’s position.

AW: In view of the passage of anti-affirmative action laws in some states, what do you think is the future of affirmative action?

BLL: On the legal front, the courts have upheld the federal government’s race conscious contracting programs in the Adarand case although critics of affirmative action predicted several years ago that these programs were dead on arrival.

Courts have ruled differently on educational affirmative action programs, including a recent case upholding the University of Michigan’s admissions program. In my opinion, there is a judicial consensus that necessary, properly framed programs continue to be permissible. Several states outlawed voluntary affirmative action, but then took steps to ensure that minority admissions not fall too far.

Overall, I think that reasonable affirmative action efforts will continue but that there will be greater efforts to ensure fairness and equity. Unfortunately, the conditions of historic unfairness and injustice that make such programs necessary also continue.

AW: Many Asian Americans believe entrance into competitive public and private schools and colleges should be based on test scores and grades alone. What is your position and what would you say to Asians who feel this way?

BLL: I can appreciate why some believe that test scores and grades are objective criteria that give their children a level playing field in competitive admissions. But some educators are properly concerned that some selection criteria such as the SAT have been used improperly. The University of California, for instance, is reconsidering the use of the SAT for admissions to its campuses because of uncertainty about what the SAT actually measures.

There has also been litigation challenging practices, such as advanced placement course credits in grade point averages, because such courses are not uniformly available for all students. That suggests that grades are not necessarily a problem-free criterion.

Then, of course, test scores and grades don’t measure all the dimensions of student achievement or potential. We all know people with high test scores and grades who have not been successful in life. All of us want fair and equitable selection criteria. The real issue is how we make sure of that.

AW: It seems you are the epitome of the model minority. Do you agree or not?

BLL: I do not regard my life as the epitome of the Asian American experience in America. That is still a story that is unfolding. None of us can claim to be the definitive embodiment of that story.

I also am not sure Asian Americans are a “model minority.” We are a varied community whose individual and nation group histories are also varied. Some people have done more or less with their lives than I. I am sure that our collective experience as Asian Americans can be compared to that of other groups in order to distill some common lessons. But, the term “model minority” is often used to argue that Asian Americans do not have problems or needs. That is not true. We have our successes and failures just like anybody else.

AW: What do you view as your greatest success thus far?

BLL: I am proud of a lot of things that I have done to help people. But I am particularly happy that I have kept faith with my parents’ vision of the promise of America. My father passed away ten years ago, but I feel that he has never left my side.