AH QUON McELRATH

Aloha e, January brings the opening of the Hawaiʻi Legislature. I am reminded that in 1954 the Democratic Party took control of the...

Aloha e, I was saddened to learn of the death in November 2021 of our friend and colleague, Leonard Hoshijo. Leonard devoted his life to...

Aloha e, When you sit down with family and friends for a traditional Thanksgiving meal, you know that it took hours of preparation to put...

Aloha e, Take Me Out to the Ballgame…and sign a union card! October heralds the coming of baseball’s World Series and I’m reminded of the...

Aloha e, September 1 marks the 75th anniversary of the historic 1946 sugar strike. WWII was over, and the ILWU was making steady gains...

This month we honor historian Barbara Kawakami on the occasion of her 100th Birthday on August 24. Barbara was born in Japan on August...

Aloha e, AQ and the leadership of the ILWU spent considerable effort to make real the idea of equality among its members. AQ and former...

Aloha e, Recent headlines remind us that the struggle for economic and social justice, never ends! Poverty, racism and violence against...

Aloha e, May first is celebrated around much of the world as International Workers Day! In Hawaiʻi, May 1, 1949 marked the beginning of a...

Aloha e, Recent violence against Asian Americans, the March killing of 8 Spa workers in Atlanta (6 were Asian women) by a white gunman...

Aloha e, March is Women’s History Month, and March 23, 2010 was the date that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) became law. The ACA made...

Aloha e, It is February and for this month’s AQ Bulletin we celebrate Valentine’s Day with stories about love. As many of our stories are...

Aloha e, The beginning of the year brings to mind both the ideas of new beginnings and of nostalgia for the past. In our archive we have...

Aloha e, The joy of the holiday season often emanates from children. We have delved into our moving image archive and are pleased to...

Aloha e Years of oppressive labor practices, followed by martial law (1941-1944) created a willingness on the part of workers to rise up,...

Aloha e, We breathe a collective sigh of relief as the 2020 election is finally over! Several of the informants in our labor history...

As I write this, thousands have been taking to the streets with leadership of the Black Lives Matter movement to protest police racism...

In 1984 we were documenting Holehole Bushi, the folk songs sung by Japanese immigrant workers on Hawai`i Plantations. We were working...

Ah Quon McElrath was born in 1915 to Chinese immigrant parents. Her father was a carpenter and a jack of all trades. Her mother had bound...

While Ah Quon McElrath is widely remembered as a union organizer and a champion for social justice, she also had a deep and abiding love...