AAFE SERVICES
Advocacy & Community Education
Affordable Housing Development
Community Technology Center
Green & Healthy Communities
Homeownership
Small Business Assistance
Social and Legal Services
Property Management
Rebuild Chinatown Initiative
The East-West School of International Studies
AAFE Queens

AAFE Highlights

Christopher Kui Talks About the Post 9/11 Redevelopment of Lower Manhattan
- NY1, September 13, 2011

Lower East Side Rezoning Plan Has Defenders
- The New York Times, August 8, 2008

AAFE: Why it's wrong to call rezoning plan racist
- The Villager, August 6-12, 2008

Restoring Chinatown apartments while keeping the rents low - Downtown Express, May 30 - Jun 5, 2008

AAFE Celebrates Ribbon Cutting on Affordable Housing Program in Chinatown/Lower East Side - May 21, 2008

The story of one deserving tenant - Sing Tao Newspaper (Chinese), Feb 11, 2008
After almost fifty years of living in a decrepit apartment, a Korean War veteran moves in to a newly renovated apartment under the Chinatown/Lower East Side Acquisition and Preservation Program.
Story in English

Fight for home: NYC's immigrant communities struggle to hang on - amNY, May 12, 2008
amNY covers the works of housing groups in New York City, including AAFE's, in preserving affordable housing in immigrant neighborhoods.

Tenant's hope win won't be demolished on appeal - Downtown Express, Apr 25 - May 1, 2008
Through its advocacy, AAFE has helped mobilize and empower community residents and stakeholders of 126-128 Baxter Street buildings to oppose their demolition.

Chinatown Journey: From Protesters To Developers - A New York Times Feature
Asian Americans for Equality brought thousands of demonstrators into the streets of Chinatown and to the steps of City hall in the mid-1970's - is now a major landlord and residential developer

Chinatown Story
AAFE's renovation project is featured in "Chinatown Story," a short documentary by Will Wei, a journalism student at New York University


CD Training Fellowship
Flushing Senior Report
AA Neighborhoods Report
demolition through intentional neglect
AAFE 35 years

This year marks the 35th anniversary of Asian Americans for Equality.  This occasion offers an opportunity to celebrate the achievements of AAFE over the past three and a half decades and to pay tribute to the historic progress of the Asian American community in New York.  Click here to continue.

In 1974, construction began on the Confucius Plaza high-rise development, a federally-funded project in the heart of New York Chinatown. Despite City policies requiring employment opportunities for minority workers, the builder refused to hire Chinese applicants. Outraged by this blatant discrimination, a coalition of Chinatown residents, students, and professionals came together to demand the right of access for Asian Americans to some of those construction jobs.

The leaders formed Asian Americans for Equal Employment (AAFEE, later to become AAFE) to coordinate demonstrations, marches, and picketing around the Confucius Plaza site. After six months of unrelenting demonstrations, the Confucius Plaza struggle ended with AAFE's first victory for minority rights and equal employment opportunity when the builder was pressured into hiring twenty-seven minority workers, including Asian Americans.

To celebrate the 35th anniversary of AAFE’s founding, we brought together some of the leaders of the Confucius Plaza protests to share their motivations for joining the protest, discuss the growth of the civil rights awareness of the Asian Americans, and talk about the their struggles in organizing protests of historic significance.

Confucius Plaza from willem lee on Vimeo.