May is Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month (AANHPIHM).
This national observance began as a weeklong event in 1977. In 1990, Congress extended it to a month. May was chosen to commemorate the immigration of the first Japanese people to the United States on May 7, 1843, and to mark the anniversary of the completion of the transcontinental railroad on May 10, 1869. Most of the workers who laid the tracks were Chinese immigrants.
PC(USA) includes 350 Korean congregations with nearly 50,000 active members. Two congregations within Presbytery of the James are composed of a majority of people of Korean heritage: Lord Jesus Church in Chesterfield and Praise The Lord Church in Fredericksburg.
Presbytery of the James celebrates the contributions that people with Asian, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander heritage have made to many facets of American culture and society.
Learn about the histories of Americans hailing from the Asian continent and the Pacific islands of Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia at AsianPacificHeritage.gov.
