Street sign honoring Vincent Chin unveiled in Detroit

A street sign honoring Vincent Chin was unveiled in Detroit, 43 years after his death.

The sign, according to the Detroit Free Press, the “Vincent Chin St.” sign sits on top of a green sign for Peterboro Street on the corner at Cass Avenue. The area used to be part of Detroit’s Chinatown neighborhood.

According to the Michigan Chronicle, the sign is also located near an area where activists met to begin working on seeking justice for Chin, who was murdered in 1982.

Chin was beaten with a baseball bat in June 1982 by two auto industry workers, Michael Nitz and Ronald Ebens, while out for his bachelor party. Nitz and Ebens pursued Chin and his Chinese American friend, paying a bystander to help them “get the Chinese.” Chin died in the hospital four days later.

A judge would later give Nitz and Ebens a slap on the wrist, sentencing them to three years’ probation and a $3,000 fine.

Advocates hope that the street sign will continue to spread awareness about Vincent’s story.

“I’m always shocked by how many students — Asian American and not Asian American — have never heard of Vincent Chin,” Richard Mui said in an interview with Outlier Media. “We need to tell the complete Vincent Chin story: the xenophobia, the failure of the legal system, and the rise of a second wave of Asian American activism.”