Japanese American Advocate Honored

NICHI BEI
BY BAY CITY NEWS SERVICE

A pioneering Japanese American advocate was granted honorary membership in the State Bar by the California Supreme Court in San Francisco May 24, 63 years after his death.

Sei Fujii, who immigrated to the United States as a child in 1903, graduated from law school at the University of Southern California in 1911.

But he was never allowed to apply for a law license by joining the bar because at the time, Asians were not permitted to become naturalized U.S. citizens, and only citizens or those eligible to be citizens could practice law in California. Nevertheless, “Fujii spent much of his career using the courts to advance the rule of law in California,” the state high court said in its order granting bar membership. READ MORE