Hawaiian Lawyers Aim Overturn Conviction of Pablo Manlapit

A group of Filipino American lawyers in Hawaii is working to overturn the century-old criminal conviction of Pablo Manlapit, a pioneering labor organizer whose story has long been overshadowed in American history. Manlapit, who migrated to Honolulu in 1910 to work on sugar plantations, became Hawaii's first Filipino lawyer a decade later and founded a union demanding equal pay and an eight-hour workday for Filipino laborers, known as sakadas.

His organizing efforts, which included persuading higher-paid Japanese workers to join the cause, led to his implication in the violent 1924 Hanapepe Massacre on Kauai, where 16 strikers and four police officers were killed. Following the clash, which halted the strike's momentum, Manlapit was convicted of conspiracy, imprisoned, exiled to California, and eventually deported. He remained a labor rights advocate but died in relative obscurity in 1969.

Now, the Hawaii Filipino Lawyers Association is seeking to posthumously clear his name. The group's president, Daniel Padilla, stated that Manlapit's contributions, and Asian American and Pacific Islander history in Hawaii generally, remain relatively unknown on the U.S. mainland. He noted that...