May We Gather, a national Buddhist pilgrimage for Asian American ancestors gathered in Downtown Antioch on Saturday, March 16, 2024 to mark the three-year memorial of the 2021 Atlanta-area shootings, which claimed the lives of eight people, six of them women of Asian descent, including the 63-year-old Buddhist Yong Ae Yue. Nearly 200 participants gathered to remember that these shootings are woven into a broader tapestry of anti-Asian animus, religious bigotry, and injustice against women. The suffering of racial, religious, and gender violence affects us all.
They also remembered that when Chinese immigrants first came to the United States in the 19th century, they faced acts of exclusion and destruction and discussed the scapegoating of Chinese women that incited the burning of Antioch Chinatown in 1876, and the subsequent loss of a temple on Wyatt Street. In 2021, Antioch became the first city in the United States to sign a formal apology acknowledging its history of discrimination against its Asian American community.
Photo 2: May We Gather 2024 group photo at Waldie Plaza, downtown Antioch. Photo by Juliana Yamada.
Photo 3: May We Gather attendees participate in a walking procession in downtown Antioch led by May We Gather co-organizer, Rev. Duncan Ryลซken Williams, and esteemed Buddhist leaders. Photo by Juliana Yamada.
Photo 4: Sumo Liu and Cassandra Quinto-Collins, mother of Angelo Quinto, during the flower offering in Waldie Plaza. Photo by Juliana Yamada.
Photo 5: Mayor Pro Tem Monica Wilson in Waldie Plaza holding hands with Ven. Hanhtri Lani Hunter. Photo by Juliana Yamada.
Photo 6: Mayor Pro Tem Monica Wilson reads the City of Antiochโs official apology for the burning of its Chinatown at Waldie Plaza, first read in May 2021 by Mayor Lamar Hernandez-Thorpe. Photo by Juliana Yamada.
