Honoring the life and legacy of Tony Lee, Social Justice Champion and APIC Co-Founder
Social justice champion, Tony Lee, passed away after many years battling ALS.
Tony was a fierce advocate who brought people together to make lasting change. He built partnerships, founded coalitions, and left a long legacy of policy work that will empower our communities for decades to come.
Tony did all of this while showing compassion, kindness and while sharing his famously boisterous laugh.
Tony helped to form the Asian Pacific Islander Coalition (APIC) to counter the harmful, anti-immigrant provisions of the Welfare Reform Act of 1996. APIC sought to organize our communities to demand that policy makers and elected officials do better.
With the passage of welfare reform, thousands of lawful permanent residents across the nation were cut off from federal cash, food, and medical assistance programs. The Act made immigrants subject to a five-year bar from receiving most federal public benefits, such as food stamps and Medicaid.
That year, APIC leaders and community members across the state organized the first Asian Pacific American Legislative Day in Olympia. It was a ground-breaking event that reflected Tony’s leadership, deep commitment to community and his approach to policy and organizing for change. Reflecting on the day, Tony noted that, “Thousands of AAPI community members joined the efforts and together, we were successful in getting the governor and legislature to implement state funded programs, such as the State Food Assistance program. Washington State did more than any other state in the nation to support immigrants and refugees, who were no longer eligible for federal programs.”
Since that first APA Legislative Day In 1996, the event has continued annually in Olympia with the same spirit and lasting impact.
Tony served on ACRS’s AAPI Democracy Initiative Task Force with the goal of increasing the civic engagement of AAPI community members and helped to raise funds to build statewide capacity in multilingual advocacy, voter registration, voter education, and get out the vote efforts.
We are all eternally grateful for the tireless work that Tony put into creating a more just world. We will miss Tony dearly and will continue to advocate for our community members every day, as Tony did.
