By Cleo Brown

Hiram Leong Fong was the first United States Senator of Chinese and Asian Ancestry in The United States of America. Born Yau Leong Fong on October 15th, 1906 on the island of Oahu in the Kalihi District of Honolulu, Hawaii, Hiram Fong’s parents were named Lum Fong Sau Howe and Lum Fong Shee. His father, named Lum Fong Sau Howe, and his mother, named Lum Fong Shee, were both Indentured Servants from China to Hawaii. Indentured Servants were people who sold themselves into slavery for a period of seven years to pay for their passage to America.

In this instance, therefore, Lum Fong Sau Howe and Lum Fong Shee hired themselves out to Hawaiian Plantation Owners for a period of seven years to pay for their passage from China to Hawaii. It is likely, therefore, that just as on the mainland of The United States the majority of the freed slaves became sharecroppers that Lum Fong Sau Howe and Lum Fong Shee also became sharecroppers (poor tenant farmers) in Hawaii who had a difficult time getting themselves out of debt. For, according to a biography of Hiram Fong found on Answers.com Mr. and Mrs. Fong worked on a sugar plantation earning no more than $12 a month between them. (p.1)

Yau Fong was the seventh of eleven children born to his parents. From a very young age he proved himself to be a very hard worker who embodied The Puritan Work Ethic and was dedicated to helping his family. When he was only four years old, he began picking beans to support his family. (Houghton Miflin Social Studies, “Hiram Fong 1906-2004:First Asian Senator”, p.1) Young Fong engaged in a variety of other odd jobs to help his family as he grew older: he shined shoes, he had a newspaper route, and he worked as a golf caddy. As a golf caddy he was quite good. These jobs were in addition to the fact that Hiram Fong needed to attend classes where he was registered as a student in school. He attended Kalihi Waena Grammar School and Mckinley High School graduating in 1924.(Answers.com, p.1) As a young man, Yau Fong changed his first name to Hiram in honor of an Hawaiian Missionary named Hiram Bingham. (Answers.com, p.1) Yau Fong found that, otherwise, he was not taken seriously as a student nor as a businessman. For when he applied for any type of a license using his given name at birth, his application was always customarily rejected until he began using the Christian name of Hiram. (The Senator Hiram L. Fong Papers)

Hiram Fong proved himself to be a serious student. He worked his way through first, The University of Hawaii where he also was the editor of the student newspaper and graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1930.(The Senator Hiram L. Fong Papers) Next, he worked his way through Harvard Law School. Although Fong had initially lacked the money to attend college, he worked for three years to save the money to pay for his tuition. This was a pattern he repeated when he decided to attend law school. After working for two years with The Suburban Water System, Hiram Fong entered Harvard Law School in 1932. He graduated in 1935, returning to Honolulu where he secured employment first as a city clerk, and then as a deputy city attorney. (Answers.com, p.1)

Hiram Fong shocked Hawaii when he founded Honolulu’s first multiracial law firm consisting of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Caucasian Partners. The law firm, however, of Fong, Miho, Choy, and Robinson was extremely successful permitting Fong to use his profits from the law practice to invest in a variety of other businesses making Fong a millionaire. His rise from an attorney to a millionaire took less than three years. By 1938, he had embarked on his career as a public servant when he was elected to Hawaii’s Territorial House of Representatives. Hawaii was not yet a State.

Just as it was necessary for Hiram Fong to put his education on hold as he earned the money to pay for his tuition, he also needed to put his career and his businesses on hold as he served in the military during World War II as a Judge Advocate for which he earned the rank of Major. By 1948, however, Fong had won an election as Speaker of the Hawaiian Territorial Legislature. When Hiram Fong retired from The United States Air Force Reserves , in later years, he had attained the rank of Colonel. (Answers.com, p.4)

Hiram Fong, who had a gift in organization, formed a major Labor Union in Hawaii to fight the power and the aggression of Hawaii’s “plantation elite”. The “plantation elite” was comprised of the wealthiest citizens of Hawaii who tended to own most of the property and dominate politics and economics in Hawaii. By “forging an alliance between The International Longshoreman’s and The Warehouseman’s Union Fong was able to curb the power of the “plantation elite” to eventually win the election as Speaker of Hawaii’s Territorial Legislature in 1948″. (Answers.com, p.1) Fong’s Law Firm was also the driving force behind one of Hawaii’s most successful economic teams: The Financial Factors Family of Companies. (The Senator Hiram L. Fong Papers) Hiram Fong served as Speaker from 1948 to 1954 losing reelection in 1954 by thirty-one votes. (Answers.com , p.4) It was his association with The Financial Factors Family of Companies which was his undoing.

Hiram Fong worked tirelessly, however, to insure that the Island of Hawaii achieved status as a State by 1959. He was rewarded for his efforts when, in August of 1959, Hawaii attained Statehood. Despite his defeat as House Speaker in 1954, he was elected one of Hawaii’s first Senators in 1959 along with Democratic Senator Oren E. Long. (Answers.com, p.5) According to most accounts, Hiram Fong became Hawaii’s Senior Senator by flipping a coin although he had won his election by 9,000 votes.

He served as the Senior Senator from Honolulu from August of 1959 to January of 1977. Throughout those years Hiram Fong supported a strong Civil Rights Agenda including higher pay for factory workers, an end to the practice of Indentured Servitude, and equal pay and rights for women. He also, however, supported the position of The United States’ Government and President Lyndon Johnson in escalating The Vietnam War. He supported Richard M. Nixon during The Watergate Scandal feeling that as a President of the United States that Richard Nixon was in a privileged position and class which meant that he did not need to surrender taped conversations of his meetings while on duty as The President. In 1964, Fong became the first Asian American to run for his party’s nomination for President of the United States. (Answers.com,p.4) He is, as of 2008, the only Republican to hold a senate seat from Hawaii. (p.4)

Hiram Leong Fong married Ellen Lo in 1938. Ellen Lo was a Chinese American with whom Hiram Fong had four children. Unfortunately, after retirement from the senate, he and his son argued over the family business which, in turn, spawned several law suits against Hiram Fong driving Fong and his wife into bankruptcy by 2003. The couple, consequently, like his Indentured Servant parents before him, managed a 725 acre garden that was opened to the public. Hiram Fong remained active working in the garden until just a week before his death on August 18th, 2004 at the age of ninety-seven on Kahaluu, Hawaii. He is buried at Oahu Cemetery.

About The Author: Cleo E. Brown has a Master’s Degree in Contemporary African-American History from The University of California at Davis in Davis, California. She also has a B.A. Minor Degree in Political-Science and has completed course work towards a Ph.D. in Education from The University of San Francisco in San Francisco, California. She is a Free Lance Writer and a Senior Editor at HHR.