OnJune 19, 2018, I stood at Vincent Chin’s grave. I read the words engraved on the headstone: “Forever in our hearts. Beloved Son. Vincent J. Chin. May 18, 1955–June 23, 1982.” It was an overcast day in Detroit, the dark clouds matching the solemn gray granite slab.
This day marked the 36th anniversary of when Ronald Ebens beat Chin to death with a baseball bat. I was in Detroit conducting research for a nonfiction book on his life that I had just sold to Norton Young Readers, the children’s book imprint of W.W. Norton & Co. I had hired a freelance photographer to accompany me on my trip to understand, and honor, the final days of his life.