Centennial Timeline

• 1906 First group of Filipino workers (15) arrived on the SS Doric. The Philippines and Hawaii are both under U.S.colonial rule since 1898.
• 1907 Second group of Filipino (150) workers arrived.
• 1909 Large-scale importation of Filipino workers began.
• 1906-1930 Sugar planters in Hawaii bring 120,000 Filipinos to work on the plantations.
• 1910 Pablo Manlapit arrives in Hawaii.
• 1919 Pablo Manlapit organizes the Filipino Labor Union (Filipino Federation of Labor).
• 1920 The entire Filipino and Japanese work force strike at Waipahu, Aiea, Waialua, Ewa, Kahuku, and Waimanalo. Plantation owners evict 12,100 workers from plantation houses.
• 1923 The Higher Wage Movement petitions the HSPA for two-dollar a day and forty-hour week. The HSPA rejects the petition
• 1924 Manlapit calls a strike on Oahu and alter to the other islands. The strike is defeated by use of fresh “imported” workers from the Philippines and an elaborate spy network in plantation camps (April 1). Sixteen strikers and four policemen in Hanapepe, Kauai die while many more were wounded in a one-sided gun battle between Filipino workers and police (September 9). Manlapit and other prominent leaders, along with about 60 workers, are convicted of conspiracy; each is sentenced to two years in prison. Manlapit chose to be exiled from Hawaii.
• 1932 Manlapit returns and a new Filipino Labor Union is formed with Manlapit, Epifanio Taok, and Antonio Fagel.
• 1935 The HSPA put Taok in jail and banishes Manlapit to the Philippines. Fagel takes the union underground and renames it Vibora Luzviminda.
• 1936 Workers strike in Puunene, Maui.
• 1937 Fagel is charged with conspiracry. Vibora Luzviminda collapses, and the Puunene strike becomes the last single-race strike in Hawaii.
• 1930s U.S. Congress passes Philippine Independence Act (Tydings-McDuffie Act). Filipinos become major targets of racist attacks on the West Coast during the Great Depression.
• 1941-1946 World War II. Martial law is imposed on Hawaii.
• 1940-1958 ILWU systematically unionizes Hawaii’s workers and leads them in dramatic strikes. ILWU begins to actively support political candidates in the Democratic party.
• 1946 End of World War II. The HSPA brings in the last Filipino sakada, numbering 6,000.. The “Great Strike” – 33 plantations go on strike – 28,000 ILWU workers (September 1).
• 1953 Workers are given the opportunity to purchase plantation homes (Waialua).
• 1954 The Democratic party captures major seats in the Territorial Legislature.
• 1958 A 90-day ILWU sugar strike results in the closer of the sugar mills in Kahuku, Kilauea, and Ewa Beach.
• 1959 Statehood
• 1965 The 1965 Immigration Act allows family reunification and entry of skilled labor.
• 1968 ILWU pineapple workers strike for 61 days.
• 1970-1976 Pineapple cannery numbers go from 9 to 3.
• 1972 Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos places the Philippines under martial law.
• 1974 Benjamin Menor is appointed to the state Supreme Court of Hawaii and becomes the nation’s first Filipino-American State Supreme Court Justice.
  • About 9000 ILWU sugar workers strike for 39 days (March 9).About 6,000 ILWU pineapple workers on Oahu, Maui and Lanai strike for 21 days (April 7).
• 1981 75th Anniversary of Filipino workers arrival in Hawaii.
• 1984 Del Monte Corp. opens new Hawaiian pineapple juice concentrate processing plant in Kunia, Hawaii.
• 1986 The “People Power” revolt ousts Ferdinand Marcos and drives him into exile in Hawaii.
• 1989 Ferdinand Marcos dies in Hawaii.
• 1980s Filipino youth gangs emerge as a problem in Hawaii.
• 1980s Manuel Fragante sues for accent discrimination at the U.S. Supreme Court.
• 1992 Dole Packaged Foods Co., closes Lanai Plantation (October). Dole shuts Iwilei Cannery (December).
• 1994 Benjamin Cayetano becomes the first Filipino-American governor in the U.S.Hamakua Sugar Co. harvests last crop (September 30).
• 1995 Hilo Sugar and Oahu Sugar close (April 9).
• 1996 Kau Sugar and Waialua Sugar close.
• 1998 Benjamin Cayetano is reelected governor of Hawaii.
• 1999 Last sugar harvest in Lahaina, Maui
• 2000 Angela Baraquio is crowned Miss America 2001.
• 2002 Filcom Center’s grand opening
• 2006 Filipino Centennial Year in Hawaii and America is celebrated throughout the country.

Courtesy of Virgilio Felipe. Photos courtesy of the Hawaii State Archives and the FilCom Center.