The Kauaʻi Philippine Cultural Center will host “The Hanapēpē Massacre & Pablo Manlapit: The Slow, Grinding Wheels of Sugar and Justice” from 6 to 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 10.
The event will examine the life of Manlapit, considered the first Filipino lawyer in Hawaiʻi, and his role in organizing Filipino sugar plantation workers who sought better wages and an 8-hour workday.
The event is free and will feature representatives of the Filipino American National Historical Society-Hawaiʻi Chapter and the Hawaiʻi Filipino Lawyers Association.
On Sept. 9, 2024, one of the deadliest labor confrontations in Hawaiʻi’s history, which came to be known as the Hanapēpē Massacre, resulted in the deaths of 16 Filipino plantation strikers and four sheriffs during a violent clash.
More than 100 workers were arrested and convicted following the violence, and dozens were deported. Manlapit was among those deported. Historians have argued that his conviction was unjust, saying he was later paroled and ultimately removed from Hawaiʻi.
The Hawaiʻi Filipino Lawyers Association is now examining Manlapit’s legal history and the circumstances surrounding his conviction as part of an effort to bring renewed attention to his legacy.
“Over the past four years or so, many curious people have reached out to learn more about the Hanapēpē Massacre,” said Michael Miranda of the Filipino American National Historical Society-Hawaiʻi and the Kauaʻi Philippine Cultural Center.
“What many do not know is how Manlapit inspired so many Filipino workers to fight for what the plantations had promised them.”
The program will also consider the broader history of the sakadas, Filipino contract laborers who came to Hawaiʻi to work on sugar plantations and helped establish Filipino communities across the islands.
“Pablo Manlapit’s fight for dignity, fair wages and an 8-hour workday laid the foundation for labor organizing long before it was recognized on the mainland,” said Daniel J. Padilla, president of the Hawaiʻi Filipino Lawyers Association.
“For too long, his story — and the stories of the sakadas who built our communities — have been overlooked or overshadowed,” Padilla said.
The event is presented through a collaboration involving the Kauaʻi Philippine Cultural Center, the ACLU of Hawaiʻi and the Hawaiʻi Filipino Lawyers Association.
Organizers say the program will use the history of Hanapēpē and Manlapit’s case to examine questions of labor rights, historical memory and justice that continue to resonate a century later.
