His killers encountered Chin in a bar in Highland Park and mistook his Chinese heritage for the Japanese, whom they blamed for a recent downturn in the automobile industry.

[2] Vincent Chin's killers Ronald Ebens and his stepson Michael Nitz were fined $3000 and given 3 years probation, as the judge expressed the defendants' good backgrounds.

[1] After the sentencing, the American Citizens for Justice conducted an investigating and found that one of the dancers of the bar overheard Ebens saying "Nip," "Chink," and "because of you mother fuc——s, we're out of work."

A second trial was held, but Ebens was found not guilty violating the civil rights in killing Chin.

[1] Furthermore, while Asian Americans in Detroit began to be involved in civil rights, African American groups such as the umbrella Detroit-Area Black Organizations and the Detroit chapter of the NAACP offered solidarity for their events.