Evelyn Okubo was a Japanese-American sansei teenager killed during the 1970 convention of the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) at the Palmer House hotel in Chicago, Illinois.

[3] She and Ranko Carol Yamada had traveled to Chicago as representatives of the Japanese-American youth organization Yellow Seed to the national convention of the JACL, which was then focused on fighting for racial justice and against the Vietnam War.

[3] Prior to the murder, Okubo was believed to have attended racial issue discussion meetings with groups like the Black Panthers and the Young Lords, a Latino community organization with roots as a Chicago street gang.

[6] Chicago newspapers originally ran sensational stories alleging that Okubo was raped prior to being murdered, and implied that interracial dating on the part of the youth activists was to blame.

[11] The tragedy of Okubo's murder was the inspiration for Japanese-American songwriter and musician Nobuko JoAnne Miyamoto, another JACL attendee and West Side Story actress, to write her first song.