In 1857 the San Francisco Board of Education established Minns' Evening Normal School for current and prospective teachers in the city. Named after its principal, George W. Minns, the institution was formally established as the first California State Normal School by the State Legislature in 1862. A decade later, the Legislature voted to move the Normal School to San José, and the school relocated to its new home on Washington Square prior to the fall term of 1872. After a fire destroyed the Normal School building in 1880, the Legislature authorized $200,000 to construct a new building on the same site. Completed in 1881, the building was commonly referred to as the Second State Normal School. After several names and curriculum changes, Minns' Normal School is now San José State University, offering more than 134 bachelor's and master's degrees with 110 concentrations, and is recognized as one of the top public universities granting such degrees in the West.

As a result of the Third World Liberation Front movement of 1968, a proposal for the creation of an Asian American Studies Program at San José State University was spearheaded by student participants of the Progressive Asian American Coalition (PAAC), members of Associated Students, and faculty members in 1969. In Fall 1970, the program was formally established, residing under the School of Social Sciences. During the mid to late 1970s, the Asian American Studies Program faced a number of “cutback struggles” in regards to budget allocations and diminished faculty and staff, and this has remained a pattern throughout later years as well. The Asian American Studies Program frequently collaborated with related organizations, namely the student-led Asian Students In Action Now (A.S.I.A.N., also known as Asian Club), to organize events and activities such as the Asian Spring Festival. Throughout the years, there were many who acted as Program Coordinator: PJ Hirabayashi, Gregory Mark, and most notably, Raymond Lou. From Spring 1979 until around 1990, Raymond Lou, previously a lecturer of Asian American Studies, was selected as the next Program Coordinator. As Program Coordinator, Raymond Lou participated in university-wide efforts such as the Interminority Coalition (also known as the Interminority Council) and Student Affirmative Action. Around 1982, there was discussion of reorganizing the School of Social Sciences, as the ethnic programs were not under their own department, but rather as individual programs under the school. In 1987, the Department of Social Sciences was formally established with the purpose of functioning as a consortium made up of the component programs: Afro-American Studies, Asian-American Studies, Mexican-American Studies, Social Science, and Women’s Studies. Today, Asian American Studies resides in the Department of Sociology and Interdisciplinary Social Sciences under the College of Social Sciences.

Named entities of note:

James M. Sawry (Dean of Social Sciences, prior to 1976)

Gerald E. Wheeler (Dean of Social Sciences, 1976-1983)

Kichung Kim (founding faculty member and coordinator, 1969-1972)

Roy Hirabayashi (Student Coordinator; personnel and key administrator)

Cheryl Fong (Student Coordinator; curriculum)

Jiro Saito (Acting Program Coordinator, 1973-1974)

PJ Hirabayashi (Acting Program Coordinator of Asian American Studies, 1977-1979)

Gregory Mark (Asian American Studies Program Coordinator, prior to 1979)

Raymond Lou (Asian American Studies Program Coordinator, 1979-circa 1990)