He came to the U.S. as a young refugee, having survived Khmer Rouge’s brutal rule. Now, Sokhary Chau is the nation’s first Cambodian American mayor.
Today, the city of more than 115,000 residents is nearly 25% Asian and home to the nation's second-largest Cambodian community.
His mother, who died late last year, managed to keep her seven children alive for four years, surviving"landmines, jungles, hunger, sickness and uncertainty" to deliver them safely to the U.S., he said. Chau, however, continued his studies and earned a scholarship to Phillips Academy, an elite boarding school in nearby Andover. He went on to Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, where he studied economics and political science, also on a scholarship.
Chau is also among a growing list of Cambodian American officeholders in Massachusetts that includes two other city councilors, a school committee member and two state lawmakers, all from Lowell, said Vannak Theng, president of the Cambodian Mutual Assistance Association of Greater Lowell. Chau's election also comes on the heels of a federal lawsuit that argued Lowell's election process violated the voting rights of minority residents, who comprise nearly 50% of its population.
Chau's role as mayor is largely ceremonial. Lowell's day-to-day operations are handled by a city manager picked by the council, and Chau effectively serves as council president, leading its meetings and also serving as chair of the school committee.
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