Dolores Wong (1921-2014) was an award-winning activist who particularly focused on supporting local education and addressing issues affecting Los Angeles’ Chinatown and the surrounding Chinese American community. She was especially well known for her grassroots work to establish the Chinatown Library in Los Angeles.

Wong was born in Vallejo, California and was the first person in her family to graduate from college, receiving a B.A. in Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley and then an M.A. in Psychiatric Social work from Smith College. After graduate school, Wong worked in New Orleans, Louisiana as a social worker at a child guidance clinic until marrying her husband Delbert Wong (1920-2006) who would go on to become the first judge of Chinese descent in the United States. After marriage, Wong worked in Sacramento, California at the State Mental Hygiene Clinic as a psychiatric social worker until retiring after the birth of her children. She began her activist work with organizations like the Boy Scouts of America, United Way, March of Dimes, and the Griffith Park Coordinating Council, as well as her church and the PTA. She also held leadership positions for several years with organizations like the Resthaven Mental Health Center, Chinatown Teen Post, and Asian American Friends of the Center Theatre Group and served on an ad hoc committee to create a Chinatown branch of the Los Angeles Public Library. Once the Chinatown branch was established in 1983, Wong helped to organize the Friends of the Chinatown Library. She was also an active member of many local organizations, including the Chinese American Citizens Alliance (CACA) Women’s Auxiliary, the Chinese Historical Society of Southern California (CHSSC), and Dedicated Older Volunteers in the Education System (DOVES) among others. Her political activities included helping to charter the Chinatown Democratic Club and serving as a member of Mayor Tom Bradley’s Asian-Pacific American Heritage Week committee. Wong was honoured for the extensive activist work she undertook throughout her life by various organizations and, notably, received a National Volunteer Activist Award in 1979. She passed away in 2014 and in 2021 a plaque was placed in her honour in the Dolores Wong Plaza at the corner of Cesar Chavez Boulevard and Grand Avenue in Los Angeles.