Arthur "Art" Matsu fought a private battle to be treated equally as an American citizen.

Matsu was the son of Scottish and Japanese parents, and a star athlete at the College of William & Mary from 1923 to 1926. 

He was the first Asian-American student to attend William & Mary and went on to become one of the first to play in the National Football League. 

Despite these accomplishments, he was denied the opportunity to serve in the U.S. military during World War II. 

"I can imagine that if Art Matsu were alive today, he would not be private with his fight to be a citizen," said Francis Tanglao Aguas, professor of Asian and Pacific Islander American Studies at the College of William & Mary. 

The state will recognize Matsu with a new historical highway marker. It's one of five across the state highlighting Asian American and Pacific Islander history.

Another marker will be placed in Virginia Beach honoring Filipinos in the U.S. Navy.

Aside from being a star quarterback at William & Mary, Matsu was a swimmer, track and field athlete and baseball player.

He was also seen as a leader on campus and a member of the Order of the White Jacket. That group promoted interaction between students and cafeteria workers, many of whom were people of color. 

Aguas said his popularity challenged the status quo at a perilous time for people of color in the United States. 

"Some research and political columns postulate that the 1924 Racial Integrity Act was rushed to mitigate the impact of Art Matsu on the social circle," Aguas said. "He was being celebrated at the same time as he was being seen as a threat." 

The Racial Integrity Act, passed by the Virginia General Assembly in 1924, prohibited interracial marriage and defined as white a person "who has no trace whatsoever of any blood other than Caucasian." 

As his civil rights work went on, so did Matsu's athletic career. 

After playing professionally for the Dayton Triangles, Matsu went on to coach football at Rutgers University in New Jersey. 

It was there during WWII that he was placed on house arrest because of his Japanese heritage. Nearly 120,000 other Japanese Americans were incarcerated in internment camps from 1942 to 1945. 

Aguas said it was only his reputation as a football coach and his affiliation with William & Mary that spared him from the camps. 

Still, he wrote letters to prominent people and politicans advocating for his right to serve in the war. 

"I think that Art Matsu is a part of the history of athletes being civil rights leaders like Muhammad Ali," Aguas said. "He was all about speaking truth to power." 

The introduction of Matsu's highway marker coincides with William & Mary's Asian Centennial, which commemorates the enrollment of Pu-Kao Chen of Shanghai, China in 1921, the first Asian student at the university. 

Aguas said it is unfortunate that acts of violence, like recent murders of Asian people in Atlanta, are what it takes for people to notice inequities in the Asian American community. 

Still, he is hopeful these markers will bring more awareness to Asian American contributions.

"These historical markers are an opportunity for Virginia to revisit, to reflect and discern how to move forward with becoming a more diverse and inclusive state," Aguas said. 

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