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All chapters of Foundations and Futures include lesson plans and curricular tools that are designed for high school students and grounded in ethnic studies pedagogy. Feel free to search our repository of primary sources and material that helps bring Asian American and Pacific Islander histories and experiences into the classroom.  

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  • Six men stand in a line on a stage in front of a curtain, each holding a card with a number, starting with 1 on the left and going through to 6 on the right. Suspect number 5 is Chol Soo Lee.

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    Suspect lineup

    Chol Soo Lee is no. 5 in this 1973 police lineup photo.

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    Free Chol Soo Lee: How a Lone Death Row Inmate Sparked a Movement, Module 3
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  • Certificate of Official Court Reports on the Action Title, The People of the State of California vs Chol Soo Lee.

    Text

    Chinatown Murder Transcript

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    Free Chol Soo Lee: How a Lone Death Row Inmate Sparked a Movement, Module 3
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  • Video

    K.W. Lee meets Chol Soo Lee

    In this clip from the documentary, Free Chol Soo Lee (2022), K.W. Lee and Chol Soo Lee recount their first meeting. From this point on, they would grow an indelible bond.

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    Free Chol Soo Lee: How a Lone Death Row Inmate Sparked a Movement, Module 3
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  • Individuals gather around a table cooking hot dogs and handing out t-shirts. Posters with Korean characters written on them are hung on the table.

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    Ranko Yamada in front of fundraising table

    Ranko Yamada (standing), with other activists, including Mona Litrownik (seated in red T-shirt) in San Francisco in 1978. There are educational pamphlets on the table, and they are selling hot links and T-shirts to fundraise for Chol Soo Lee’s legal defense fund.

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    Free Chol Soo Lee: How a Lone Death Row Inmate Sparked a Movement, Module 3
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  • A yellowed, aged newspaper article from The Sacramento Union, dated Sunday, January 29, 1978, titled "A boy’s frustration in a strange, hostile culture." The article describes the struggles of Chol Soo Lee, a 16-year-old Korean immigrant in America, focusing on his experiences with cultural alienation, juvenile delinquency, and mental health challenges. The layout includes two black-and-white photographs: one at the top right shows a woman sitting across a table from a boy, with the caption "I just started walking toward the Pacific Ocean," and another below the main text features a formal portrait of Chol Soo Lee as a boy in Korea. The article has visible folds and some handwritten marks near the title. Full Transcription A boy’s frustration in a strange, hostile culture The Sacramento Union, Sunday, January 29, 1978 From A1 Notes with those on juvenile delinquency and social services that worked closely with Lee. Thousands of pages of official results on Lee were scrutinized. Also, this reporter has had a series of correspondences and interviews with the lone Korean felon at the Deuel Vocational Institution in Tracy. And laid plain with that Lee’s roots, the reporter has also met with his mother and younger sister, who had given up hope for outside help and have withdrawn into their private shell. TO SUM UP CHOL SOO Lee’s 16-year life in America, his is a misplaced person’s saga as strange as the Kafkaesque character “The Trial” who is arrested, convicted, and executed for a crime by courts that neither the character nor the reader can find the nature of his trial but does intrigue us. Chol Soo Lee has been living a slow death mostly from his intense frustration and quiet struggle. When his entry into the United States at age 12 could have been an easier and ordinary one, it quickly became a disaster for both him and his family. But it didn’t work out that way for a child of the Korean War who was orphaned when his father was killed. Korea was at that time a nation still reeling from the scars of a fratricidal war. His mother and sister fled to San Francisco to rejoin his mother after she lost her parental rights to him and the younger sister for a while. As an example: The American for Abandoned Children’s western staff—was equally helpless. She couldn’t write or read only this translation might have kept her in touch. IN ABOUT A YEAR, official records show, the San Francisco social agency became alarmed and, after consulting a psychiatrist, decided Lee was beyond control and mentally “troubled.” The situation at home was ping-pong, and confusion reigned. The mother and sister had different ideas on discipline, and the mother had to be absent much of the time working as a cleaning woman at low-end income. The younger sister was often left alone and became emotionally unstable. Lee, isolated and desperate, got into petty thefts. People started to call the police. He was beaten, lectured, and threatened. He often pulls his knees up to his chest and sits for hours and hours in silence. He became a problem child, and the mother got more and more desperate. She asked for help but none was available. HIS WAS An Asian boy who didn’t speak English and was constantly being transferred between group homes and foster homes. He was alone in a new environment, and his frustration and loneliness was growing rapidly. Thus began the American ordeal for Chol Soo Lee. A GOOD CASEWORKER (official school case reference) says: “He was a bright boy, but he was not a good boy as far as the system was concerned. He was a good case for the system.” Chol Soo Lee ruefully recalled years later, there was always a sense of futility. “I tried my best, but they didn’t understand me. They didn’t understand my mother. They didn’t understand my sister. They just didn’t understand us.” **No one knows what could have happened to any Asian kid who was thrust into a strange country at Chol Soo Lee’s circumstances. Sometimes it really was our loss in this war-torn world that nobody really cared about us.” In class work, Chol Soo found himself in regular lessons in which teachers often had no training in special issues for Asian kids. He was shunned, mostly by regular kids in the classroom, and often found it difficult to make friends. He says his name—an “odd, foreign English” often got strange looks and snickers. IN ABOUT A YEAR, official records show, the San Francisco social agency became alarmed and, after consulting a psychiatrist, decided Lee was beyond control and mentally “troubled.” The situation at home was ping-pong, and confusion reigned. The mother and sister had different ideas on discipline, and the mother had to be absent much of the time working as a cleaning woman at low-end income. The younger sister was often left alone and became emotionally unstable. Lee, isolated and desperate, got into petty thefts. People started to call the police. He was beaten, lectured, and threatened. He often pulls his knees up to his chest and sits for hours and hours in silence. He became a problem child, and the mother got more and more desperate. She asked for help but none was available. HIS WAS An Asian boy who didn’t speak English and was constantly being transferred between group homes and foster homes. He was alone in a new environment, and his frustration and loneliness was growing rapidly. Thus began the American ordeal for Chol Soo Lee. A GOOD CASEWORKER (official school case reference) says: “He was a bright boy, but he was not a good boy as far as the system was concerned. He was a good case for the system.” Chol Soo Lee ruefully recalled years later, there was always a sense of futility. “I tried my best, but they didn’t understand me. They didn’t understand my mother. They didn’t understand my sister. They just didn’t understand us.” **No one knows what could have happened to any Asian kid who was thrust into a strange country at Chol Soo Lee’s circumstances. Sometimes it really was our loss in this war-torn world that nobody really cared about us.” In class work, Chol Soo found himself in regular lessons in which teachers often had no training in special issues for Asian kids. He was shunned, mostly by regular kids in the classroom, and often found it difficult to make friends. He says his name—an “odd, foreign English” often got strange looks and snickers. AND OTHER SCHOOLS Chol Soo came to his dreamland and was caught in a nightmare. After a year, he was moved to another school and another foster home. He was still unable to speak English and was still alone. He was always in trouble with school authorities. He was always being punished. He was always being blamed for things he didn’t do. They make him stand for punishment. They say my boy is incorrigible. The next year, he was still not adjusted, but the school system kept moving him from one place to another. AND STILL, SOO came to his dreamland and was caught in a nightmare. After a year, he was moved to another school and another foster home. He was still unable to speak English and was still alone. He was always in trouble with school authorities. He was always being punished. He was always being blamed for things he didn’t do. They make him stand for punishment. They say my boy is incorrigible. The next year, he was still not adjusted, but the school system kept moving him from one place to another. AND OTHER SCHOOLS Chol Soo came to his dreamland and was caught in a nightmare. After a year, he was moved to another school and another foster home. He was still unable to speak English and was still alone. He was always in trouble with school authorities. He was always being punished. He was always being blamed for things he didn’t do. They make him stand for punishment. They say my boy is incorrigible. The next year, he was still not adjusted, but the school system kept moving him from one place to another. ENJOY THE RICHES He was still not happy. He felt ashamed and said he wanted to die. “Maybe I am not a real boy. Maybe I am not a real human being,” he said. “I am not happy. I am not happy. I am not happy.” He tried to run away. He felt stupid, idiotic. He says, “In American’s crazy boy, they try to punish me. They make him stand for punishment. They say my boy is incorrigible.” WHY THE SUICIDE attempt? Chol Soo, discussing the incident recently, said it was not a real suicide. It was caught in the middle of the Korean War. I was losing my mind at the time. I didn’t know what I was doing. I was just walking toward the Pacific Ocean. I just wanted to leave everything behind.” The juvenile court, to depart Korea where it was born. They sent me to hospital for three months at McAuley Institute, after another month at another facility and further suicide attempts reported. The boy kept his strange mindset with his shoelaces, and picking at his shoe—a memorable episode of tranquil, troubled repose. “More frequently does so through suicide attempts. Were reported.” His commitment to the hospital followed his runaways from his home in America. He was picked up after sleeping in a park, and placed back in juvenile hall. “Why did you run away?” “I felt dark or disinterested. Maybe I just wanted to disappear. No, I felt a need to die. All I ever read of no books. I can’t bear at the time and aunt’s family in Korea, why had treated boys bad. The aunt’s family was a hard time, and it worried the death.” Then he said, “I just started walking toward the Pacific Ocean.” After he was declared sane at Napa, he was placed in a Hayward foster home. In October of that year, he again ran away. He wandered the streets, but he was picked up and returned to the home. He was told he could not go back to his mother. “She was sick and upset and not able to take me to stay. That night I left and slept in a bus station and the next day was picked up and taken back to a juvenile hall.” IN THE WINTER of that same year, he ran away. “Maybe I didn’t know why I was unhappy or why I was missed by Korea.” He visited his bones. He had visited his relatives in Hayward foster home. “After they returned to their own home, I was left alone. My mother said she was too tired to come to visit me anymore. I sometimes cried at home. I tried to live like other people.” One mile from Hayward to Livermore. No, I just returned. Taken Highway 101. To Livermore. I stayed and saw the lake. I kept riding at night. I returned. Finally, I got to Livermore and turned a discarded bicycle and returned to the home. He said: “I was hungry and my bicycle broke. Something was wrong with the tire and the spokes. Something was wrong. I had the bicycle in the blur. They sent me to the county jail.” He tried to go back to live with his mother. A Highway Patrol car was called. He was declared to the CYA at the summer of ‘68. He was returned to the juvenile hall and committed to the CYA. Nowadays, students are friends or mothers’ homes and work, and there was no real contact with juvenile halls. “I was always in trouble. I was always in trouble. I was always in trouble. I was always in trouble. One question: ‘stop asking me why I am in here.’”

    Text

    A boys frustration in strange

    In this January 29, 1978, article, published in the Sacramento Union, K. W. Lee describes the isolating and traumatic experiences Chol Soo Lee endured in America.

    Featured in:

    Free Chol Soo Lee: How a Lone Death Row Inmate Sparked a Movement, Module 3
    View multimedia
  • A black-and-white photo of people at a protest holding signs that read, in both Korean and English: "Freedom for Chol Soo," "ASIAN and PACIFIC STUDENTS UNITE to FREE CHOL SOO LEE," and "free Chol Soo Lee." Some people are standing, others are seated, with trees and a building in the background.

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    Protesters at Free Chol Soo Lee rally

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    Free Chol Soo Lee: How a Lone Death Row Inmate Sparked a Movement, Module 4
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  • Man in suit speaks to a crowd of people gatheredwith signs that read "Free Chol Soo Lee" and otherswritten in Korean characters.

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    Speaker at Chol Soo Lee Rally

    Jay Kun Yoo speaks to the crowd of supporters at a courthouse demonstration during Chol Soo Lee’s murder retrial in San Francisco, in 1982.

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    Free Chol Soo Lee: How a Lone Death Row Inmate Sparked a Movement, Module 4
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  • Video

    Free Chol Soo Lee Defense Committee

    These scenes from the 2022 documentary, Free Chol Soo Lee, shows both the church-driven and youth-driven activities of the multigenerational, multiethnic movement to free Chol Soo Lee.

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    Free Chol Soo Lee: How a Lone Death Row Inmate Sparked a Movement, Module 4
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  • Video

    Ballad of Chol Soo Lee

    This scene from the documentary film Free Chol Soo Lee features the protest song, “The Ballad of Chol Soo Lee,” produced by the Chol Soo Lee Defense Committee. The song is performed by Siu Wai Anderson, Sam Takimoto, Robert Kikuchi-Yngojo, Peter Yoshiro Horikoshi, Duke Santos, and Jeff Adachi.

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    Free Chol Soo Lee: How a Lone Death Row Inmate Sparked a Movement, Module 1
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  • Two women stand side by side outdoors, each wearing traditional Korean hanbok dresses and holding handbags. They are holding a large sign that reads "CHOL SOO IS INNOCENT." Other people are partially visible in the background, and the setting appears to be a public demonstration or gathering.

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    Halmeoni holding sign

    Two women, dressed in Korean traditional dresses, take part in a courthouse protest in Stockton, circa late 1970s.

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    Free Chol Soo Lee: How a Lone Death Row Inmate Sparked a Movement, Module 4
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The Asian American Studies Center acknowledges the Gabrielino/Tongva peoples as the traditional land caretakers of Tovaangar (Los Angeles basin, So. Channel Islands) and pay our respects to the honuukvetam (ancestors), ‘ahiihirom (elders), and ‘eyoohiinkem (relatives/relations) past, present, and emerging.

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