Search the Media Repository
Discover the curated images, videos, and primary sources featured throughout Foundations and Futures
History is more than just text on a page; it is the photographs, voices, and artifacts of the people who lived it. The images and recordings featured across Foundations and Futures are part of a meticulously curated media repository. Whether you are building a lesson plan or investigating an artifact, you can use this database to trace the provenance of our media: discover who created an asset, the historical context behind it, and how it can be used to bring Asian American and Pacific Islander experiences into your classroom.
Multimedia
Chapters
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Video
Chol Soo Lee on Post-Release Struggle
In this video clip, Chol Soo Lee speaks passionately about his post-release struggle and urges the community to help support other formerly incarcerated Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.
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Text
“Chol Soo Lee Severely Burned in House Fire”
A news article in the Japanese American newspaper, the Hokubei Mainichi, reports on the arson that severely injured Chol Soo Lee.
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Image
Chol Soo Lee Approached by Media After His Release
Chol Soo Lee, pictured here facing the news media and a crowd of supporters in Stockton, California, confronted many difficulties adjusting to a “normal” life on the outside, after his release from prison in 1983.
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Image
Free Chol Soo Lee Shirt
Chol Soo Lee brandishes a “Free Chol Soo Lee” T-shirt, at a 1986 party with activists in Los Angeles, California.
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Temple Visit After Release
Chol Soo Lee poses with supporters in Hawaiʻi, 1983.
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Chol Soo Lee Support Group
Chol Soo Lee, flanked by his supporters, following his release from prison in 1983.
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Image
Chol Soo Lee Release Celebration
Chol Soo Lee celebrates his freedom at a party, where he and his supporters also watched the 1983 KCRA news documentary about his case, Perceptions: A Question of Justice, produced by Sandra Gin and Tom Nakashima.
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Chol Soo Lee Released
Chol Soo Lee beams at his supporters in Stockton, California, upon being released from prison on March 28, 1983.
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Image
Spine of Police Mugshot Book
A photograph of the San Francisco Police Department’s mug book, titled “Homicide Chinese Series,” shows a Fu Manchu-caricaturish drawing on its cover. Chol Soo Lee’s mugshot as a juvenile was in its pages.
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Supporters in San Francisco Courtroom
Supporters of Chol Soo Lee wait to enter the courtroom in San Francisco, 1982.
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Jeff Adachi at Free Chol Soo Lee Rally
Members of the Free Chol Soo Lee movement, including University of California, Berkeley, student activist Jeff Adachi (far right), protest outside San Quentin State prison, where Chol Soo Lee was on death row.
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Text
Immigrant Convicted of Prison Murder
This March 13, 1979, Sacramento Union article reports the first-degree murder conviction of Chol Soo Lee that would eventually lead to a sentence of death in the gas chamber.
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Image
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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Video
Free Chol Soo Lee Beginnings
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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Jay Kun Yoo Speaks 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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Protesters at Free Chol Soo Lee Rally
Young activists, pictured here at a late 1970s protest, formed the backbone of the Free Chol Soo Lee movement.
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A Boy’s Frustration in a Strange, Hostile Culture
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.
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Ranko Yamada Fundraising
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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Video
K.W. Lee on Meeting Chol Soo Lee
In this clip from the documentary, Free Chol Soo Lee (2022), K.W. Lee and Chol Soo Lee recount their memorable first interview. From this point on, they would grow an indelible bond.
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Chinatown Murder Trial Transcript
K. W. Lee marked up this transcript of the 1974 trial of the People of the State of California vs. Chol Soo Lee. The underlined parts reveal how the police officer who arrested Chol Soo Lee misidentified him as “Chinese,” and Chol Soo’s reaction.
