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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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Fighting to End a Korean Stereotype
Marcia Choo, then-director of the Asian Pacific American Dispute Resolution Center, became a prominent spokesperson for the Korean American community, advocating for solidarity between the Korean American and Black communities during the Soon Ja Du shooting trial of Latasha Harlins.
Featured in:
Sa I Gu: Los Angeles, 1992, Module 2
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Image
K.W. Lee Holds Korea Times Newspaper
K.W. Lee, former editor of the Korea Times English Edition, shows the February 24, 1992 issue featuring the Los Angeles Police Department’s 1991 crime reports for the Koreatown police district during an interview in Fullerton, California, April 23, 2012.
Featured in:
Sa I Gu: Los Angeles, 1992, Module 2
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Video
Interview with South L.A. Shop Owner
Jet, a Korean American shop owner in South Los Angeles, expresses his frustration with the lenient sentence given to Soon Ja Du in the killing of Latasha Harlins.
Featured in:
Sa I Gu: Los Angeles, 1992, Module 2
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Judge Joyce Karlin
Judge Joyce Karlin’s probation sentencing of Soon Ja Du in the shooting death of Latasha Harlins caused controversy and divided the city. Despite efforts to recall her, Karlin was elected to California’s Superior court in 1992 before retiring in 1997.
Featured in:
Sa I Gu: Los Angeles, 1992, Module 2
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Soon Ja Du Attends Hearing
Billy Hongki Du weeps as he and his wife Soon Ja Du attend a hearing in the summer of 1991, after Soon Ja Du shot and killed Latasha Harlins in a dispute at their store.
Featured in:
Sa I Gu: Los Angeles, 1992, Module 2
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Korean American Coalition Condemns Violence
When a Korean American child was shot and wounded during an armed robbery of her parents’ gas station in South L.A., the Korean American Council and Los Angeles Brotherhood Crusade condemned the violence, offering aid to the family.
Featured in:
Sa I Gu: Los Angeles, 1992, Module 2
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Video
Interview with Historian Brenda Stevenson
Historian Brenda Stevenson describes how the killing of Latasha Harlins heightened tensions between the Black and Korean American communities in South Central LA.
Featured in:
Sa I Gu: Los Angeles, 1992, Module 2
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Relatives of Latasha Harlins
Denise Harlins (right), her daughter Shinese (center), and 150 protesters attend a protest at Empire Liquor store six days after Denise’s niece, Latasha, was shot and killed by store owner Soon Ja Du in a dispute over a bottle of orange juice.
Featured in:
Sa I Gu: Los Angeles, 1992, Module 2
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Press Conference at Empire Liquor Market Deli
Five days after Latasha Harlins was killed, a crowd of more than 150 protesters held a press conference with activist Danny Bakewell outside Empire Liquor Market Deli, declaring a boycott of the store.
Featured in:
Sa I Gu: Los Angeles, 1992, Module 2
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Latasha Harlins News Clipping
Two weeks after Latasha Harlins was shot and killed, the Los Angeles Times posted a letter written and signed by 234 of her classmates.
Featured in:
Sa I Gu: Los Angeles, 1992, Module 2
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Empire Liquor Market Deli
Empire Liquor Market Deli was one of the few mom-and-pop stores providing food and basic supplies in Latasha Harlins’s neighborhood, known as a “food desert” because residents lacked access to larger chain supermarkets like Vons and Ralphs.
Featured in:
Sa I Gu: Los Angeles, 1992, Module 2
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Redlining Los Angeles
A typical “redlining” map of Los Angeles from 1939. Colored grids signified a neighborhood’s “desirability” and led to racial segregation.
Featured in:
Sa I Gu: Los Angeles, 1992, Module 1
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Riverside Koreatown Community
Members of the Riverside Koreatown community.
Featured in:
Sa I Gu: Los Angeles, 1992, Module 1
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Dosan Ahn Chang Ho Harvests Fruit
Dosan Ahn Chang Ho, who established the first Korean American immigrant community in Riverside, California, in the early 1900s.
Featured in:
Sa I Gu: Los Angeles, 1992, Module 1
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Edward Lee’s First Birthday
Eddie Lee, wearing his traditional Korean dol first-birthday hanbok, with his father.
Featured in:
Sa I Gu: Los Angeles, 1992, Module 1
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Lee Family Portrait
A portrait of the Lee family in happier days. (Clockwise from the top left) Jenny, Eddie, Young Hi, and Jung Hui.
Featured in:
Sa I Gu: Los Angeles, 1992, Module 1
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Latasha Harlins Portrait
Latasha Harlins was a fifteen-year-old African American girl shot and killed by Soon Ja Du, a Korean store owner in 1991.
Featured in:
Sa I Gu: Los Angeles, 1992, Module 1
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LAPD Officers Beat Rodney King
A still from the March 31, 1991, video shot by George Holliday from the balcony of his apartment showing LAPD officers beating an unarmed Rodney Glen King with batons while other officers stand and watch.
Featured in:
Sa I Gu: Los Angeles, 1992, Module 1
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Audio
Radio Korea Callers Seeking Help
Amid the violence of April 30, 1992, Korean immigrant store owners, who could not speak fluent English, begged Radio Korea 1540 AM reporters in Korean to call 911.
Featured in:
Sa I Gu: Los Angeles, 1992, Module 1
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2023 Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival
Filmmakers from the Digital Histories program celebrating the premiere of their short films at the 2023 Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival.
