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
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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Image
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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Image
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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Text
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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Image
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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Text
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.
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Image
Suspect Lineup
Chol Soo Lee is no. 5 in this 1973 police lineup photo.
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Image
Chol Soo Lee Mugshot
Chol Soo Lee’s 1974 prison mugshot.
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Image
Ranko Yamada working at Koreatown Weekly
Ranko Yamada, in the newsroom of the Koreatown Weekly, 1979. Yamada befriended Chol Soo Lee about a year before his 1973 arrest for the Chinatown murder, and would become a leading figure in the movement to free him from prison.
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Image
Chol Soo Lee in Front of a Mural
Chol Soo Lee, in a 1970s Polaroid.
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Image
Chol Soo Lee Mug Shot
Chol Soo Lee’s teenage mugshot from 1969.
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Image
Collection of Mugshots
This San Francisco Police Department mug book included Chol Soo Lee’s 1969 photo, taken when he was 16 years old. This was the photo picked out by witnesses of the 1973 Chinatown murder.
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Image
Maximum Security Cottage – Youth Guidance Center
Chol Soo Lee spent some of his teen years in juvenile hall in San Francisco, including at a maximum security cottage like this one.
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Chol Soo Lee Childhood Photo
Chol Soo Lee in an undated childhood photo.
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Text
“Thinking of Home”
Chol Soo Lee typed this draft of his poem, “Thinking of Home,” dated 1979, and mailed it to K. W. Lee, who would grow into a life-changing figure in Chol Soo’s life. The poem recalls memories of his motherland, Korea.
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Chol Soo Lee With Mom and Sister
Chol Soo Lee with his mother and half-sister, in an undated photo.
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Image
Chol Soo Lee Childhood Portrait
A childhood photo of Chol Soo Lee, taken in his native Korea.
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Image
Memorial Altar for Chol Soo Lee
Chol Soo Lee died on Dec. 2, 2014, at the age of 62 from health complications related to his burn injuries. Many of those who had rallied to his side decades earlier attended his funeral on Dec. 9, 2014, in San Bruno, California, and laid flowers at this altar.
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Image
Chol Soo Lee Smiling Upon Release
Chol Soo Lee, flanked by his mother, walks into freedom on March 28, 1983, after 10 years in prison.
