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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Image
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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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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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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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.
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Suspect Lineup
Chol Soo Lee is no. 5 in this 1973 police lineup photo.
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Chol Soo Lee Mugshot
Chol Soo Lee’s 1974 prison mugshot.
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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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Chol Soo Lee in Front of a Mural
Chol Soo Lee, in a 1970s Polaroid.
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Chol Soo Lee Mug Shot
Chol Soo Lee’s teenage mugshot from 1969.
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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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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.
