“Blue Jeans and Chima Baji Getting Together”
After journalist K. W. Lee published a two-part series about Chol Soo Lee’s life and murder conviction in the Sacramento Union, people took notice. A small group of socially conscious first-generation Korean Americans in the Sacramento, California area formed the Chol Soo Lee Defense Committee. Elsewhere, young Asian Americans also mobilized. Together, they formed a pan-Asian, multigenerational grassroots social movement to free Chol Soo. For six years, these disparate groups—young and old, immigrant and US-born, conservative and progressive—united in common cause to help a stranger.
Image 44.04.01 — Young activists formed the backbone of the Free Chol Soo Lee movement, circa late 1970s.
Courtesy of Unity Archive Project. Metadata ↗
Why did Chol Soo Lee’s story resonate with other Korean immigrants?
In what ways did the younger members of the Free Chol Soo Lee movement try to raise awareness and funds for his defense?
How did the support of the Asian American community affect Chol Soo Lee’s case, especially in the courtroom?
