Korean American Story - Koreatown Storytelling Program Legacy Project - Saigu Recordings
KSP partnered with Korean American Story to interview Los Angeles community members who were deeply affected by the violence in our Los Angeles community in 1992. Legacy Project — Sa-I-Gu L.A. Riots is an important collection of Korean American oral history narratives that is archived at the Korean American Digital Archive at the University of Southern California. This project marks the beginning of a bicoastal collaboration between KAS and KSP, where we will work together to gather Korean American narrators to share their life experiences. We have also launched a series on the Korean American Pioneers, the earliest second-generation Korean Americans in Los Angeles.
Jung Koo Kang
Jung Koo was born in 1942 in the Gyeongsang Province of Korea. He first immigrated to Kansas in 1975. In 1976, he moved to Los Angeles’ Koreatown with his wife and three children. Jung Koo’s first job in Los Angeles was at a sewing factory in the Garment District, and he later managed his own clothing store for around seven years in downtown Los Angeles. Jung Koo was twice elected as the president of the Korean Seniors Association, with his first term beginning in 2010. He was also the inaugural president of the March 3rd movement branch in Los Angeles, which raises awareness about Korea’s independence movement among Korean Americans. He was also a board member of the Korean American Council.
Jung Koo has been a KSP elder participant since 2021, when we interviewed him for our Garment District cohort. He has been a tremendous advocate for the program and has recommended many elders in our community. We are proud to honor his incredible story.
Carol Park
Carol grew up working many hours at her parents’ gas station store in Los Angeles, California. On April 29, 1992 (SaIGu), the 1992 L.A. Civil Unrest broke out when she was 12 years old. Carol recalls frantically calling her mother to tell her to come home after seeing all the violence happening on the news. She eventually made it home safely but couldn’t stop thinking about her store, hoping it wouldn’t burn down.
For the 30th anniversary of SaIGu (4.29), Carol shares her mother's story, reflects on the misrepresentation in the media, and tries to understand the many facets of what happened that day.
Soon Ja Rhee
Soon Ja and her husband decided to open a video rental store after six years of living in Los Angeles. Yet within five years of running the business, news broke out about riots happening across the city. Mrs. Rhee vividly recalls her next-door neighbor rushing over to tell her that they saw their store on fire on the news. Her whole family hurried back to the store and saw that everything had burned to the ground.
This year marks the 30th anniversary of SaIGu (4.29). As Mrs. Rhee looks back at this difficult time in her life, she also reflects on how it was a time when the community came together. Today, she hopes that the people of Koreatown will continue to work together and become a more diverse and unified community.