1
00:00:01,933 --> 00:00:04,066
JOHN YANG: May is Asian 
American, Native Hawaiian 
and Pacific Islander heritage

2
00:00:04,066 --> 00:00:09,066
Month. So tonight for our 
series Hidden Histories, we 
introduce you to Corky Lee,

3
00:00:11,000 --> 00:00:13,800
a photographer who chronicled 
the daily lives, struggles 
and contributions of

4
00:00:13,800 --> 00:00:18,800
Asian Americans, a community 
that's often marginalized, 
unsung and unseen.

5
00:00:20,866 --> 00:00:23,666
JOHN YANG (voice-over): Corky 
Lee said his life's mission 
was the pursuit of what he

6
00:00:23,666 --> 00:00:28,666
called photographic 
justice, changing America 
one photograph at a time.

7
00:00:30,366 --> 00:00:32,666
CORKY LEE: In all my 
photographs, I'm trying 
to include pages that

8
00:00:32,666 --> 00:00:36,500
should be in American history 
books that have been omitted.

9
00:00:36,500 --> 00:00:38,933
JOHN YANG (voice-over): 
His photos were used 
by the New York Times,

10
00:00:38,933 --> 00:00:43,900
Time magazine and the 
Associated Press, among 
others. Lee was there when 
Chinese Americans took

11
00:00:46,133 --> 00:00:49,466
to the streets of New 
York in 1975 to protest 
the police beating of 
a Chinese American man.

12
00:00:51,500 --> 00:00:55,600
He was in Detroit in 1983 
when protests erupted over 
the lack of prison time for

13
00:00:57,933 --> 00:01:00,833
two white men who had 
pleaded guilty to killing 
Vincent Chin. Lee said 
one of his most defining

14
00:01:02,766 --> 00:01:06,833
images showed sick Americans 
in Central Park in the days 
after the 9/11 attacks,

15
00:01:06,833 --> 00:01:10,366
a time when Sikhs were targets 
of violence and discrimination.

16
00:01:10,366 --> 00:01:14,333
CORKY LEE: We read in the 
history books that America 
is a nation of immigrants.

17
00:01:14,333 --> 00:01:19,333
I just want to say that Asians 
in this country are part and 
parcel of a much larger picture.

18
00:01:21,033 --> 00:01:23,133
JOHN YANG (voice-over): 
Telling the story of his 
career, Lee often said

19
00:01:23,133 --> 00:01:27,833
it began in junior high 
school when he saw this 
iconic photo of the completion

20
00:01:27,833 --> 00:01:32,833
of the transcontinental 
railroad and its textbook. It 
shows only white men. Where,

21
00:01:34,700 --> 00:01:39,033
he wondered, were the 
thousands of Chinese laborers 
who laid the tracks.

22
00:01:41,133 --> 00:01:45,866
On the 145th anniversary of the 
event in 2014, he did something 
about it. Gathering descendants

23
00:01:47,966 --> 00:01:52,833
of those workers in Utah for 
a recreation. Lee considered 
it his greatest achievement.

24
00:01:54,633 --> 00:01:57,133
CORKY LEE: That photograph 
will be hung next to 
the one that appears

25
00:01:57,133 --> 00:02:02,100
in every history textbook. 
So this is my small 
contribution or way to

26
00:02:05,400 --> 00:02:09,533
for Chinese to Chinese 
Americans to reclaim 
part of their history.

27
00:02:09,533 --> 00:02:13,466
JOHN YANG (voice-over): 
Lee Young Kwok was born in 
Queens in 1947, the eldest

28
00:02:13,466 --> 00:02:18,000
son of a laundry owner and a 
seamstress. He attended New 
York City public schools,

29
00:02:18,000 --> 00:02:21,500
where he acquired the 
nickname he carried for 
the rest of his life,

30
00:02:21,500 --> 00:02:26,500
Corky. He was the first 
member of his family to 
go to college, studying 
history at Queen's College.

31
00:02:28,533 --> 00:02:32,233
It was while working as 
a community organizer 
on Manhattan's Lower 
east side in the

32
00:02:32,233 --> 00:02:37,233
1970s that Lee began 
taking pictures documenting 
poor housing conditions.

33
00:02:38,466 --> 00:02:40,500
CORKY LEE: When people 
look at the photographs,

34
00:02:40,500 --> 00:02:44,266
they can sort of read into 
it. If they see deplorable 
conditions, they can say,

35
00:02:44,266 --> 00:02:49,266
this has to change, and 
maybe it'll motivate 
people to do something 
to enact those changes.

36
00:02:50,800 --> 00:02:52,300
JOHN YANG (voice-over): Lee took 
pictures of other things, too,

37
00:02:52,300 --> 00:02:54,700
and began selling them to 
newspapers and magazines.

38
00:02:54,700 --> 00:02:59,600
CORKY LEE: It got to a 
point that I started to 
use the photographs for 
documentary purposes, and it

39
00:03:01,866 --> 00:03:06,500
became, I guess, a means 
of expression, because 
I can't write, I can't 
sing, I can't dance.

40
00:03:09,033 --> 00:03:13,133
JOHN YANG (voice-over): 
In a five-decade career as 
a freelance photographer, 
he captured the

41
00:03:13,133 --> 00:03:18,133
everyday, often unsung 
accomplishments and struggles 
of Asian Americans and Pacific

42
00:03:20,400 --> 00:03:23,433
Islanders in politics 
and demonstrating for 
better housing, education 
and voting rights.

43
00:03:25,633 --> 00:03:29,300
He was a great believer 
in paying it forward. 
Annual photo auctions 
raise more than $100,000

44
00:03:31,366 --> 00:03:35,200
in scholarship funds for the 
Asian American Journalists 
Association. He never stopped

45
00:03:35,200 --> 00:03:40,200
working. While the world shut 
down for the pandemic, Lee 
documented the anti-Asian hate

46
00:03:42,300 --> 00:03:45,233
that spread from it. He died 
of complications from COVID-19 
in January 2021, at age 73.

47
00:03:48,400 --> 00:03:51,000
He left behind what may 
be the largest collection

48
00:03:51,000 --> 00:03:56,000
of photos depicting the 
Asian American experience 
in the last half century.

49
00:03:57,966 --> 00:04:00,600
JOHN YANG: More than 200 of 
Corky Lee's photos have been 
collected in a new book,

50
00:04:00,600 --> 00:04:05,133
Corky Lee's Asian America. 
And he's the subject 
of a documentary called

51
00:04:05,133 --> 00:04:10,133
Photographic the Corky 
Lee Story. It airs 
Monday on PBS stations.