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JOHN YANG: May is Asian
American, Native Hawaiian
and Pacific Islander heritage

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Month. So tonight for our
series Hidden Histories, we
introduce you to Corky Lee,

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a photographer who chronicled
the daily lives, struggles
and contributions of

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Asian Americans, a community
that's often marginalized,
unsung and unseen.

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JOHN YANG (voice-over): Corky
Lee said his life's mission
was the pursuit of what he

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called photographic
justice, changing America
one photograph at a time.

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CORKY LEE: In all my
photographs, I'm trying
to include pages that

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should be in American history
books that have been omitted.

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JOHN YANG (voice-over):
His photos were used
by the New York Times,

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Time magazine and the
Associated Press, among
others. Lee was there when
Chinese Americans took

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to the streets of New
York in 1975 to protest
the police beating of
a Chinese American man.

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He was in Detroit in 1983
when protests erupted over
the lack of prison time for

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two white men who had
pleaded guilty to killing
Vincent Chin. Lee said
one of his most defining

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images showed sick Americans
in Central Park in the days
after the 9/11 attacks,

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a time when Sikhs were targets
of violence and discrimination.

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CORKY LEE: We read in the
history books that America
is a nation of immigrants.

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I just want to say that Asians
in this country are part and
parcel of a much larger picture.

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JOHN YANG (voice-over):
Telling the story of his
career, Lee often said

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it began in junior high
school when he saw this
iconic photo of the completion

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of the transcontinental
railroad and its textbook. It
shows only white men. Where,

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he wondered, were the
thousands of Chinese laborers
who laid the tracks.

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On the 145th anniversary of the
event in 2014, he did something
about it. Gathering descendants

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of those workers in Utah for
a recreation. Lee considered
it his greatest achievement.

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CORKY LEE: That photograph
will be hung next to
the one that appears

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in every history textbook.
So this is my small
contribution or way to

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for Chinese to Chinese
Americans to reclaim
part of their history.

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JOHN YANG (voice-over):
Lee Young Kwok was born in
Queens in 1947, the eldest

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son of a laundry owner and a
seamstress. He attended New
York City public schools,

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where he acquired the
nickname he carried for
the rest of his life,

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Corky. He was the first
member of his family to
go to college, studying
history at Queen's College.

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It was while working as
a community organizer
on Manhattan's Lower
east side in the

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1970s that Lee began
taking pictures documenting
poor housing conditions.

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CORKY LEE: When people
look at the photographs,

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they can sort of read into
it. If they see deplorable
conditions, they can say,

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this has to change, and
maybe it'll motivate
people to do something
to enact those changes.

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JOHN YANG (voice-over): Lee took
pictures of other things, too,

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and began selling them to
newspapers and magazines.

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CORKY LEE: It got to a
point that I started to
use the photographs for
documentary purposes, and it

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became, I guess, a means
of expression, because
I can't write, I can't
sing, I can't dance.

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JOHN YANG (voice-over):
In a five-decade career as
a freelance photographer,
he captured the

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everyday, often unsung
accomplishments and struggles
of Asian Americans and Pacific

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Islanders in politics
and demonstrating for
better housing, education
and voting rights.

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He was a great believer
in paying it forward.
Annual photo auctions
raise more than $100,000

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in scholarship funds for the
Asian American Journalists
Association. He never stopped

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working. While the world shut
down for the pandemic, Lee
documented the anti-Asian hate

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that spread from it. He died
of complications from COVID-19
in January 2021, at age 73.

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He left behind what may
be the largest collection

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of photos depicting the
Asian American experience
in the last half century.

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JOHN YANG: More than 200 of
Corky Lee's photos have been
collected in a new book,

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Corky Lee's Asian America.
And he's the subject
of a documentary called

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Photographic the Corky
Lee Story. It airs
Monday on PBS stations.