Soon Ja Rhee

After six years of living in LA, Soon Ja Rhee and her husband decided to open up a video rental store. But within five years of running the business, news broke out about riots happening across LA. 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 everything had burned down. 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 the people of Koreatown continue to come together and grow towards becoming a more diverse and unified community. Thank you to Koreatown Storytelling Program and Koreatown Youth and Community Center for hosting this Legacy Project video