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 Kyung Won Lee, a premier Asian American activist, is widely recognized as the Godfather of Asian American journalism. He makes outstanding contributions to the Asian American community through his highly successful career as an investigative activist-journalist. He is also the most passionate and inspirational mentor for thousands of Korean American college students across the nation.
K.W. Lee (or K-dub, as he is fondly known by college students), arrived in the United States from Korea in 1950 and began studying journalism at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1953. He was active while on campus; responding to news about the current campus climate around racism and Greek events, K.W. reminisces about his own Greek struggles fifty years ago: “my cosmopolitan fraternity composed of mostly foreign students and white and black activist students waged a running battle with the white-only fraternity and sorority bunch to become a member of the campuswide fraternity and sorority council-- without success. But we kept the pot boiling and enjoyed it.” His emails to Sarah Park (AAS GA) are characteristic of both his passion for social justice and encouragement to students: “Keep the flame alive.”
KW graduated from UIUC in 1955 and began his long and successful career as an investigative journalist. He was the first Asian immigrant to work for a mainstream newspaper, and his coverage on the murder conviction of Chol See Lee catapulted him into journalistic stardom. In 1979 he founded the first national English-language Korean American newspaper, Koreatown Weekly. Alongside Angela Oh, K.W. Lee was one of few spokespersons and advocates for the Korean American community after the devastating Los Angeles Riots (Sa-I-Gu) in 1992. He has won 29 professional awards and was the first recipient of the Asian American Journalists Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
K.W. works with college students all over the United States. He teaches courses on investigative journalism on college campuses and at student- and community-organized conferences. He frequently delivers the keynote speech at the annual Korean American Students Conference (KASCON), a national meeting attended by hundreds of students across the nation. K.W. Lee politicizes students and discourages them from being passive objects, but rather he encourages and inspires them to be active and proactive citizens who shape their own destiny.
In July 2006, KoreAm Journal spotlighted K.W. Lee’s role as “surrogate father” to hundreds of Korean Americans between the ages of 18-50. These young Korean Americans, whom he calls “children of Sa-I-Gu,” started a non-profit organization called the K.W. Lee Center for Leadership, where young people can learn about real history, issues of social justice, and community activism.
K.W. Lee is the recipient of the 2007 UIUC Asian American Alumni Award.
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