(band aying ino) (band continues) (latinance mic plang) harry chuck: growing up, i would walk down kearny street and i'd see block after block of filipinos. they had their own village, their own stores, and nitclubs.heiown rest and thfamous internatnal hote to me,anilatowwas a naral exnsion ofhinatown emil degman: thiwas not just, . th wasike a to. peop live he and thehad eat, younow,

wonderl relatis. it was wonderf, i me, we d chines we had lipinos, moly poor,ou know,didn't h, t manyad famil i me, that, at to mewas rea. harry chk: housi activists the i-hel asked r my suprt s the prorty pland to evi the nants anto replace the buildingith a nehigh-ris m tau le the whe strugg to defe the ternatiol hotel ok about nin, to theight o. (crowdhanting) ten year going e yocould bearching xt to a minist,

and a bor leer, soone fromthe blacpan. it was aoliticalssue out people'sight to ve their cmunity. guzman ( film): it's f mt er has beein this ruggle. so we st want e press to kn' puing thin on red ert, thateople ha to be very prered, anthat on nday, there's ing to be another demonstrion in oer to trto preve any ki of evicon proceres by the, the sheffs. josh chuck: when you saw people organizing and standing up, did you feel like you gained confidence to do it yourself? - yeah, it gives you confidence, but also the courage. ey knew was there and i was onheir side. i felt it was important, but i felt that they needed me, and i needed their, the experience of being with them.

patau lee: my re ani wod be parof the tactal squad we'd he these llies inront of e hotel it was intense! (laughs) yeahi mean, u really mm, haveo face uto, like is is going be ally sca, and,ou know,e coulget rt. you arin it wi, with a undetanding all of is anmaking aecision, that . r me to,o do ts. (siren blare , anit was, "oka it's haening."

and m, like. (breathes deeply): "this is , thiss it you kno and i'm eathing,ust kind of fosing, "ts is it. ma demonsttors andeople in suf the inrnationahotel'stenants patau lee:hey blocd off e frondoor frothe insi. th had 2 xs anthen putll kindsf chairs up . (sirenblaring) aweould sen that ey werirs up . ve, very cse anyou coulhear theorses.(imita) and yocould ju kind of hear memd chantingtarts toake overd th the (crowdhanting, woman ea) (sirenblaring) man (on eaker):if you d't th please ve be pon the sidalkade, acss the seet fr the hot. pam tau e: you kw, you c feel eh other, beuse you' linked ms fr ttogeer, anit's thafeeling,ike, of, of, .

you're connected to these other lks, and it, and itecomes rlly real rowd shoing) yocould ju feel, le, people gting hit (crowdhouting, batonsitti) the violce andhe brutaty ofhe bats swingi anthe c sqd, anthe hors, the decion was me at that d to disrse. anso that ll came wn, wn to me what can rember is tt e tactic then stted in o brking dowthe door and ing intohe hotel man: theesistancis reall rong here. thonly pern betwee the eriffs a the banter is el deguzm.

(cwd shoutg) anemil is lding on with a , d theye hurtinhim, anthey're rting hi mean, th was, this washe e. this washere peoe were forced o into thstreets. d the ci was n there. this washere peoe were forced o into thstreets. nombulance you ow, noocial rkers, nobody, just, itas just . it wasust real a... (hiss ) i me, it wasust a ve unspkable mont mean, pele in thr late a who rkedard l their ves do not derve tha and the ct that ey were mostlysn just sho what th count thoughabout us they hado go to her os in a ry overowded cy without much housing

and they had to live out their lives. ale. (breats deeply (in fi): this ruggle hn't lost by y means, and if we've contributed anything, we've contributed, you know, the sue toward propagation of low-income housing. and we foresee at some point bringing together manyther houng grouparound the stanthat the in no w evergain in is city. and wehould rely, shod really wortogether for the purpose of building some kind of a housing movement. ay? we had someone in the house of representatives,

his name was mailliard, and i wanted to talk to him beuse i thght maybhe would be s. , "you kw, if yojust wai outse the ofce, evenally he ll have go the men room." josh chuck: did you actually go in the bathroom with him? yeah, yeah, i walked in and i said, "congressman mailliard, i'm harrchuck,nd," yoknow, "i like to telyou someing abt wh we're dng in chatown." jo chuck (ughing): were you acally athe, lik.. (lghs) i was desperate. (laughs) and eventually, he did, he wrote a letter of recommendation.

well, i don't think i was ever that confident in myself where i could say, 'm gonna me a diffence, i'm gonnchange t world." i ver ta like th. you kn, i justorry aut one dato the nt-- osh, whaam i goi to say you kn, i justorry aut "whei comeefore the planno m i gonna ready? am i ppared too somethg?" ♪ (in fi): two-a-a-half ars o, we ca to you questingpprovalfor a preln date, not a sile chinawn unit is uer constction, nor eu anwhat youee hertoday is continu effort and ot ofur commuty.

nda wang the positiont thatime r the ockton-sramento stet site, these are people who lived on nob hill who decided they didn't want affordable housing at that site. and so ty would me to etings a oppose e projec and that whathey tri to d - bothuildingsre califora street theyave a frt and re. so all of e rear artments of be theicompleteiews ocked t. some othese tents ve been ving the for yes and yes. jo ritchiei'm not re to be pop. i'm ncerned inhis casebout what wilbe builtn thatite, includg the degn of t buildin,

the placemenof the bldings, includg the degn the ew preseation, e appearce of thbuilding the accesses andntrances d everytng else nnected withi alice rkley: i'd li to say at none, t no o in this world, have aabsoluteight to theie. alice rkley: i'd li to say at if we , thene wouldn have ha me of thbuilding ready inxistence. ♪ hay chuck: was a ltle ncerned at at e end ofhe day, wee just me a lot speech. d i wonded if weould beble to cvince althos electeofficis that cnatown h a al probl. ritchie: i ruse toupporthe bih of aroject othis typ unless i'm able to confirm to my satisfaction that the project wi be an aractive dition to the cy. thefore, will votagainst .

theyidn't kn how detmined could bto make th happen. ♪ fongat that me, it w a colleive r chinatn. seors, you, everyby altogether and weave voe to a cmunity that h bn ignore lindwang: weould bri the niors byhe buslo toity hall d attendg publicearings but ey needesomeonalso stoe able taddresse.

be able speakn thr behalf ♪ (in fi): weay notave lawys, we don have a ll of lot of mey, but we dhave orcrowded nditions d we hava lot ofeople only a block awafrom you so you watch out! (audience cheers and applauds) jen: my name is lemuel jen and i'm the past president of the chinese six companies back in 1968. gives this ltle heav in cnatown a let us ve not only the poor-- for all our people! won (in ntonese)

(cheerg and apauding man: thedon't wa we are blockw the building on kearny street and montgomery street block e whole inatown, we n. ma the tesmony in s favor has n we arei assureeverend uck, inur heartone fami. udience murmurs) we arma we are supportof t pro. inur heartone fami. we, however, are not in favor of the commercial garage facility. the residents of this community were very upset... man: what are you afraid of? man: this is like a repeat of what happened eight years ago. on thacommittee we some pele, includg the reverendarry chu. the rerend chu is in sport of the psent project. gordon chin: nob hill is against the housing.

they've been against the housing ever since the project was proposed, before the garage. ifhe garage was dissolved, they'lbe again somethi elsen the fure. man:e havei would y, nomore t. udience oaning, murmur) you ow, i dot think 's ally fai for to go olike thi no i thinkhat thers one y to do at that even eaer th they suest. anthat is r nob hi peopl to move down tchinatn anfor us tmovep toob hil and harry has prepared a film that i think he wants to show, and maybhe can ge thnarrativon that,oo. harry chuck: didn'think th my fil had any lasting nsequee, and uld not ange ody's fe. buwhen we wento city hl,

th gave us reaso gave ua purpos (ifilm): uhmr. chaian and members of the commission, i realize that it is, it isomewhatnusual pcedure to ask y to lookt film f five mites, t since u can't anmeander rough ouhousing, and e easiesway r us to ts thoughte'd brinour using nditionso you. is to show you a short clip ofilm. w about owing a littleompassio how aboudoing some person homewor coming dn to chitown, looking at some of the conditions in which people live. i don't ink you' enjoy urself tight ifou were go home to one s where there is no heat, ere theris colruing water ly, where there are sharedathrooms and kitcns, ere there are mice ere therare cockaches.

it's jusgonntake ve minut. (psent day you kno when we askedermissioto set up our movie projector, i guesthey thoht it was nd of nol. t when wshowed tm, theythey wershocked. i(ifilm):e've runnto some tec. nd of nol. okay, ju, just run i then. this is recent immigranfamily. (audiencchucklin t only w that a counity tchen, (audiencchucklin but th ia commity show. thsuperviss re shock, though oh, because i, wl... (in film that's undry hanging out inhe hallway.

is is a o-room ut and ere are x childr in thifamily let'go on th the nextpeaker. (audiencapplauds) resent d): when itas, e peopleroke outith a loof applae. (laughin: i wasurprise and, u and at said meing to m it sd, ou did theight thi. and we did. man: i would like to ask, to see a show of hands of those people in the audience who are here in favor of this project. man: commissioner dearman. - aye. - commissioner elliot. aye. - commissioner finn. - aye. - commissioner lau. - aye. - commissioner rosenblatt. - aye.

- commissioner starbuck. - aye. man: unanimous. (audience cheers and applauds) ♪ ♪ you know, sometimes there can be periods where thing happens, and yowonder,

. ♪ chinown islike, all kinda diffent grou. when it cos togeth liket did fomei lun en, it beautif. gordon cn: no onknew it wouldake ten ars at t time whent was filly finied, was notnly a reef, thbattle to buil185 unit ♪ on stockn and sacramen stre s been aong one. and is is a jor victy beuse it'she firstne to be but in a dade ana half ichinatow (audnce applds) d thiss the first timehat i'sort of at aoss for rds beuse i'm t out the trying tconvinceomebod that thiis sething that nee to be de.

and as look outhere, realize,boy, so ny of yo "he been uthere wi me, making spehes, and maki signs, and geing s" and ta. (aience applauds) (present d): noing is fever. en you gthrough fe anyou expeence chae, d they'rpositive u feel gd. and it stains yo it carri you forrd. and you ink, "ok," you kw. but u know it's t over. the ne for chae contins. so youelebrate those ments,

you joy them anyou serve enjoy tm. but dot assumet's alwa ing to bthat way ♪ ♪

l toro stay up to date on america reframed at worldchannel.org. subscribe to world channel's youtube to go beyond the lens with our filmmakers. tell us what you think using #americareframed. major funding for america reframed was provided by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation, wyncote foundation, the corporation for public broadcasting. additional funding for america reframed provided by open society foundations, acton family giving, park foundation, the national endowment for the arts, and the reva and david logan foundation. additional funding for this episode was provided by

phi lambda charitable trust. ♪ it was a hot, humid day in the first week of august in 1975 in this small, cramped hearing room in the boston public schools headquarter, where there were hundreds of people waiting to testify in front of the school committee on the second phase of the boston busing plan, where they would bus elementary school students. i was there with ts from the newly formed chinese parents association. they were there to plead their case. we organized all summer long. the meetin went from 20 parents to sometime 200. some of the parents were parents of my own students,

and some of them were my students in my saturday english classes. and there are others who are my mother's friends from the garment factory. so all summer long, they organized. they went to community meetings, they went to community organizations, and then pleaded with commity leaders to help them. and all of them, including their own husband, would kind of laugh at their face and say, "women, you guys don't even speak english." the very last weekend of that summer, i received my assignment to report to a new school, and i was to ride the bus with the students from the south end, throug chinatown, to charlestown, which is about 20 minutes away from chinatown. and the night before school started, "miss lee, we're not sending our students

to school tomorrow." i said, "wait a minute, how can you do this? how can you notify so many people in such a short time?" he said, "we'll find a way, but we're not going." so i was so nervous. the next morning when i got up early and went to the bus stop, the first bus stop, nobody was there. the second stop, two black students got on. and as the bus rode towards chinatown, in every single bus stop, i saw there were lots of people, but nobody got on the bus. so by the time we got to school, the same two black students was the bus with me, and they were getting nervous, because they were the only two. and i have to stay calm for them. as soon as we got there, the principal got on the bus and said, "you better hurry up. "there's a phone call waiting for you in the office, from the justice department." i said, "what did i do now?" so it was that the justice department want me to organize a meeting with the chinese parents right away.

it took us about three days to get everybody together. when we met, the first thing the representative said was, "you make sure that these parents know that what they're doing, boycottingchool, is illegal." one of the parents did not skip a beat, and she said, "waia minute, why is it not illegal for white people, but it's illegal for us?" i was smiling inside. i said, "good for her." she set the tone for that meeting, and within half an hour, they got everything that they asked for, except for one. they got all the monitors on the buses, they got people hired in the schools to translate for them, but they could not get them to agree to hire more chinese teacher, because they have to negotiate with the union. as we were leaving the meeting, i said to the representative, "what took you guys so long to answer them?" and she said, "well, you know, the last three days,

"there was almost no chinese students in any school. "so we really need them back right away, to be the buffer between black and white students." i couldn't believe what i heard, and i couldn't even translate it for parents because i was fuming inside. is that all we are worth? to be the buffer between black and white students? but the parents were so happy, because they have won most of what they wanted, went back to the community and told everyone, and the very next day, as i got on the bus, from each stop, there were more and more student got on the bus. so they won and the moment of crisis has been averted. since that time, for more than 40 years, non-english-speaking immigrant women workers has been the pillar of strength and the center of almost every single struggle that we have in our community.

(funky mic)