when L.A. Chinatown is mentioned this is what most people think of the picturesque central plaza between Broadway and Hill Street filled with shops cafes traditional architecture even a statue of Bruce Lee but this wasn't LA's first Chinatown the original Chinatown sprang up over one hundred and fifty years ago along a dusty adobe lined alley about a mile away that was where one of the darkest incidents in Los Angeles history took place the Chinese massacre of 1871 on the night of October 24th 1871 a mob of about five hundred Angelenos converged on the Chinese part of town they killed Cookes Laundrymen a musician even a well respected Chinese doctor not that they had done anything wrong the problem was the color of their skin this was the largest massacre in history and it was the last massacre marking the transition of Los Angeles from a Wild West town to a modern city that lived under the rule of law i was born and raised in L.A. part of the fourth generation of our family to lay down roots in the city but as I was growing up I never heard about the story of the massacre from our parents they didn't >> mention it it wasn't taught in school nobody talked about it but the story of violence against marginalized people blacks Latinos Asians Native Americans is part of the L.A. story and it's still a story that reverberates today in order to remember the forgotten history we're going to take you along a trail of blood and tears we're going to see the actual sites where the massacre of the Chinese in 1870 actually happened let's get started now we're at Father Serra Park this is where North Los Angeles Street and Alameda Street come together behind me is Union Station across the street over there is El Pueblo which is where Spanish settlers first created what later became the city of Los Angeles what you may not know is that North Los Angeles Street used to be called Kayardild or what some Angelenos used to call Alley this is where the original Chinatown began I think some >> believe Negroes got its name because of the darker skinned complected folks that lived along this kind of alleyway this moniker came prior to the Americans and the Anglos came in to Los Angeles and it could have identified any group of people it could have been indigenous could have been Chinese Mexican California's so those that just had a darker skin complexion it wasn't racialized just yet >> by the early 1850 by the time the Chinese arrived I think >> Rose was a neighborhood that was deteriorating >> a lot of brothels and saloons had opened there and along with them knife fights and gun fights and so it soon >> became known as the roughest neighborhood in town so >> in Los Angeles in the 50s there are two documented Chinese by the late sixties and there were probably about 14 by the late 70s just a little bit over two hundred so about two hundred thirty four people that were there they came down into this area because of the fact that no one the mines up north the gold mines up north were drying up I mean the reality was that they were pushed out of the the northern mines and many of them because of the foreign miners tax were pushed out of the mines the railroads have been completed others were seeking different labor and fulfilling a vacuum of labor in Los Angeles because of the gold rush >> those was the roughest part of Frontier Los Angeles virtually everyone carried a knife or pistol one historian wrote that violent mayhem was almost a daily occurrence in this part of town and among the perpetrators were the Chinese it was here late on the afternoon of October twenty fourth eighteen seventy one that a gunfight broke out between gunmen from rival Chinese gangs >> starting in eighteen seventy the rivalries between two Chinese factions started to become more intense and one of the incidents that caused the most commotion in the Chinese quarter was in March eighteen seventy one seven months before the massacre when members of one faction abducted the beautiful young bride of a wealthy merchant and the other faction and they married her to one of their own man and this this created a huge uproar and so the tensions between these two factions continued to simmer during all of the summer of 1871 and into the fall by October of 1871 one of the factions decided to bring in some professional Chinese gunmen from San Francisco because the other faction had staged a series of incidents to retaliate against them and it caused enormous tension among the Chinese community >> Chitose Negroes was a very short street it ran for one block from Father Serra Park over here to parking lot for the gunfight on October twenty fourth continued along came a little after five o'clock one of the Chinese gunmen was shot he fell to the ground and died maybe somewhere right around here you've probably heard the Joni Mitchell lyric about how they paved paradise and put up a parking lot well kinda loose Negroes was not exactly paradise but like so much of old L.A. it was paved over and became this parking the buried history of Los Angeles now we're going to go over here to Arcadia Street and turn right there were two Chinese gunmen shooting wildly at each other uncoded was Negroes when police officer Bill Duran heard the shots he leaped onto his horse and charged into the fray the gunman tried to scatter but Officer Bill Duran was able to catch one of the gunmen and started marching him here up this way on Acadia's street we're now near the current point where the one on one freeway and Los Angeles Street cross this was the site of the Cornell Adobe Dr. Chuong Hong was one of the best known Chinese in the Los Angeles of 1871 he had his home and his office here in the Cornell building but the building also had less reputable businesses such as bars gambling houses and brothels not surprisingly the Cornhill developed a reputation as a place where violence and even death became common it was so bad that one of the local newspapers The Los Angeles Herald wrote that the Cornell Block serves a man for breakfast every morning so it's no surprise that it was here that the violence of October twenty fourth began to spread out of control it was about five thirty in the afternoon a Tuesday afternoon in Los Angeles a guy named Robert Thompson had been the owner of the saloon very popular guy well known when the shooting broke out he took it upon himself to engage with the shooters he he was armed he went up to the door way the Hornell building >> and foolishly stood in the doorway and fired Jared somebody inside the building returned fire hitting him eventually he passed away the crowd grew word spread that this Robert Thompson died died about seven thirty and the word went out in the crowd and hey the Chinese were killing white folks the conditions in the city of Los Angeles had been that the Chinese were looked upon as being aliens they looked different smelled different eight different food stress different and in practice they were looked upon as taking jobs away from the rest of the community so they they >> the Chinese are not well liked maybe hated and so is the word spread that Mr. Thompson had passed now the crowd is grown to as many as 500 folks ten percent of the population of Los Angeles had surrounded the building vigilante's climbed up on the roof poke holes and the roof shot through the openings celebrated if they could see in the execution of some of the residents side they threw fire frankly the shooters had escaped and really the only people in there in the building the building served for merchants stores and residents so those are the only people in there the innocent folks had nothing to do with the shooting as they continue to attack the building some of the residents inside some of the Chinese inside tried to make a break tried to escape but when you've got five hundred folks surrounding the building with guns knives hatchets clubs you don't get very far we've just walked a few blocks over here to Spring Street now we're in the heart of the Civic Center I'm standing in front of the US courthouse over that way across the street it's a hall of justice L.A. City Hall is across the street that way and another block over is the headquarters of the L.A. Police Department with all these symbols of law and order around it's hard to escape the irony that we're near the spot Tomlinson's corral up on Temple Street where the hangings began vigilantes were dragging Chinese up Temple Street some of them already had nooses around their necks five Chinese were hanged near here a Tomlinson's corral one of them was Dr. Tom according to newspapers he tried to plead for his life in both English and in Spanish Dr. Tung offered his tormentors gold and silver but when they found that his pockets were empty they shot him then they hanged him they identified him they went in the building drug him and his wife and his housemate out some folks thought we were going to be taking him to jail in essence to protect them but again the mob took control way hangings traditionally would occur is that the person's place on a platform rope is tied around their neck um the platform is pulled away from doors open they fall and fall breaks their neck um and then suffocate the breaking of the necks important because uh allegedly cuts the pain that's not how they treated the horse they put the loose around neck hoist them up off the ground hoisted them up and bounced them against the uh would cross memory that the organs crushing the skull against the cross member bouncing them down on the ground hoisting them up bouncing them up bouncing them down hoist them up you know crushing skull until they expired at least one occasion that wasn't quite effective enough and an individual climbed up on top with the victim hanging on the rope and then jumped up and down on his shoulders um to make sure that he was very dead uh it's uh terrible the inhumanity that >> occurred a >> witness to the carnage 15 year old Joseph Messmer later testified it was a heinous and gruesome scene i have seen a good many men hung but nothing so revolting as what befell these Chinese let's move on to the next scene >> behind >> me is the Los Angeles Mall an office and shopping complex near City Hall if you went down there on a regular workday you'd see office workers from City Hall the federal building or the courthouses picking up their lunch going to get their laundry or going into the drugstore but long before the streets were paved and cars ruled the city this location was a scene of horrific cruelty one local newspaper described the mob as worse than wild beasts here in this block was Gallan Wagan shop where seven Chinese were hanged nearby another >> two Chinese were hanged from an upturn wagon on Commercial Street the violence and the killing ended approximately nine thirty that evening so home quote >> massacre would have occurred from five thirty to nine thirty four hours the >> good citizens did not retire to go home they many of them went back to the local >> saloons and bars to celebrate the next day the newspapers celebrated the violence that occurred describing it as a glorious night ridding the community of the fiends among a very terrible day for those individuals for the Chinese community and the city of Los Angeles on >> the night of October twenty fourth eighteen Chinese never made it to safety let's move on this is the pedestrian bridge over Temple Street near City Hall it connects the north and the south ends of the Los Angeles Mall that in eighteen seventy one temple with just an unpaved street up the hill was the city cemetery where the bodies of the victims of the massacre were buried later the remains were shipped back to China so that they could be buried in their homeland in accordance with Chinese custom for the Chinese the cemetery was a place of mourning but it also became a place for healing a thought you is a ceremony it's a rather elaborate ceremony that requires a priest to lead in prayers in Chans in burning of incense and candles and burning of sayings to wish the spirits safe journey the first memorial happened in August of 1872 the priest set up their altars in the area where the massacre took place in 1870 one >> and so we think it's in the area of Los where the altar was set up there'll be begetting ceremony at that altar and then the priest would lead the Chinese people whoever wants to participate to the city cemetery where the massacre victims were buried at the cemetery there'll be other rituals and ceremonies >> it'll be carrying like a whole pig and a whole chicken and a whole fish along with vegetables and rice and then also wine and tea and all the things that would be needed to feed the victims in the afterlife to make sure that they're full and they're taken care of this is a ceremony for those who died but then we heard that in one year a dragon was added dragons are celebratory types of inclusions in parades we have dragons for the new year we have dragons and lions for weddings and birthdays so when I read that it seemed almost >> inappropriate to have the dragon involved in a ceremony everyone does things for different reasons and I think the Chinese in order to start developing positive relationships with non Chinese and especially with the the Anglo people the white people who were living nearby began to say hey this is one way of introducing our culture to those who don't know us and then maybe we can befriend each other and have a more positive relationship so it kind of evolved into more of a social cultural event and as a introduction of our culture our Chinese culture to not Chinese people I've seen many Golden Dragon parades in Chinatown and I've even written and some good now when I see the dancing Dragons I'll think about what happened in a different Los Angeles one fifty years ago let's go see one more spot now we've reached the last stop on our tour we're here at the Chinese American Museum part of the old Pueblo historical monument the museum is located in the Garnier building built in 1890 it's now the last remaining building from Chinatown when you're here you'll want to check out this plaque in the sidewalk the >> plaque summarizes the events that occurred it's an English and in Chinese what's the lettering so small I don't know that someone standing looking at the plaque could ever read it it's truly an understatement of what has occurred and hardly an appropriate recognition for the violence and pain that occurred when we look back there was a trial although there were five hundred people participate in the mob violence and the vigilante killings only I think nine were identified and prosecuted that were convicted and then a year later >> on appeal >> their convictions were overturned they were released >> on a technicality somehow it had not been established that someone had been quote killed and therefore the convictions all failed the laws at the time actually prevented a Chinese person from testifying against a white person holy cow how do you get a conviction when all your victims all >> the firsthand witnesses are not allowed to testify it's nuts in many ways I grew up in Chinatown and never left Chinatown never did I know that there was something called the Chinese massacre of 1871 not until I was associated with the Chinese American Museum the next year we actually then commemorate it with the reading of the names at the reading of the names is what we have in our archives through >> English newspapers and court records so >> we have eighteen names but >> they're all spelled out they're anglicized >> so in with Chinese names unless we see the characters we really don't know what their names are and in traditional Chinese culture the most horrible thing that can happen to a person is to die nameless and because we couldn't tell what those names were and the Chinese didn't have a newspaper in 1871 so we we have names like this and that and those are basically nicknames you don't know if Hong Weather is somebody's name Hong or his last name is Hong those are the things that to me is devastating because we don't know who they are in essence we >> I grabbed my kid eight year old son and we came out here on the 24th of October a decade ago and simply said a few words and respect for those who passed I thought it was important for my kid to know what is knucklehead father didn't >> know so yeah I think it's extremely important you know how we view the past shapes how we imagine the future and those of us who do not know what occurred >> potentially could repeat it so good analogy Olby it's interesting because it serves as a metaphor for this history this is where the violence erupted but you know within the next 15 years it was completely demolished and replaced right so a street runs right through the buildings that were once made of Adobe which spoke to the California and Mexican passed this was destroyed and then in its place these kind of orderly buildings made out of brick literally we have paved over our history and we have destroyed these this evidence of violence the evidence of blood that happened in Los Angeles to create Los Angeles we usually present a risk to those who died and then we also I lead the three bodies to their spirits so that they know so that they know that there's still people on earth who remembers one could imagine that hey that that could have been my dad it could have been my son it could have been me and and you think about what didn't occur all the you know all the poems that never got written or songs that never got sang and you >> really has an obligation to remember what occurred and to memorialize so others can be educated and we can stop that kind of activity is a sidewalk plaque the best way to remember the tragic events of 1871 or could there be a better way to educate the public about the bitter realities that made Los Angeles the city that is today at present all we have is the plaque a few years after the massacre Kayardild those Negroes literally was wiped off the map and merged into North Los Angeles Street a few years after that the Cornell Adobe was demolished and then in the mid nineties the city cemetery was closed we can't bring those places back but as the historian Scott Zetsche wrote the very act of remembrance is one way of restoring our blemished past thank you for watching Buried History retracing a Chinese massacre of 1871 on yes this film was produced as part of the Chinese American Museum's eight days of programing in the commemoration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary I'd like to continue this conversation with Dr. Gatien and filmmaker Karen Lee Wong welcome to the studio what an impressive documentary I just I not only as a person who's lived here all my life you taught me so many things new with this documentary but my question is is an either one of you can answer this is why do we think that this documentary is so important today i think if you look at the big picture of how history is portrayed in the United States we know that history is told through certain people's eyes and they certainly were not told through those who are people of color not only were you not aware of the 1871 massacre but I came to the United States as an immigrant at age five I landed in Chinatown I went to school in Chinatown I grew up I taught in Chinatown and later on I taught Asian-American studies with a focus on Chinese American studies and it wasn't until I joined the board of the Chinese American Museum then a few years later I found out and I was so angry I was just so angry because it's why didn't I know this and so as we continue with programing and research and learning more about our varied histories I'm finding out that it's the same with African Americans with Mexican Americans with our indigenous partners right and so when all this blew up we learned about Antioch in northern California we learned about the different histories of Chinatowns burning and we never knew that is this when you decided as a board member that the Chinese American Museum would put together this documentary to educate the next generation or how did that come together how does Cameron get involved i think we were so fortunate to have met Cameron and his family who and his mom has a long history in journalism and so and his uncle was you know it's Michael who's one of the few leaders you know in Chinese American politics in L.A. And when we wanted to retell that story there were so many pieces of it and it was so complicated it and so we thought we have to have visuals and that's how we when Cameron came in and and helped us with with the documentary let's turn it over to Cameron for a second so Cameron how do you get all of this information because it's just like Dr Yan says it's very complicated and you get this information and then start telling the story how did you start that process as kind of as mentioned very lucky to have parents who kind of worked in this field already so like my mom was like a very good writer she's very good at kind of um getting all that information into a workable form so that was like really I'm really grateful for that so I had we once my mom kind of came up with a script in that form it was really easy for me to kind of visualize how I wanted it laid out and I very much saw it as the best way to do it walking through the actual sites that were where a massacre was took place because that's actually where I was approached about the project was on a tour of the sites so I thought that was like a very natural way to show the events that happened and kind of incorporated in with um a set kind of people telling the stories about how they never knew about it how it affected them when they learned about it and I think it kind of worked really well together to it did I mean your >> visuals along with Dr Yan your uncle which I didn't know so I'm learning things to teachers love your uncle by the >> way and all the other people you brought in as well those visuals match their stories perfectly because as someone who was watching it for the first time and then I hear the title I didn't even realize there were several locations and you were able to merge that in perfectly so how does a young person with your eye how do you look at that so that you can explain that to the masses I don't know I think I like to think um I like to think of myself as just kind of one of everybody else I think like OK well how how would I want to see it so I think like the easiest way is is I'm like I guess I'm kind of like a visual learner but and I like to think the easiest way is just to take them to where it is and say this is where it happened um and I think it was also nice to see the images we were able to find so we have present day where took place and then we kind of contrast it with some some of the some of what the locations looked like in the past so I think like just seeing the differences and seeing seeing and being there well we are hearing about what happened there is just like a very effective way to hear about what happened now now I already talked to Dr. Yan about this now before you started production had you heard >> of the eighteen seventy one I hadn't heard about it at all actually so I when I went on the walking tour that was like my first exposure to it so I knew nothing going in yeah and I I learned about it pretty much that day and that was I remember just that experience was kind of it was it was honestly I was kind of a little bit confused because I didn't know I couldn't really I didn't really understand how something so important to the history of Los Angeles and like the way that it changed it on such a big in such a big way how something that massive scale could go so long without being talked about so I was like I remember being very confused and and thinking that it that needed to change so that was like a big motivation for me to to tell the story I guess >> yeah there is one scene that as a viewer I thought was the most empowering for me and it was very educational and you did it so well visually but you also did so well describing it and it was it's the ritual of the Chinese burial and I could literally see with your visuals but I could fill it with your impassioned description of not even having a name and how important a name is in the burial there I would love to hear more of how this part came together because I think it's just the most dynamic part of the entire documentary so I'd love to get your take on that I kind of treat myself as because I knew nothing going on I kind of just treated myself as kind of a student in classroom like I didn't know anything and gay obviously was a lot more about it so it was just I basically had her sit down and basically just explain what happened and I remember just basically letting her tell it and I was pretty much learning along with her so I think she did all the work pretty much I didn't do very much for the interviews I just said incredible job you just did such Cameron's credit we didn't have those visual and so I I did my research and I had my culture to back me up to talk about it but we didn't have pictures and we didn't have visuals and Cameron went out and he looked and if he couldn't find it I think you found an artist's right that helped help create some of those drawings and he would say how does this look how does this look and so it was a really collaborative process not just with the team that's working that was working on the documentary but all their connection s of how they wentea f things to enhance teenry your documenrysyus I could see it a little bit longer so how difficult was it for you to edit this documentary it's so many enriching interviews down to thirty minutes it was tricky I think yeah it could have easily been just like it could have been like an hour of just them talking there's a lot of really interesting stories and details that we had to cut out and it was it was difficult for sure um at a certain point you have to look at it in more of like a logical perspective and just you like and just think what is what are the key elements you need to keep in and I think I think we did that um but I think with every even every movie there's always the director always wants like a director's cut it always ends up being like twice as long so I could definitely do that if I wanted to >> what is next for Cameron as the filmmaker and doctor then as the board president of the Chinese American Museum so I think I'm I think generally I'm just a very curious person so I like learning about everything and anything so if I pretty much if I see something I'm curious about it um I could see an interesting story going in for me like as a filmmaking is like a very good way to satisfy that because it's a really good excuse to learn about anything you want so I think the answer is it could it could be anything I don't know okay so whatever happens next for you you have to keep us informed so you can come and talk about that because this is there's going to be more in your future and I look forward to seeing how your career evolves very well done with this documentary thank you Cameron for getting behind the lens on this and for the Chinese American Museum because we are a history museum that tells the story so they're not forgotten the more stories we tell the more stories we discover that we need to tell even where the different sites that Cameron was able to to unfold it is makes sense when a mob of five hundred people are coming after you to lynch and kill you people scatter so we always knew that the massacre happened at the footsteps Museum but we really didn't know the other signifier sites and just like the the slavery stories when the slaves ran there were kind people who housed them and protected them and we found sites were white ranchers and white vineyard people hit the Chinese so they could be safe and so there's lots of those stories that need to be told Dr And how can educators take information not only from this documentary but from the Chinese massacre of 1871 and teach that to children in the classroom so we're we were fortunate in the past few years after PBS aired is American series they also partner with Asian-Americans for Advancing Justice to create a set of curriculum material that follows the series that PBS did and so if they log on to the website of Triple J Asian-Americans for Advancing Justice they could find a curriculum that parallels that PBS series now at that time the massacre curriculum was not developed yet but we did develop curriculum and so at this point they the teachers can log on to Asian-American you thought or gee and they would be able to find teaching materials to specifically speaks to the massacre of eighteen seventy one that's wonderful because this is important now that we have the documentary here how do we get it into the classroom it sounds like you've already thought of that and you're helping educators take this inside the classrooms yeah and the other thing we're trying to do also is not just to put a set of curricula into somebody's hands but we're going to see if we can find funding to do teacher development and teacher training so they'll know how to use the curriculum which is always half the battle right exactly well thank you so much for that information and I know that would be the first question we would be asked is how can we get this curriculum into our classrooms and you've answered that thank you so thank you Chinese to United States doing the gold rush and around eight to forty California became a state in 1850 to so the fact that the Chinese were in California before California became part of this nation so when we think of California as part of the United States the Chinese American experience is part of that history and we think about Los Angeles when it was created you know Chinese were living here since activities so we're also at the beginning of the history of Los Angeles as part of this nation and the contributions from the Chinese work on the railroad working on the gold rush and creating the deltas up north and even Los Angeles bringing agriculture and fresh produce to live residents were very key and when we talk about the Los Angeles and the Chinese American experience we will talk about community that was able to overcome so much racism and stereotypes and was able to do establish the route they went through the Chinese Exclusion Act which prevented Chinese parents United States but they're able to find ways to establish families and be able to grow with it within this community so we talk about the Chinatown that was here today in the seventies we had about two hundred Chinese living here and they're able to grow to the Chinatown as we know today but also throughout the a valley so this growth of this community really just shows that there's not just strength in numbers and not just pride of becoming a US citizen our pride being an American but also the fact that they're able to overcome so much once they're able to take pride in being an American the Chinese American Museum is a space that really shares a history and experience of the Chinese Americans in Los Angeles and beyond well we pride ourselves of being an institution that not just shares a local US history but being a part of this street in the physical space the new building is one of the last many buildings of historic Chinatown that was constructed in Niños and it's considered the unofficial city hall of Chinatown because there's a lot of organizations that serve the community here like the Chinese American Citizens Alliance which is known as native guns that are going to say we also have the Chinese because of an association that has offices here but also stores like this and most of them are standing here today this is a recreation of an over shop and a general store that provide opportunities for residents of L.A. to purchase items from China that they cannot get elsewhere so if you want to celebrate customs Lunar New Year if you want to buy things your house that chopsticks other important aspects of Chinese culture you come to this store you buy your herbs here you buy everything here this market this is where you go this building really marks the legacy of Los Angeles and the Chinese American community when we think about historic Chinatown located at Union Station and around the eighty seven days we see a growth the Chinese American community two hundred Chinese were living in Los Angeles at the time and by the eighteen nineties they have all the disputing that was constructed to support the growing community of this area so when we are in this particular space we're bringing a memory back to life we're bringing history back to life and this is a space where not only are we able to celebrate this history where our visitors are able to honor this deep history of Los Angeles this exhibition is called Journeys is this highlight of the Chinese American experience from eighteen forties up into twenty three when the museum opened its shares the details and which legacy of the Chinese mechanist saga from the gold rush working on the Transcontinental Railroad the impact of the Chinese Exclusion Act and up into important laws such as the 1965 Immigration and Natural Act that really allowed the Chinese American community to grow and foster in the United States The museum >> takes pride in sharing the contributions of Chinese Americans but what we also share this historic history and historic has a lot of folks are familiar with the fact that the Chinese American experience is not only filled with wealth and prosperity but also with darkness one of the darkest days in Los Angeles and United States history happened on October 24 of 87 one with the Chinese massacre where 70 men and boys were killed because they happen to be Chinese living in Los Angeles I don't think this story belongs just to Chinese Americans it's our history it's American history and what sad is that like Chinatown massacre really isn't very well known I'm sure it's because of shame that something like this happened but I think also too there's too much a sense of us and them especially now in the current political climate we don't need more division and this wasn't about division this was about trying to unify people by getting past this but in a way that acknowledges what happened but also acknowledges the humanity of the people who died and this is a commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Chinese massacre of Los Angeles on October 24th 1871 eighteen Chinese and one Anglo person were killed by a mob of 500 non Chinese because a white person got killed when he was caught between CROSSFIREs of two feuding Chinese over a woman >> we are standing at El Pueblo which is the birthplace of the greatest city in America the city of Los Angeles and giving the history of the Chinese American massacre back in 1871 more than nineteen individuals who were dragged to the gallows makeshift gallows and and they were hung making this the largest mass lynching in the history of the United States of America the great diaspora the Gwangju region >> of Canton region to the United States especially during that gold rush the Chinese Americans are Chinese immigrants who helped fortify and build that transcontinental railroad that created the wealth and made California the fifth largest economy on planet Earth it was these men and women who put their lives on the line that created the greatest state in the history of humankind the great state of California I think that it's important for people to recover history and not only to recover history that seems to apply to them but history's of other people they're living with I mean if we're going to be a united States of America if we're going to actually make a more perfect union then we need to learn about each other and we need to hear each that we need to listen to each other and this was one way of opening a door and saying come on in and listen to one of our stories but what's equally important I think is to have an exchange and interchange we've had enough I think we've had enough division it's time now to really build something together and this is one step to do that when >> I was reading Eternity Street an amazing book a few years ago that chronicles the history of violence in our city that I realized the actual intersections where this horrific event occurred and I realized that I go to work every single day a block from where a Chinese Angelino was hanged and up one block further between the Hall of Justice and now with a parking structure is there for that building where there were stables another person was Hans and every time we get on the freeway right here we're driving over where the building was where people were pulled out of where they lived and worked and killed and for me I said that cannot stand that we somehow shelf away this history and put it the pages of dusty volumes or specialist classrooms this needs to be something that every Angelino and everybody visiting Los Angeles sees and knows and feels and then we understand that hate when it manifests in violence steals something from all of us it steals our potential it steals our dreams it steals our history we will never forget this 1871 massacre we will build finally the memory that it deserves and we will learn from it to make sure that the dreams that we have and that they have can in some way be realized by the actions we take Thank you and God bless the memory of those I wait I keep little wysiwyg the why of after Paul Jervois whopped oh Ron I love taking what oh a oh one wait Jean Long she