I came across this column, and read it, and was moved. I searched for a clipping (shown above) that I was selling, of Kats Kunitsugu giving something to Ed Roybal to support his run for Lt. Governor in 1954. It was gone. I couldn’t find it. It was some East LA history there, and I thought this would flesh out the story a bit more. People don’t know that there were JA eastside progressive groups supporting Roybal. (I also didn’t know this, though I did grow up benefiting from their work.)
Here is the column by the eastside progressive, editor of the Kashu Mainichi, probably from 1972.
A little side note about the schools listed. These are Asian American community schools. I’m guessing, since it’s the 1970s, they were dealing not so much with JAs not knowing English, but newer immigrants… though, I guess I was speaking Japanese mainly, back then, too. Castelar is in Chinatown. Dayton Heights is in Hollywood. Solano is in Chinatown. Dolores St. is in Carson, and Denker is down in Gardena.
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