Exclusive Preview: The Untold Stories of Oakland's Chinatown

A new series from KALW News and Mills College in Oakland brings you inside one of the Bay Area's oldest neighborhoods to bring you the untold stories of Oakland's Chinatown. Before World War II, it was a close-knit, working class-community…

FRAN TOY: And we played in the streets a lot, because after all I was born in the thirties, there weren’t that many cars going up and down the streets. It was just a very peaceful childhood.

But urban renewal would change the face of the neighborhood.

TOY: In my whole lifetime I saw my mother cry twice. Once, when her mother died, and the second time was when the bishop came to deconsecrate the space, because it was gonna be torn down and no longer a church.

It's a neighborhood that's seen tragedy...

ALAN YEE: One driver became impatient and took off while my dad was still in the crosswalk and killed him.

But residents rallied to fix the streets, and build new institutions.

LYNETTE LEE: We had a little office here, and when it rained the roof leaked, and we had to mop up, and there were broken windows that the pigeons would fly in and out of, and sometimes we'd have to go clean pigeon poop.

EVELYNN LOO: We went to Chinatown, and knocked on all the doors, and we went out and got 1,000 signatures in several days.

These are stories of human connection.

DARLENE LEE: Sometimes I think I'm the only adult that ever listens to them or that they can communicate with.

Stories of humor and culture.

LOO: And these people were going "hee, chee," and we said, "What is that?!"

Find out, on the “Untold Stories of Oakland's Chinatown,” a new series from KALW News and the student reporters at Mills College in Oakland.

Tune in to Crosscurrents at KALW 91.7FM Monday, June 14th and Tuesday, June 15th, or find the series online at kalwnews.org.