Paula Yoo: Hello. My name is Paula Yoo and I am the author of From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry: The Killing of Vincent Chin and The Trial that Galvanized the Asian American Movement. I originally started out as a journalist, so we were trained to be objective, not to let our emotions get in the way. We had to be objective and fair and pursue both sides of the story. As an Asian American I wondered if I would be able to separate my feelings and my emotions about this case, as I wrote about it. And I discovered that compassion and justice and anger are not mutually exclusive. Can I feel compassion for all sides involved in this case because everyone's lives were ruined? Of course, I can feel compassion, but can I still feel anger and be upset that justice was not met? Of course, I can, because at the end of the day Vincent Chin is dead and he shouldn't be. Justice was not served for his death.

But, in doing this research, I also realized, in a way, I was a juror in the trial myself as I covered both sides. So that's why I went about this book, trying to be as fair as I could in terms of presenting both sides of the story, because this was in the 1980s, iPhones didn't exist back then. Twitter and social media didn't exist back then. A lot of killings and crime stories happened without video evidence on people's cell phones. No one was there to record what happened. A lot of these cases were he said, he said, and from memory. What I hope teenagers and high school students can get from this book is that they can walk away with their own analysis and draw their own conclusions. I would love teen readers to read this book as if they are a member of the actual jury.

How do you feel at the end of the day? Do you think justice was served or not? Growing up Asian American and Pacific Islander history wasn't really taught in depth from kindergarten to the 12th grade for me. Growing up, Asian American history, Asian American stories, Asian American historical figures were almost an afterthought. We'd have a couple of sentences in a textbook about the illegal imprisonment of the Japanese Americans during World War II. I'm Korean American and I don't think the Korean War was even taught when I was in high school.

When I was older, in my twenties, I would desperately go to the library and to bookstores to find whatever books I could on Asian American literature, Asian American history, because I was so hungry and thirsty to know about why I mattered in this country. I began writing a lot of nonfiction and fiction for young people about Asian American stories and Asian American historical figures, because I don't want kids and teenagers to grow up with that gap in their education.

I'm going to read an excerpt from my book From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry: the Killing of Vincent Chin and the Trial that Galvanized the Asian American movement. I'm going to read the end of Chapter One.

This is June 19th, 1982. Vincent Chin and his best friends were out celebrating his bachelor party before his wedding. They got into a fight at a nightclub with two men, one man named Ronald Ebens and his stepson named Michael Nitz. This is what happened at the end of the fight:

"He was swinging that baseball bat as if he would going for a home run," said Officer Morris Cotton.

The blows shattered the Chinese jade pendant necklace Vincent always wore for good luck and protection.

Vincent was on his knees, his vision blurry.

Ronald Ebens swung the bat one last time, slamming it against the back of Vincent's skull.

A home run.

Police Officers Michael Gardenhire and Morris Cotton aimed their guns at Ebens.

"Back up! Back up!" Cotton shouted at the large crowd of bystanders who had now gathered on the street.

Vincent was on the ground, struggling to get up. Cotton saw Ebens raised the bat again, breathing heavily. "Drop the baseball bat!" he shouted. Ebens didn't seem to hear him. Cotton cocked his gun. But too many bystanders were still blocking Cotton's view as Eben struck Vincent again. "Get out of the way," Cotton yelled.

Finally, the crowd dispersed. " And at this time, I had a clear shot."

Eben saw the barrel of Officer Cotton's gun aimed right at him. He froze. What had he just done? Everything had happened so fast. He slowly put down the bat.