K. W. Lee
| Kyung Won Lee | |
|---|---|
| Born |
이경원 1928 (age 88–89) Kaesong, Japanese Korea (now Kaesong, North Korea) |
| Nationality | American |
| Education |
West Virginia University University of Illinois |
| Occupation | Investigative reporter, editor |
| Notable credit(s) |
Kingsport Times-News Charleston Gazette Sacramento Union Koreatown Weekly The Korea Times ColorLines Magazine |
| Spouse(s) | Peggy Flowers (1960-present) |
| Children | 3 |
| Website | www |
Kyung Won "K.W." Lee (Korean: 이경원; born 1928) is a Korean-American journalist who became the first Asian immigrant to the United States work for mainstream daily publications in the continental United States. Lee is also the founding president of the Korean American Journalists Association.
Lee was born in 1928 in Kaesong, Japanese Korea and attended Korea University in Seoul, South Korea. In 1950, he immigrated to the United States and studied journalism at West Virginia University. After receiving a master's degree from the University of Illinois in 1955, he embarked on an extraordinary career with daily newspapers such as the Kingsport Times-News in Tennessee and the Charleston Gazette in West Virginia. In 1960, he married Peggy Flowers of Bluefield, Virginia. A notable number of years were spent at the Sacramento Union in California, where he was in charge of investigative reporting and an internship program. He has won numerous professional honors, including awards from the National Headliners Club, the AP News Executive Council, and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
Over the decades, Lee has covered important social issues such as civil rights struggles in the South in the early 1960s, massive vote-buying practices in southern West Virginia, and the plight of Appalachian coal miners. Lee is best known for writing an investigative series on the conviction of immigrant Chol Soo Lee for a 1973 San Francisco Chinatown gangland murder which became the basis of the 1989 film True Believer, starring James Woods and Robert Downey Jr. His series of 120 articles over five years led to a new trial, eventual acquittal and release of the prisoner from San Quentin's Death Row.
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