Interview with Leesa Manion
Leesa Manion talks about her parents’ meeting in Korea, growing up biracial in Kentucky after her mother was forced from the family home, finding her mother again as an adult, and what losing her did to her.
Background
Leesa Manion was born near Seoul in April 1969 to a Korean mother and an American soldier, and moved as an infant to Covington, Kentucky, where her mother was the only Asian person in the neighborhood. When Leesa was four, her mother was forced out of the family home and out of her children’s lives. Leesa grew up biracial with little connection to her Korean heritage, became a lawyer, and found her mother again 25 years later. She says losing her mother to someone else’s decision is why she thinks so much about what happens to people who have no power.
Transcript
Related material
Laws, newspaper coverage, and photographs from the history of Korean war brides are on the Source Material page.