During and after the brutal reign of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, an estimated one million Cambodians sought refuge in other countries. Over 130,000 eventually settled in the United States between 1975 and 1985, often after long periods spent in refugee camps in Thailand. Many Cambodians settled in Washington state, with the majority of those living in King County. As of 2019, over 18,000 Cambodians live in Seattle.

Many Cambodian families that came to Washington state settled in White Center, just south of Seattle, in King County. Most moved into the Park Lake Homes low-income project, into small, single-story home with yards. Their older children attended Evergreen High School, which had tripled its Asian student enrollment between 1984 and 1989. The school of 1400 students offered ten English as a Second Language (ESL) classes in 1989.

In this photo, Thuc Vu, a tutor at Evergreen High School, works with students. Vu helped Cambodian and Vietnamese students with English and other classes.

Caption information source: "Asian refugees put down roots in White Center" by Evelyn Iritari, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, June 8, 1989, page B2
Caption information source: Cambodians in the US fact sheet, Pew Research Center, retrieved at https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/fact-sheet/asian-americans-cambodians-in-the-u-s/
Caption information source: “Cambodians in the United States: Refugees, Immigrants, American Ethnic Minority” by Suchen Chang, Oxford Research Encyclopedia, retrieved at https://oxfordre.com/americanhistory/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199329175.001.0001/acrefore-9780199329175-e-317