Elaine Ko (b. 1954) is a community activist in Seattle who has worked for decades on behalf of the Asian and Pacific Islander community, immigrants, refugees, women, and victims of domestic violence in the Puget Sound area. In 2006, Ko succeeded Bob Santos as Executive Director of the Inter*Im Community Development Association in Seattle's Chinatown - International District (previously the International District Improvement Association, now InterImCDA). Prior to heading Inter*Im, Ko was director of volunteer and community services at Harborview Medical Center, vice president for Primerica, head of the International District Housing Alliance, director of the Office for Citizen Participation of the Seattle Engineering Department, and the director of the City of Seattle's Office for Women's Rights (1991-1993), established to advocate for economic and social equality for women and sexual minorities. In 2008, Elaine Ko was appointed the director of the Office of Social Responsibility at the Port of Seattle. Ko also worked as a legislative assistant for Seattle Councilmember Richard Conlin from 2000-2013. As of 2021, Ko is a member of InterImCDA’s board.
In this image, Elaine Ko speaks at a press conference as a member of the Committee for Justice for Domingo and Viernes (CJDV). She was calling for charges to be brought against ousted union official Constantine Baruso in the murders of Filipino-American activists and union reform leaders Silme Domingo (b. 1952) and Gene Viernes (b. 1951). Domingo and Viernes were murdered in Seattle on June 1, 1981, at the offices of Local 37 of the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union (ILWU). Two gunmen were immediately captured, and the murders were originally thought to be an isolated act of violence. However, a decade long investigation spurred on by the CJDV showed that the murders were political assassinations with far-reaching connections. Constantine "Tony" Baruso (1928-2008), a former ILWU Local 37 president, was later convicted of organizing the killings at the order of corrupt Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos (1917-1989) in retaliation for the victims' anti-Marcos organizing through the Seattle chapter of Union of Democratic Filipinos (KDP). The investigation also proved that the US government knew about the assassinations and shielded the Marcos dictatorship from accountability.
Caption information source: The Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project, University of Washington, retrieved from https://depts.washington.edu/civilr/cindy_domingo.htm ; “Union leader asks why no FBI action on cannery gambling,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, August 6, 1982, page 31; "Elaine Ko named new Inter*Im leader," Seattle Post-Intelligencer, March 23, 2006, p. 10 Caption information also derived from captions written by Post-Intelligencer staff and attached to the back of the photograph.
