Guy Kurose (1952-2002) was an activist and youth counselor who focused on street gangs and preventing violence. He was the son of Seattle teacher and peace activist Aki Kurose and he began attending antiwar and civil rights protests as a child with his family. Kurose joined the Black Panther Party as a teenager, becoming one of the group’s few Asian-American members. He was also a black belt in karate who taught a class at Rainier Community Center, while requiring students to promise to stay in school and away from gangs and drugs. Kurose worked for several counseling services, where he attempted to negotiate with gangs in order to prevent violence.
This image shows Guy Kurose speaking to Trisha and Monique Hendrix in August 1993. Seattle experienced very severe violence that summer, with the police gang unit’s caseload up more than a third from the previous year.
Caption information source: “Guy Kurose helped troubled youth,” by Hal Bernton, Seattle Times web version, October 29, 2002, retrieved from https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/?date=20021029&slug=kurose29m Caption information source: “City caught in summer of gang wars – trying to stem the violence,” by Scott Maier and Mike Merritt, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, August 19, 1993, page A1.
