(crowd shouts) - 1975, all the businesses closed in Chinatown at the height of this civil rights protest against police brutality.

(crowd shouts) The policemen wanted to move a certain section and people weren't willing to move.

So, the police start to push and then eventually one of them swung a billy club and hit this individual.

I had actually been pretty close, probably within six feet, and there was no cause to, you know, hit the guy.

Immediately, I called up "The New York Times," and they said they had their photographer there, but they didn't know of any outbreak of violence.

I called the "Daily News."

They didn't wanna see the photograph.

And then the "New York Post" said they had their photographer there.

I said, "Well, my photographs show that somebody got beaten up and the police are taking him away," and then I, there was a little bit of a silence on the other end of the phone and then they came back to me and said, "Okay, kid, bring it in."

(contemplative music) And I made the front page.

(contemplative music) - That photograph in the "New York Post," that was a breakthrough for Corky, and I think for us, in terms of representing the issues.

I think it was the first time we showed city government that the community could organize into a political force.

(contemplative music fades)