Chinese language American household meets descendants of the Black couple who rented to them when nobody would

CORONADO, Calif. — Standing on their garden, members of the Dong household waited to satisfy the great-grandkids of a Black couple who rented a house to them a technology in the past, when legal guidelines favored white residents. It was their first assembly on storied land. 

In 1939, Gus and Emma Thompson, a Black entrepreneurial couple, agreed to rent and eventually sell the house they owned to the Dongs, a Chinese language American household. 

The Thompsons’ choice touched off an upward trajectory of their lives, mentioned Ron Dong, 87, who grew up in the home together with his dad and mom and three siblings. On Monday, the Dongs welcomed the Thompsons’ great-grandchildren again to the house the place their lives intersected. The meetup was forward of a dedication ceremony to call San Diego State University’s Black Resource Center after Emma and Gus, who was born into slavery in Kentucky.

“Oh, my gosh, we’re so glad to be assembly!” Janice Dong, Ron’s spouse, advised Ballinger Gardner Kemp, 77, and Lauren Kemp Few, 66, the Thompsons’ great-grandchildren. The 2 households embraced in a tangle of open arms. 

In March, the Dongs announced they had been donating $5 million to Black faculty college students utilizing proceeds from the sale of the home and the eight-unit residence advanced subsequent door. It was a method to thank the Thompsons for serving to them get established in American society, they mentioned. 

Earlier than the home sells, the Dongs wished to offer the Thompsons’ great-grandchildren a tour. Strolling by way of the three-bedroom dwelling, Few mentioned she might really feel her ancestors’ presence. The lounge was lined with footage of her grandparents from a Coronado Historical Association exhibit about the city’s Black history.

“It’s a bit overwhelming,” Few mentioned as she wiped away tears. When she heard concerning the Dongs’ plan to donate proceeds from the sale to Black faculty college students, she was struck by their generosity. 

“You don’t hear about this stuff,” she mentioned. “You simply don’t.” 

The 2 households, who reside out of state and in numerous California cities, returned to Coronado on Monday in honor of the couple who constructed the home. Later that day, the Dongs and Thompsons’ great-grandchildren reduce a ceremonial ribbon for the brand new middle at SDSU.

It’s the American dream, mentioned Lloyd Dong Jr., 82, Ron’s youthful brother.

“The Thompsons gave my dad and mom a basis to proudly owning a home and sending their youngsters to school,” he mentioned. “Promoting the home and donating it to the Black neighborhood for his or her training is an effective factor.”

The Dongs’ property, which incorporates the residence advanced subsequent door, was listed for $8.5 million. The sale lately fell out of escrow. The Dongs are working with the Coronado Historic Sources Fee to find out the house’s historic designation earlier than they put it again in the marketplace. 

His childhood dwelling holds sentimental household recollections however no official historic worth, Ron Dong mentioned. To create extra residing area for the household of six, his father, Lloyd Dong Sr. — a gardener from Central California — made many modifications to the home, together with the entrance exterior. 

The partitions as soon as resonated with the sounds of Ron Dong’s teenage mates’ having fun with home-cooked Chinese language dishes made by his mom, Margaret. Now the home is generally empty. The household held an property sale to promote the “pure classic” belongings, mentioned Janice Dong, 87. 

The historical past of the home dates to the late nineteenth century, when Gus Thompson traveled from Kentucky to California to work on the Hotel Del Coronado. He constructed the home and the next-door barn on C Avenue in 1895, earlier than the town’s racial housing covenants restricted Black residents and different folks of coloration from shopping for or renting properties within the neighborhood. In what Kemp, his great-grandson, known as the spirit of defiance and the resolve to assist others, Thompson transformed the higher degree of the barn right into a boarding home for the weak. 

In 1955, Emma Thompson offered the Coronado dwelling and the barn subsequent door to the Dongs, who turned the primary Chinese language American household to buy actual property in Coronado, mentioned Kevin Ashley, a Coronado historian. 

It’s a piece of land that for the reason that Nineties has been owned solely by both a Black or a Chinese language American household, Ashley mentioned. 

The Dong and Thompson households say they had been each marginalized folks attempting to make it in a land that didn’t see them as full residents, so that they supported one another. Now the Dong brothers are carrying on the spirit.

The Thompsons and Dongs’ choice to pay it ahead, mentioned Christopher Manning, SDSU’s vice chairman for pupil affairs and campus variety, embodies the activist Grace Lee Boggs’ phrases: “The one method to survive is by caring for each other.” 

The $5 million present might be used to reinforce the middle’s educational efforts, develop its mentorship program, advance help for psychological well being and improve services, Manning mentioned. 

On the dedication ceremony, Lloyd Jr. leaned towards the sq. constructing signal with Thompson’s title watching college students stroll by with teal shirts emblazoned with the Thompsons’ likenesses. 

Close by, Kemp leaned in to repeat phrases he first mentioned at their assembly on the Coronado home:

“Your dad and mom can be so proud.”