As an international student in the segregated American South of the 1950s, Oaksook Kim, College President Jim Yong Kim's mother, was very conscious of race and inequality, according to her daughter, Heidi Kim. Because she was fair-skinned, Oaksook Kim was allowed to ride in the "whites-only" section of street cars, while her close friend, who was Indian, had to ride in the section "colored section," Heidi Kim said.
Jim Yong Kim has often pointed to his family as a source of inspiration for his focus on social justice, describing his own work as a compromise between his father, "the practical dentist," and his mother, "the big-thinking philosopher."
Kim's father, Nhak Hee Kim, fled from North Korea when he was 17 and never saw his family again, Kim said during his Sept. 11 appearance on PBS' Bill Moyers Journal. His mother, a refugee of the Korean War, attended Scarritt College in Tennessee.
Kim's parents met at a holiday party in New York City while his father was a student at New York University's School of Dentistry and his mother was a student at the Union Theological Center. Although his older brother, Bill, was born in the United States, both Kim and his younger sister were born in Korea, where his parents had returned to teach.
The Kims chose to immigrate permanently to the United States because of the unstable political situation in Korea and because of the educational opportunities available in America, Heidi Kim said. The family moved to Dallas, Texas, when Kim was five years old and settled in Muscatine, Iowa, after Kim finished first grade. His father taught at the University of Iowa, which is where his mother received her doctorate in philosophy.
Living in a small and predominantly white town in Iowa presented difficulties for the family, according to Heidi Kim, who said she never had a date in high school because she was stereotyped as the "smart Asian girl."
"A lot of people say my parents were bad Korean parents because they didn't speak Korean to us, but being in Iowa, there was no Korean community for us to interact with," she said. "Both of my parents were fluent English speakers and we would always engage in English, unlike a lot of immigrant families where the parents would speak to the kids in their native language, and the kids would reply in English, and they think they're understanding each other, but a lot is getting lost in translation."
Heidi Kim noted that she and her brothers had opportunities that others in the community did not have because their family was relatively well off. Their mother, a voracious reader, had her children read speeches by Martin Luther King Jr. along with Booker T. Washington's "Up From Slavery," and the family discussed philosophy, politics and art at the dinner table.
Like her brother, Heidi Kim went to Brown University. Both Kims were actively involved with the Asian American Students Association there. The group attended conferences and discussed why there were not more Asian Americans in leadership roles as politicians or presidents of colleges and universities, Heidi Kim said.
"For this kind of history to be made in my own family, it is really gratifying because it's my brother and I love him, but also on this other level," she said.
Although Heidi Kim said she initially planned to attend medical school like both of her brothers, who are now physicians, she later decided to follow her mother's path in education and social justice.
Her other brother, Bill Hoon Kim, is a gastroenterologist in California.
Heidi Kim said she first began working as an advocate for minority students as an adjunct professor at Colby College, where her husband is a sociology professor, and now works as the director of diversity and as a social studies teacher at Seattle Preparatory School.
Kim said she has had a "second career" as a classical soprano and will perform at Tuesday's inauguration ceremony. She plans to sing a solo piece and perform with the Dartmouth Gospel Choir.
She said she began singing at an early age with support from her mother, and like many other Koreans, she and her brothers all learned to play piano, she said. Kim described her brother as a singer with "more enthusiasm than skill" who delivers a rendition of "My Way" every time they sing karaoke.
All of Kim's family in the United States will attend the inauguration. His uncle, Hearn Chun, a Presbyterian minister and philosophy professor in South Korea, will deliver the invocation at the event.
