Just across the bay from San Diego, Coronado, California, is a community known for beautiful beaches. But in the 1930s, it was also known as a community that wasn’t exactly welcoming to families of color. The Dongs, a Chinese American family, learned that the hard way in 1939 when they had trouble finding a place of their own.
But it was a Black couple, Emma and Gus Thompson, who allowed the Dongs to rent their home when no one else would and put them on the path to achieving their American dream. The Dong family is grateful for the leg up they got from the Thompsons. And now they want to use their fortune to help others – donating $5 million to Black college students.
Gus Thompson, a former slave, built a house and barn in Coronado before racially restrictive housing laws were implemented in the town. He turned his property into a boarding house for underserved groups, including the Dong family.
In 1955, the Dongs became the first Chinese American family to own real estate in Coronado when they bought the Thompson’s home and the barn next door. They eventually added to their property by purchasing a multi-unit apartment next door.
Today, the surviving members of the Dong family want to use part of the money they make from the sale of their property to help Black students in the same way the Thompson family helped them.
“It may enable some kids to go and flourish in college that might not have been able to otherwise,” Janice Dong told NBC news.
The family also wants to make sure Emma and Gus Thompson’s legacy lives on by having San Diego State University’s Black Resource Center named after them.
“Without them, we would not have the education and everything else,” Lloyd Dong Jr. said.