Short Stuff: Mitsuye Endo

This Short Stuff episode tells the inspiring true story of Mitsui Endo, a natural-born American citizen of Japanese descent who became an unlikely hero during one of America's darkest chapters. After being unjustly fired from her government job and imprisoned in internment camps during World War II, Endo worked with attorney James C. Purcell to challenge the constitutionality of her detention through the courts, ultimately taking her case all the way to the Supreme Court. Her brave decision to stay the course rather than accept a personal release led to the unanimous Supreme Court ruling that vindicated her and helped pressure President Roosevelt to shut down the Japanese American internment camps—a pivotal moment in civil rights history that her own daughter didn't even learn about until adulthood.