Media Mayor Bob McMahon honored the borough’s Korean connection with a proclamation for the 100th anniversary of the March First Movement and formation of the First Korean Congress, writes Susan Serbin for the Daily Times.

“On March 1, 1919, 33 core Korean independence activists signed the Korean Declaration of Independence from Imperial Japan in the Korean capital city of Seoul,” states the proclamation.

Media’s connection to the event is Dr. Philip Jaisohn, whose original name was Soh Jaipil. He was a political activist in Korea who fled his country for political reasons and arrived in Philadelphia via a mentor.

During his life, Jaisohn was the first Korean to become a naturalized American citizen and the first Korean to earn an American medical degree.

Jaisohn started a family in Media, where he practiced medicine but remained dedicated to the fight for Korean independence, traveling back to South Korea from time to time. He was even asked to run for Korean president when the first election was confirmed by the United Nations, but he turned it down.

He lived in Media until his death in 1951.

Read more about Media’s Korean connection in the Daily Times by clicking here.

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