fuckyeahmarxismleninism:95 years ago today, Japanese-American civil rights activist Yuri Kochiyama w
fuckyeahmarxismleninism:95 years ago today, Japanese-American civil rights activist Yuri Kochiyama was born. During her lifetime Kochiyama advocated for many revolutionary movements including Black Liberation. She was even a close friend and supporter of Malcolm X. Kochiyama got her start in social justice work after she and her family were sent to an internment camp during World War II. It was there that she began noticing the similarities in injustices between the treatment of Black people under Jim Crow and the interment of Japanese-Americans. When Kochiyama and her family moved to Harlem in the 1960s, she became very involved in political activism, inviting other civil rights activists like the Freedom Riders, to gatherings at her home. She later met Malcolm X and joined his Organization of Afro-American Unity. When Malcom X was assassinated in 1965, Kochiyama held him in her arms as he died. In 1977, Kochiyama joined the group of Puerto Ricans who took over the Statue of Liberty in an attempt to draw attention to the Puerto Rican independence struggle.Kochiyama dedicated her life to several causes including the anti-war movement, nuclear disarmament, political prisoners’ rights and reparations to Japanese-Americans interned during World War II. She was even nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005.Via teleSUR English -- source link