“Don’t become too narrow. Live fully. Meet all kinds of people. You’ll learn something from everyone. Follow what you feel in your heart.”
“Remember that consciousness is power. Consciousness is education and knowledge. Consciousness is becoming aware. It is the perfect vehicle for students. Consciousness-raising is pertinent for power, and be sure that power will not be abusively used, but used for building trust and goodwill domestically and internationally. Tomorrow’s world is yours to build.”
-Yuri Kochiyama (May 19, 1921 – June 1, 2014)
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On February 12, 1965, in the Audubon Ballroom, Yuri Kochiyama cradled Malcolm X in her arms as he died, but her role as a public servant and activist had begun much earlier than this pivotal public moment. Growing up in a Japanese immigrant family in California, Kochiyama was largely unconscious of race and racism. After Pearl Harbor, however, Kochiyama's family was among those forcibly removed to internment camps, a traumatic experience that opened her eyes to social injustice.
Kochiyama began her activist career in the civil rights movement in Harlem, where she me Malcolm X, who inspired her political development and the ensuing four decades of work for black liberation, Asian American equality, Puerto Rican independence, and political prisoner defense.
Heartbeat of Struggle is the first biography of this courageous woman, the most prominent Asian American activist to emerge during the 1960s.
“Remember that consciousness is power. Consciousness is education and knowledge. Consciousness is becoming aware. It is the perfect vehicle for students. Consciousness-raising is pertinent for power, and be sure that power will not be abusively used, but used for building trust and goodwill domestically and internationally. Tomorrow’s world is yours to build.”
-Yuri Kochiyama (May 19, 1921 – June 1, 2014)
*****************************
On February 12, 1965, in the Audubon Ballroom, Yuri Kochiyama cradled Malcolm X in her arms as he died, but her role as a public servant and activist had begun much earlier than this pivotal public moment. Growing up in a Japanese immigrant family in California, Kochiyama was largely unconscious of race and racism. After Pearl Harbor, however, Kochiyama's family was among those forcibly removed to internment camps, a traumatic experience that opened her eyes to social injustice.
Kochiyama began her activist career in the civil rights movement in Harlem, where she me Malcolm X, who inspired her political development and the ensuing four decades of work for black liberation, Asian American equality, Puerto Rican independence, and political prisoner defense.
Heartbeat of Struggle is the first biography of this courageous woman, the most prominent Asian American activist to emerge during the 1960s.