Description

Yuri Kochiyama 1921–2014Born San Pedro, CaliforniaYuri Kochiyama was a natural community organizer, even under duress. When she was imprisoned with other Japanese Americans in an internment camp in Jerome, Arkansas, she initiated an effort to write letters to Nisei soldiers fighting in the European and Pacific theaters. After the war, she and her husband moved to New York City, where they joined with African American and Puerto Rican groups to demand equal access to education and jobs. After Kochiyama met Malcolm X in 1963, her activism radicalized. This photograph documents Kochiyama’s participation in a restaurant workers protest organized by the Chinese Staff and Workers Association in New York City’s Chinatown.Born Mary Yuriko Nakahara, she began calling herself Yuri in the late 1960s to identify with her Japanese ancestry, much like black activists who took African or Muslim names. Present when Malcolm X was assassinated in 1965, Kochiyama bravely rushed to his side.Corky Lee (born 1948)Gelatin silver print, 1980 (printed 2016)NPG.2016.102

Record Contributed By

National Portrait Gallery

Record Harvested From

Smithsonian Institution