In support of
Black
Liberation
Arriving in Harlem with six young children in 1960, Yuri and Bill Kochiyama found themselves in a predominantly Black and Latinx community in the midst of the early Civil Rights movement. Interested in getting to know their new neighbors and community, they joined the Harlem Parents’ Committee and enrolled themselves and all of their children in the Harlem Freedom Schools. Their family’s education and involvement in these organizations led Yuri to expand her participation in and support of a wide range of community organizations as well as African American, Asian American, and Third World movements for civil and human rights, ethnic studies and against the war in Vietnam.
Harlem
Meeting Malcolm X in 1963 and joining the Organization of Afro American Unity marked a pivotal point in Yuri’s political evolution and life as an activist. Malcolm’s friendship and political perspective dramatically transformed her political philosophy which, under his influence, became more international in scope. Her education and lessons as a member of the OAAU broadened her understanding of Black Nationalist struggles (in Africa and in the United States) and the impacts of imperialism on Africa, Asia and Latin America.
One of the most important things Yuri would say she learned from Malcolm X was the importance of studying and understanding history. Here is a list of some of the Freedom Schools that Yuri attended during the 1960s and that contributed to her education in Black history and Black Liberation:
Harlem Freedom School (Isaiah Robinson) - 1963 - 1964
OAAU Liberation School (James Campbell) - 1964 - 1965
Amiri Baraka Black Arts School (Harold Cruse) - 1965 - 1966
Free University (Charles Johnson) - 1966 - 1967
Nation Building Classes/RNA (Consulate Mtayari Sundiata) - 1966
Yuri was also an ardent supporter of the Black Arts movement and artist-activists like Harold Cruse, Amiri Baraka and Charles Johnson. She regularly attended grassroots theater productions, invited Black artists to perform or share their work at events she organized and hosted, and enthusiastically promoted emerging local Black theater companies, artists and playwrights including Barbara Ann Tere and the National Black Arts Theater, Voza Rivers and the New Heritage Theater Group, Stephanie Berry and Blackberry Productions, and Jamal Joseph and Impact Repertory Theater.
Black Arts
Yuri remained in solidarity and passionately committed to supporting the Black Liberation movement until the end of her life. Over the course of 50 years, she worked with and in support of numerous movements and organizations including the Organization of Afro American Unity (OAAU), The Black Panther Party (BPP), The Revolutionary Action Network (RAM), The Republic of New Africa (RNA), New African People's Organization (NAPO) and for reparations for Black people.