Yuri’s Early Activism

When the Kochiyama family moved to Harlem in 1960, Yuri and Bill joined the Harlem Parents Committee and the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). This began her commitment to community organizing and activism for the Harlem community; the neighborhood that she would call home for over 30 years. Kochiyama began holding weekly open houses for activists in the family’s apartment; their home began to be referred to as the “Grand Central Station” or the “Revolutionary Salon”.

In October of 1963, Kochiyama met Malcolm X at a Brooklyn courthouse following her arrest after protesting discriminatory hiring practices in construction jobs. After their meeting, they kept in touch via letters and postcards discussing their ideologies and views. Kochiyama also joined Malcolm X’s pan-Africanist Organization of Afro-American Unity. The two remained close until Malcolm X’s assisination on February 21, 1965 and though their friendship was short; Kochiyama credited the radicalization of her activism to his influence.

In the mid-1960’s Yuri joined the Revolutionary Action Movement, a Black nationalist and liberation organization rooted in the philosophy of Maoism and attempted to construct an ideology based on the teachings of Malcolm X, Marx, Lenin, and Mao Zedong. In 1968, she was one of the few non-Black activists invited to join the Republic of New Africa (RNA) which advocated for a separate Black Nation in the Southern United States. After Yuri joined the RNA she decided to drop what she referred to as her “slave name” Mary and used only the name Yuri thereafter.

Kitchen table at the Kochiyama home. Here you can see various protest and conference flyers, pens, letters addressed to friends and political prisoners across the nation, envelopes and newspaper clippings.

Photo Courtesy of Discover Nikkei