Biography
Yuri Kochiyama (born Mary Yuriko Nakahara) was a Japanese American human-rights activist based in Harlem, interned at the Jerome camp in Arkansas during World War II, an associate of Malcolm X (she was present at his 1965 assassination), and a tireless advocate for Black liberation, Puerto Rican independence, Asian American movements, and political prisoners. She is listed among grand jury resisters (1974–75) on the John Brown Anti-Klan Committee's 1984 "Stop the Grand Jury" roster; her documented role in that movement, however, was as a leading supporter and defender of grand jury resisters and political prisoners rather than as a subpoenaed witness herself. She and her husband Bill were also active in the Japanese American redress movement, and she took part in 1960s–70s direct actions including the 1977 occupation of the Statue of Liberty demanding freedom for Puerto Rican Nationalist prisoners.
