In October 1963, Yuri Kochiyama, a survivor of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066- which authorized the internment of 120,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans in military-guarded camps- attended a protest rally to support CORE’s (Congress of Racial Equality) campaign against discrimination in construction jobs in Brooklyn, NY. Malcolm X also participated.

The two met and formed an immediate bond that grew with ongoing communication and meetings at rallies. When Malcolm X spoke at the Audubon Ballroom that fateful February 21, 1965, Kochiyama and her teenage son were present, listening to Malcolm speak when shots rang out. While others ran for cover, Kochiyama ran to her friend, struck by the assassin’s bullets. Kochiyama comforted Malcolm as she cradled his head in her lap. Malcolm X died that day. 

Kochiyama never forgot Malcolm’s influence on her and spoke fondly of him in her advocacy work for the rest of her long life. The story of these two unlikely friends holds many lessons for building bridges and partnerships that reach across all the manufactured divides to work together for a better society for all.