00:00:15.420 --> 00:00:16.700
Watch.

00:00:16.700 --> 00:00:18.360
The grass is growing.

00:00:18.360 --> 00:00:20.560
Watch. But don't make it obvious.

00:00:20.560 --> 00:00:22.760
Let your eyes roam casually.

00:00:22.760 --> 00:00:25.160
But watch. In any prison yard.

00:00:25.160 --> 00:00:27.840
You can see it growing in the cracks.

00:00:27.840 --> 00:00:30.900
In the crevices between the steel and the concrete.

00:00:30.900 --> 00:00:32.620
Out of the dead gray dust.

00:00:32.620 --> 00:00:34.600
The bravest blades of grass

00:00:34.600 --> 00:00:36.700
shoot up, bold and full of life.

00:00:36.700 --> 00:00:39.340
There are many community activists still doing

00:00:39.340 --> 00:00:43.100
time in prison, like members of the Black Panther Party.

00:00:43.100 --> 00:00:46.780
Because of their actions or politics,

00:00:46.780 --> 00:00:50.280
they acted in ways they thought would be helpful

00:00:50.280 --> 00:00:52.780
to those that followed after them.

00:00:52.780 --> 00:00:56.180
They are our political prisoners.

00:01:03.650 --> 00:01:07.230
Constellations of beauty appear in our world.

00:01:07.230 --> 00:01:10.370
Because you are in our life,

00:01:10.370 --> 00:01:12.990
and we recognize that it's not possible

00:01:12.990 --> 00:01:15.390
to put every feeling into words

00:01:15.390 --> 00:01:18.460
or every definition into a sentence.

00:01:18.460 --> 00:01:20.930
But this needs to be a tribute to your life.

00:01:20.930 --> 00:01:21.810
Yuri.

00:01:21.810 --> 00:01:23.450
A praise song,

00:01:23.450 --> 00:01:26.030
a freedom chant based on action.

00:01:26.030 --> 00:01:27.590
Like Harriet.

00:01:27.590 --> 00:01:29.090
Like Sojourner.

00:01:29.090 --> 00:01:30.550
Like Angela.

00:01:30.550 --> 00:01:31.890
Like Assata.

00:01:31.890 --> 00:01:33.690
Like you. Yuri.

00:01:37.210 --> 00:01:41.550
I think that that as an an Asian woman hero

00:01:41.550 --> 00:01:45.110
and as just as a woman here, to have grandma as a role

00:01:45.110 --> 00:01:47.670
model is so important for me, because I've always seen her

00:01:47.670 --> 00:01:51.410
speaking out and saying what she felt and questioning things.

00:01:51.410 --> 00:01:57.610
Well, my mother has been a political activist for a

00:01:57.610 --> 00:02:00.040
yes for the past.

00:02:00.040 --> 00:02:02.970
Almost 30 years, I would imagine.

00:02:02.970 --> 00:02:05.610
I remember her as someone who was involved

00:02:05.610 --> 00:02:08.130
in the civil rights movement,

00:02:08.130 --> 00:02:13.290
in education and the antiwar movement,

00:02:13.290 --> 00:02:15.310
the Asian American movement,

00:02:15.310 --> 00:02:17.070
the black movement.

00:02:20.230 --> 00:02:24.910
In Freedom Cannot Rest.

00:02:29.150 --> 00:02:33.810
My priority would be to fight against polarization,

00:02:33.810 --> 00:02:37.630
because this whole society is so polarized.

00:02:37.630 --> 00:02:41.130
I think there are so many issues

00:02:41.130 --> 00:02:44.410
that all people of color should come together on.

00:02:44.410 --> 00:02:46.530
And there are forces in this country

00:02:46.530 --> 00:02:49.410
who want this polarization to take.

00:02:49.410 --> 00:02:55.380
Place and not rest until.

00:02:55.380 --> 00:02:57.340
Unless we know.

00:02:57.340 --> 00:02:58.400
Ourselves.

00:02:58.400 --> 00:02:59.580
And our. History.

00:02:59.580 --> 00:03:01.920
And other people and their history,

00:03:01.920 --> 00:03:04.780
there is no way that we really can have

00:03:04.780 --> 00:03:08.320
a positive kind of interaction

00:03:08.320 --> 00:03:11.270
where there is real understanding.

00:03:11.270 --> 00:03:14.940
Why mothers in.

00:03:16.940 --> 00:03:20.740
Our political movement activities

00:03:20.740 --> 00:03:22.700
didn't come suddenly.

00:03:22.700 --> 00:03:25.640
I mean, it was very, very gradual

00:03:25.640 --> 00:03:28.700
and it became intensified as the years went on.

00:03:28.700 --> 00:03:30.840
I mean, I had to be low key

00:03:30.840 --> 00:03:32.880
because I was the breadwinner

00:03:32.880 --> 00:03:36.440
and, you know, people were being arrested and all that stuff

00:03:36.440 --> 00:03:38.980
left and right during the 60s

00:03:38.980 --> 00:03:40.740
and the 70s.

00:03:43.620 --> 00:03:45.060
Throughout our,

00:03:45.060 --> 00:03:47.360
you know, growing up and into adulthood,

00:03:47.360 --> 00:03:50.160
we always heard my mother refer to Malcolm X,

00:03:50.160 --> 00:03:52.720
and so many people Associate

00:03:52.720 --> 00:03:58.620
my mother's thinking with that influence of Malcolm X.

00:03:58.620 --> 00:04:03.840
Malcolm gave me a totally different perspective

00:04:03.840 --> 00:04:07.010
of the black struggle in America.

00:04:07.010 --> 00:04:11.400
I'm speaking of 1960s, at which time

00:04:11.400 --> 00:04:14.779
most of the civil rights work leaders

00:04:14.779 --> 00:04:18.680
were speaking about integration

00:04:18.680 --> 00:04:22.660
that blacks should try to integrate into the mainstream.

00:04:22.660 --> 00:04:25.300
Malcolm did not believe there could be integration

00:04:25.300 --> 00:04:27.480
in such a racist society,

00:04:27.480 --> 00:04:31.280
and worse than integration, he felt, was assimilation

00:04:31.280 --> 00:04:34.400
to become like those in power.

00:04:36.480 --> 00:04:37.840
I remember

00:04:37.840 --> 00:04:40.740
picking up the Daily News and the center for the Daily News,

00:04:40.740 --> 00:04:43.660
seeing my picture of my mother being handcuffed

00:04:43.660 --> 00:04:45.460
and put in a paddy wagon.

00:04:45.460 --> 00:04:49.200
And this is when she was working with Puerto Rican activists,

00:04:49.200 --> 00:04:53.370
and they unfurled this huge Puerto Rican flag from the Statue of Liberty.

00:04:53.370 --> 00:04:55.450
I remember being worried many times

00:04:55.450 --> 00:04:57.370
that my mother might go to jail,

00:04:57.370 --> 00:04:59.630
and that was the scary part.

00:05:02.630 --> 00:05:03.850
In some ways,

00:05:03.850 --> 00:05:06.770
she was even more radical than all of the kids,

00:05:06.770 --> 00:05:08.930
because she was the one

00:05:08.930 --> 00:05:11.590
who always was willing to take the most risk.

00:05:11.590 --> 00:05:14.610
Who was the one who had done so much reading

00:05:14.610 --> 00:05:20.830
and had such a deep conviction about her political beliefs?

00:05:20.830 --> 00:05:23.710
I believe in revolutionary nationalism.

00:05:23.710 --> 00:05:26.050
Those are people who actually believe,

00:05:26.050 --> 00:05:29.410
even in armed struggle, right?

00:05:29.410 --> 00:05:32.830
And that's why I support political prisoners,

00:05:32.830 --> 00:05:34.710
the blacks and Puerto Ricans

00:05:34.710 --> 00:05:39.150
who are acting out their politics in some way.

00:05:39.150 --> 00:05:41.850
And I agree with their philosophy, but I myself

00:05:41.850 --> 00:05:45.930
have never participated in an armed action.

00:05:45.930 --> 00:05:49.030
I believe also in working for civil rights.

00:05:49.030 --> 00:05:51.620
Were a Where a lot of nationalists would not.

00:05:51.620 --> 00:05:55.010
You have to have ideas

00:05:55.010 --> 00:05:57.270
that are going to actually change society,

00:05:57.270 --> 00:05:59.290
because just getting all these things,

00:05:59.290 --> 00:06:02.230
like better housing and better schools and such,

00:06:02.230 --> 00:06:06.090
it may not change anything in the power structure.

00:06:06.090 --> 00:06:08.010
So that's not enough.

00:06:08.010 --> 00:06:10.090
You have to go beyond that

00:06:10.090 --> 00:06:14.010
to have some kind of political philosophy

00:06:14.010 --> 00:06:18.530
that's going to actually change the structures.

00:06:22.090 --> 00:06:23.690
Amen.

00:06:27.410 --> 00:06:30.430
The United States of America is a nation

00:06:30.430 --> 00:06:32.650
where people are not united

00:06:32.650 --> 00:06:34.490
because of those three

00:06:34.490 --> 00:06:38.750
glaring frailties racism, injustices, and inequities.

00:06:38.750 --> 00:06:42.050
It is up to all of us to fight this mental

00:06:42.050 --> 00:06:47.760
and emotional pollution, wherever and whenever it is detected.

00:06:47.760 --> 00:06:52.280
Political philosophy is not just something you obtain.

00:06:52.280 --> 00:06:54.100
It's something that you develop

00:06:54.100 --> 00:06:55.760
through your lifetime.

00:06:55.760 --> 00:06:59.980
And of course, as different events happen to you and different people

00:06:59.980 --> 00:07:04.340
you meet and people you are and writings that you read.

00:07:04.340 --> 00:07:07.040
Your philosophy is going to change.

00:07:07.040 --> 00:07:12.240
When I was like 20 years old, I was totally apolitical

00:07:12.240 --> 00:07:15.680
and I did not see anything in a political way.

00:07:15.680 --> 00:07:17.680
It took me a long time before

00:07:17.680 --> 00:07:21.000
I came to the political stage.

00:07:26.000 --> 00:07:28.540
The United States of America

00:07:28.540 --> 00:07:31.320
was suddenly and deliberately attacked

00:07:31.320 --> 00:07:33.580
by naval and air forces

00:07:33.580 --> 00:07:36.480
of the Empire of Japan.

00:07:50.340 --> 00:07:54.700
In the first 48 hours of the Pearl Harbor bombing,

00:07:54.700 --> 00:07:59.820
1300 essays were taken in, yet

00:07:59.820 --> 00:08:03.040
not one of those people had ever engaged

00:08:03.040 --> 00:08:05.720
in any kind of subversive activities.

00:08:05.720 --> 00:08:10.180
No one of Japanese background was ever found

00:08:10.180 --> 00:08:14.820
of being guilty of sabotage or espionage.

00:08:16.740 --> 00:08:21.340
December 7th, around 11 a.m.

00:08:21.340 --> 00:08:24.320
and that time would be the time

00:08:24.320 --> 00:08:29.159
when bombs were still falling in Pearl Harbor.

00:08:29.159 --> 00:08:31.179
Three FBI men came,

00:08:31.179 --> 00:08:34.700
and they whisked my father away.

00:08:34.700 --> 00:08:37.419
My father had just come home from the hospital

00:08:37.419 --> 00:08:40.100
the day before from a surgery.

00:08:40.100 --> 00:08:42.920
Well, they just came right in, went to the back,

00:08:42.920 --> 00:08:47.370
and they woke him up and told him, put on your bathrobe and slippers.

00:08:47.370 --> 00:08:49.390
I didn't have time to even ask them

00:08:49.390 --> 00:08:51.050
where they're taking him.

00:08:54.450 --> 00:08:58.090
I called my mother to get home right away and told her what happened.

00:08:58.090 --> 00:09:02.110
In a few days, she found out that he was taken to a Terminal Island

00:09:02.110 --> 00:09:04.450
federal penitentiary.

00:09:08.610 --> 00:09:11.790
When they interrogated my father,

00:09:11.790 --> 00:09:15.130
they started to accuse him of spying.

00:09:27.330 --> 00:09:29.090
I think he was.

00:09:29.090 --> 00:09:33.430
He was certainly under surveillance, but I think he had been under surveillance

00:09:33.430 --> 00:09:35.330
for a long time.

00:09:38.170 --> 00:09:40.850
My mother had said,

00:09:40.850 --> 00:09:44.730
you know, they've been watching that for 20 years.

00:09:44.730 --> 00:09:47.970
They knew each time any of us were born,

00:09:47.970 --> 00:09:51.270
and they probably were watching us too, as kids.

00:10:00.190 --> 00:10:04.450
My father was watching, I guess, for several reasons.

00:10:04.450 --> 00:10:06.890
The American government has always been

00:10:06.890 --> 00:10:09.770
leery of Japanese fishermen

00:10:09.770 --> 00:10:12.250
because they would know the Pacific waters.

00:10:12.250 --> 00:10:15.670
The FBI thought he was spying

00:10:15.670 --> 00:10:18.290
and that he was watching the installations

00:10:18.290 --> 00:10:20.290
as they were being built on the highways,

00:10:20.290 --> 00:10:23.550
but there were no installations at that time.

00:10:27.430 --> 00:10:29.610
On January 21st,

00:10:29.610 --> 00:10:32.810
they brought him home from the hospital with a nurse,

00:10:32.810 --> 00:10:35.370
and we couldn't communicate with him.

00:10:35.370 --> 00:10:38.350
And since he couldn't talk, we didn't know if he could hear us.

00:10:38.350 --> 00:10:40.490
But the nurse put him to bed

00:10:40.490 --> 00:10:43.120
and then the next morning, early, I don't know.

00:10:43.120 --> 00:10:47.440
Around 7:00 she woke us up to say he passed.

00:10:47.440 --> 00:10:49.360
And then shortly after that,

00:10:49.360 --> 00:10:51.920
we got a phone call from the FBI saying

00:10:51.920 --> 00:10:54.160
if anyone came and comes to the funeral,

00:10:54.160 --> 00:10:56.420
they'll be under surveillance.

00:11:03.300 --> 00:11:07.300
By April of 1942,

00:11:07.300 --> 00:11:09.240
Japanese Americans

00:11:09.240 --> 00:11:12.840
were removed to the ten camps that we called

00:11:12.840 --> 00:11:14.640
concentration camps.

00:11:14.640 --> 00:11:18.340
Our family was sent to Jerome, Arkansas.

00:11:32.540 --> 00:11:37.960
When I was first in turn, I was terribly bitter, angry.

00:11:37.960 --> 00:11:41.360
I couldn't believe that the United States government

00:11:41.360 --> 00:11:47.520
couldn't turn us only because we look like Japanese.

00:11:47.520 --> 00:11:52.220
But the government at that time was so panicked

00:11:52.220 --> 00:11:54.900
by racism that, uh,

00:11:54.900 --> 00:12:00.480
that we had to undergo this terrible experience of incarceration.

00:12:05.640 --> 00:12:08.620
Remembering what happened not only to my father,

00:12:08.620 --> 00:12:11.000
but I mean to the Japanese as a whole.

00:12:11.000 --> 00:12:15.880
I see similar things that happen to other ethnics.

00:12:15.880 --> 00:12:18.380
Years later, I would see that

00:12:18.380 --> 00:12:20.800
these kind of things happened to others

00:12:20.800 --> 00:12:22.680
all along, all the time,

00:12:22.680 --> 00:12:24.760
especially to blacks.

00:12:29.240 --> 00:12:35.620
I was, uh, incarcerated at tan for an assembly center.

00:12:35.620 --> 00:12:41.670
Then six months later, we were all transferred to Topaz, Utah,

00:12:41.670 --> 00:12:44.450
which was a huge concentration camp

00:12:44.450 --> 00:12:47.250
in the middle of a alkali desert,

00:12:47.250 --> 00:12:52.790
and there I stayed for around six more months.

00:12:52.790 --> 00:12:54.370
At the end of the six months,

00:12:54.370 --> 00:12:59.510
um, I volunteered to join the new segregated regiment called, uh,

00:12:59.510 --> 00:13:02.710
for 42nd Regimental Combat Team.

00:13:14.190 --> 00:13:17.230
Yuri and I crossed paths.

00:13:17.230 --> 00:13:20.190
You know, and that's the first time I heard about Yuri.

00:13:20.190 --> 00:13:22.110
This was in Mississippi,

00:13:22.110 --> 00:13:26.850
uh, during World War two, when both our husbands were in the 442,

00:13:26.850 --> 00:13:31.110
and there was a USO set up for the full 42,

00:13:31.110 --> 00:13:35.470
and I was I was helping out, planning a program and so forth.

00:13:35.470 --> 00:13:37.210
And when the men went overseas,

00:13:37.210 --> 00:13:41.250
I was anxious to get out of Mississippi, so I left.

00:13:41.250 --> 00:13:42.950
I said, I'm leaving the center.

00:13:42.950 --> 00:13:45.150
And they said, well, there's a Mary Nakahara

00:13:45.150 --> 00:13:47.280
who's going to take your place.

00:13:47.280 --> 00:13:49.910
During the period that I lived in

00:13:49.910 --> 00:13:51.730
Hattiesburg, Mississippi.

00:13:51.730 --> 00:13:54.430
Strangely, I didn't see too many black people.

00:13:54.430 --> 00:13:57.170
Which which I wondered why.

00:13:59.170 --> 00:14:04.310
After I came out to New York in 1946,

00:14:04.310 --> 00:14:08.350
and the first job I got was chock full of nuts,

00:14:08.350 --> 00:14:14.490
which is a restaurant which hired practically only blacks.

00:14:14.490 --> 00:14:17.950
But there were two black men who worked there

00:14:17.950 --> 00:14:22.070
who happened to have trained in the same camp as my husband,

00:14:22.070 --> 00:14:24.970
which was in Camp Shelby, Mississippi.

00:14:24.970 --> 00:14:27.610
And when I said, you know,

00:14:27.610 --> 00:14:31.190
no black soldiers ever came to the U.S. so that I worked in

00:14:31.190 --> 00:14:34.390
and I said, I don't know why black soldiers didn't come in.

00:14:34.390 --> 00:14:37.840
Sometimes white soldiers would walk in.

00:14:37.840 --> 00:14:40.160
They said, well, where was this USO?

00:14:40.160 --> 00:14:44.000
And I said, oh. The address was 222 Pine Street.

00:14:44.000 --> 00:14:45.240
They said, that's it.

00:14:45.240 --> 00:14:47.280
He said, we couldn't walk on Pine Street.

00:14:47.280 --> 00:14:49.980
I said, why? I said, because it's a main drag

00:14:49.980 --> 00:14:52.340
that we couldn't walk on any main drag.

00:14:52.340 --> 00:14:56.000
And I said, even with the American uniform on.

00:14:56.000 --> 00:14:57.160
That's right.

00:14:57.160 --> 00:15:01.100
And I guess that was the beginning

00:15:01.100 --> 00:15:02.720
of learning

00:15:02.720 --> 00:15:06.460
about what racism was about

00:15:06.460 --> 00:15:09.410
and what racism was doing in America.

00:15:09.410 --> 00:15:11.960
Now, are you going to put it on to people.

00:15:11.960 --> 00:15:13.060
Living in the South?

00:15:13.060 --> 00:15:16.500
Made me aware of racism, but it didn't make me political

00:15:16.500 --> 00:15:20.000
because I did not understand

00:15:20.000 --> 00:15:23.240
the politics of why these things happen.

00:15:23.240 --> 00:15:26.620
Even when I was living in New York

00:15:26.620 --> 00:15:30.660
and the first political people that I met,

00:15:30.660 --> 00:15:33.380
uh, were those who were engaged

00:15:33.380 --> 00:15:36.860
in the little Rock, Arkansas, you know.

00:15:36.860 --> 00:15:39.060
Desegregation program.

00:15:39.060 --> 00:15:42.680
I met Daisy Bates and the nine little Rock children.

00:15:42.680 --> 00:15:44.880
That was 1956.

00:15:44.880 --> 00:15:48.160
I was not that political

00:15:48.160 --> 00:15:50.800
or certainly not politically clear

00:15:50.800 --> 00:15:55.140
about all these things, but at least it was the opening

00:15:55.140 --> 00:15:59.680
of what the civil rights movement was about and what it was doing.

00:15:59.680 --> 00:16:04.260
It was really about integrating into the mainstream.

00:16:12.780 --> 00:16:15.420
Our family moved to Harlem.

00:16:15.420 --> 00:16:17.900
In December of 1960,

00:16:17.900 --> 00:16:21.440
during one of the worst blizzards to hit New York.

00:16:21.440 --> 00:16:25.780
Our children were Billy, 13 or 11.

00:16:25.780 --> 00:16:30.160
88, 85, Jimmy, three. And Tommy one.

00:16:30.160 --> 00:16:32.920
We moved mostly by subway.

00:16:32.920 --> 00:16:34.230
Hand carried.

00:16:34.230 --> 00:16:35.370
14. Years.

00:16:35.370 --> 00:16:37.770
Of family accumulated. Accumulation.

00:16:37.770 --> 00:16:40.430
Everybody went back and forth about 4 or 5 times

00:16:40.430 --> 00:16:44.090
on the subway, from 66th Street to 125th.

00:16:44.090 --> 00:16:47.230
This was the beginning of our new life to be.

00:16:47.230 --> 00:16:51.190
We would soon experience Harlem in the 60s,

00:16:51.190 --> 00:16:54.690
during the hottest decade up north for civil rights,

00:16:54.690 --> 00:16:56.920
the sizzling 60s.

00:16:56.920 --> 00:17:00.910
Then we were meeting so many political activists.

00:17:00.910 --> 00:17:02.150
They were not radicals.

00:17:02.150 --> 00:17:04.869
They were civil rights activists

00:17:04.869 --> 00:17:07.390
and who were connected with the Harlem Parents Committee

00:17:07.390 --> 00:17:10.670
and in Harlem Freedom School and slavery.

00:17:10.670 --> 00:17:13.230
During the days of the slave trade,

00:17:13.230 --> 00:17:16.990
many of the black people who are from who were taken from.

00:17:16.990 --> 00:17:21.569
The Freedom Schools were parent and community activists.

00:17:21.569 --> 00:17:23.410
Attempts to supplement,

00:17:23.410 --> 00:17:25.270
or perhaps even substitute

00:17:25.270 --> 00:17:27.750
for, many of the deficiencies in New York City schools

00:17:27.750 --> 00:17:30.870
that were very apparent in the non

00:17:30.870 --> 00:17:32.850
education of of young children.

00:17:32.850 --> 00:17:36.170
Today we're going to talk about the Europe of culture of West Africa.

00:17:36.170 --> 00:17:39.630
Because we knew nothing about black history.

00:17:39.630 --> 00:17:41.910
We thought, gee, we better enroll.

00:17:41.910 --> 00:17:44.610
And so my husband and I

00:17:44.610 --> 00:17:46.410
and our three older kids

00:17:46.410 --> 00:17:49.710
enrolled in class there at the Harlem Freedom School.

00:17:49.710 --> 00:17:51.470
Central America.

00:17:51.470 --> 00:17:53.350
Many parents elected to

00:17:53.350 --> 00:17:56.150
to try to supplement while trying to

00:17:56.150 --> 00:17:59.930
to to get the administration at the Board of Education

00:17:59.930 --> 00:18:01.910
to to rethink and relook

00:18:01.910 --> 00:18:03.950
their approach to education.

00:18:03.950 --> 00:18:05.810
Harlem Parents Committee

00:18:05.810 --> 00:18:11.090
decided that they would like to have a strike, closing down

00:18:11.090 --> 00:18:14.170
every public school in New York City

00:18:14.170 --> 00:18:17.470
until the Board of Education

00:18:17.470 --> 00:18:20.330
promised to make changes.

00:18:20.330 --> 00:18:22.250
We decided that was a great idea

00:18:22.250 --> 00:18:25.470
and that we would become involved.

00:18:25.470 --> 00:18:27.910
We want a written agreement

00:18:27.910 --> 00:18:31.520
which establishes firmly the legitimate

00:18:31.520 --> 00:18:35.000
right of parent community participation

00:18:35.000 --> 00:18:39.230
in all aspects of the life of the school.

00:18:39.230 --> 00:18:42.680
Those of us here in Harlem

00:18:42.680 --> 00:18:46.140
decided that every school in Harlem would be picketed.

00:18:46.140 --> 00:18:48.840
Once it started, it was getting up at

00:18:48.840 --> 00:18:51.400
five 6:00 in the morning

00:18:51.400 --> 00:18:53.360
and getting to the schools

00:18:53.360 --> 00:18:56.900
and getting all of our picket signs ready

00:18:56.900 --> 00:18:58.920
and going out there each morning.

00:18:58.920 --> 00:19:01.140
The Negro, Puerto Rican,

00:19:01.140 --> 00:19:03.300
especially this area right around here in Harlem.

00:19:03.300 --> 00:19:06.900
We've been held down so long that if people don't fight now

00:19:06.900 --> 00:19:09.200
for their equality, that when

00:19:09.200 --> 00:19:11.560
by the time they do be nothing here to fight for us.

00:19:11.560 --> 00:19:14.240
So I feel that every time there is a boycott

00:19:14.240 --> 00:19:16.600
or a sit in or a demonstration of any sort,

00:19:16.600 --> 00:19:20.380
that all the minority groups take part, whether they're Negro, Puerto Rican or what.

00:19:20.380 --> 00:19:22.780
And white people should come out just as much as others.

00:19:22.780 --> 00:19:25.040
Fight for equality in the United States and make it a better place

00:19:25.040 --> 00:19:26.380
for all of us to live in.

00:19:31.800 --> 00:19:35.180
During the summer of 1963,

00:19:35.180 --> 00:19:38.760
I took the four youngest kids by subway up to Brooklyn

00:19:38.760 --> 00:19:40.560
to join the core

00:19:40.560 --> 00:19:43.280
Congress of Racial Equality

00:19:43.280 --> 00:19:46.500
picket line to demand construction jobs

00:19:46.500 --> 00:19:50.000
for blacks and Puerto Rican demonstrations

00:19:50.000 --> 00:19:53.160
at downstate in the summer of 1963

00:19:53.160 --> 00:19:56.020
was one of the most important demonstrations.

00:19:56.020 --> 00:19:59.020
It was certainly one that more people

00:19:59.020 --> 00:20:01.460
were involved in at one time,

00:20:01.460 --> 00:20:03.660
because almost every day,

00:20:03.660 --> 00:20:06.540
anywhere between 100 to 200

00:20:06.540 --> 00:20:10.400
people would show up at the Downstate Medical Center.

00:20:10.400 --> 00:20:13.380
They were going to build a medical center there.

00:20:13.380 --> 00:20:17.980
And because very, very few Black

00:20:17.980 --> 00:20:22.400
and Puerto Ricans were getting jobs as construction workers,

00:20:22.400 --> 00:20:24.700
a Brooklyn core spearheaded to say,

00:20:24.700 --> 00:20:27.080
we've got to get jobs for Black and Puerto Ricans.

00:20:27.080 --> 00:20:28.240
As. The.

00:20:28.240 --> 00:20:31.470
Vehicles making deliveries of uh

00:20:31.470 --> 00:20:34.410
materials would approach the the entrance of the work site.

00:20:34.410 --> 00:20:37.210
We'd link together and sit in front.

00:20:37.210 --> 00:20:39.490
Uh, the police would then ask us to move.

00:20:39.490 --> 00:20:40.850
We wouldn't move.

00:20:40.850 --> 00:20:44.310
Um, so that, uh, made it necessary for them to bodily

00:20:44.310 --> 00:20:46.190
carry each of us, and we'd go limp.

00:20:46.190 --> 00:20:49.590
So it effectively slowed the work,

00:20:49.590 --> 00:20:51.190
uh, significantly.

00:20:51.190 --> 00:20:53.390
Um, primarily

00:20:53.390 --> 00:20:56.050
with the intention of having the contractors understand.

00:20:56.050 --> 00:20:58.130
Well, it's going to cost you

00:20:58.130 --> 00:21:00.950
not to employ and employ people,

00:21:00.950 --> 00:21:02.790
because time, of course, is money.

00:21:07.350 --> 00:21:11.570
I don't think that insofar as Yuri was concerned,

00:21:11.570 --> 00:21:15.720
that she was ever viewed as an outsider

00:21:15.720 --> 00:21:20.310
because she had already established a track record and she she's just she'd

00:21:20.310 --> 00:21:23.690
been she's part of the pattern

00:21:23.690 --> 00:21:26.070
in the weave of, of her community.

00:21:26.070 --> 00:21:28.370
And I think most people had begun,

00:21:28.370 --> 00:21:30.670
had already accepted her as that.

00:21:30.670 --> 00:21:33.650
My impression generally when when something of a community

00:21:33.650 --> 00:21:36.410
nature was going on, would be that people would be.

00:21:36.410 --> 00:21:40.290
I think people would tend to be surprised were she not involved.

00:21:45.210 --> 00:21:47.470
As long as the man can practice

00:21:47.470 --> 00:21:49.270
criminal acts

00:21:49.270 --> 00:21:53.030
and no one knows that he's doing it, the act will continue to exist.

00:21:53.030 --> 00:21:56.150
But as soon as you expose him, pull the cover off of him.

00:21:56.150 --> 00:21:58.630
Then he has to either straighten up or

00:21:58.630 --> 00:22:00.930
let the world see what he is. Just another criminal.

00:22:00.930 --> 00:22:05.130
Yuri and Bill both have been key in my life.

00:22:05.130 --> 00:22:09.290
She was immediately like an aunt.

00:22:09.290 --> 00:22:12.350
Indeed, the union was very important

00:22:12.350 --> 00:22:16.930
and has been very strong since we're talking 30 years now.

00:22:16.930 --> 00:22:22.510
Malcolm X was the one person who changed my life more than anyone else,

00:22:22.510 --> 00:22:24.970
because he gave me a different perspective

00:22:24.970 --> 00:22:27.530
of the struggle in America.

00:22:27.530 --> 00:22:29.860
Malcolm was watching

00:22:29.860 --> 00:22:33.580
what was happening in the world, in the Third World,

00:22:33.580 --> 00:22:36.160
and that's Africa, Asia and Latin America.

00:22:36.160 --> 00:22:39.100
And where he saw all these third world

00:22:39.100 --> 00:22:41.540
countries having revolutions

00:22:41.540 --> 00:22:44.500
and turning their lives completely changed.

00:22:44.500 --> 00:22:49.800
And he was more about hoping than that kind of thing could happen here.

00:22:49.800 --> 00:22:52.780
Recently, my grandmother showed me the postcards

00:22:52.780 --> 00:22:55.520
that Malcolm X had wrote wrote to her.

00:22:55.520 --> 00:22:58.860
Written to her from all over the world.

00:22:58.860 --> 00:23:01.960
And that was very I was very impressed and very touched by that.

00:23:01.960 --> 00:23:05.500
I mean, it was just like he said something in one of them,

00:23:05.500 --> 00:23:07.100
something like, um,

00:23:07.100 --> 00:23:10.260
he said, I'm in Africa and I'm traveling

00:23:10.260 --> 00:23:12.320
and trying to broaden my scope

00:23:12.320 --> 00:23:17.040
because I now know what a mess can be made by narrow minded people.

00:23:17.040 --> 00:23:20.440
It was just such a special moment to share that with my grandmother.

00:23:22.360 --> 00:23:24.070
At one point,

00:23:24.070 --> 00:23:26.340
I think 63. 64.

00:23:26.340 --> 00:23:28.680
My mother invited Malcolm X

00:23:28.680 --> 00:23:33.380
to attend a gathering in her home of people from Japan,

00:23:33.380 --> 00:23:35.880
some of whom were victims of the Hiroshima

00:23:35.880 --> 00:23:38.600
bomb and others who were activists

00:23:38.600 --> 00:23:40.420
who were anti-war.

00:23:40.420 --> 00:23:43.600
And they had very much wanted to meet Malcolm X.

00:23:43.600 --> 00:23:47.500
And I was lucky that that day I was home

00:23:47.500 --> 00:23:52.420
and had the opportunity to meet him and to, you know,

00:23:52.420 --> 00:23:55.720
to hear him speak in a very informal gathering.

00:23:55.720 --> 00:24:00.260
In 1964, a group called the Hiroshima and Nagasaki World Peace Study

00:24:00.260 --> 00:24:02.700
Mission was making a tour of the United States.

00:24:02.700 --> 00:24:07.930
In that group was were four journalists,

00:24:07.930 --> 00:24:09.800
and they wanted to meet more

00:24:09.800 --> 00:24:13.780
than any other person in United States, Malcolm X.

00:24:13.780 --> 00:24:16.400
But those were scary times for Malcolm X

00:24:16.400 --> 00:24:21.550
because he had just broken with Elijah Muhammad

00:24:21.550 --> 00:24:23.870
the Nation of Islam.

00:24:23.870 --> 00:24:28.610
And there were a lot of talk, rumors that he was going to be a

00:24:28.610 --> 00:24:31.250
that Malcolm was going to be assassinated.

00:24:31.250 --> 00:24:32.290
Well.

00:24:32.290 --> 00:24:34.820
On that day,

00:24:34.820 --> 00:24:38.790
we still weren't sure whether Malcolm was going to show up.

00:24:38.790 --> 00:24:42.790
Soon after the the the meeting began,

00:24:42.790 --> 00:24:45.950
we heard a knock and lo and behold,

00:24:45.950 --> 00:24:49.190
there was a Malcolm X with one of his bodyguards.

00:24:49.190 --> 00:24:51.450
Well, when he started speaking,

00:24:51.450 --> 00:24:53.890
you could hear a pin drop.

00:24:53.890 --> 00:24:57.770
Even the people in the back, it seemed like nobody moved.

00:24:57.770 --> 00:24:59.390
No one made a sound.

00:24:59.390 --> 00:25:03.090
And he actually electrified the audience.

00:25:03.090 --> 00:25:08.510
I think one of the very important things he said

00:25:08.510 --> 00:25:12.330
was that the struggle

00:25:12.330 --> 00:25:14.230
of the people of Vietnam

00:25:14.230 --> 00:25:16.650
is the struggle of the Third World.

00:25:16.650 --> 00:25:19.430
And just that one statement,

00:25:19.430 --> 00:25:22.790
you could see how far ahead he was.

00:25:31.830 --> 00:25:36.290
We are the children of the migrant worker.

00:25:36.290 --> 00:25:41.150
We are the offspring of the concentration camp.

00:25:41.150 --> 00:25:45.200
Sons and daughters of the railroad builder.

00:25:45.200 --> 00:25:47.610
Less than a year

00:25:47.610 --> 00:25:50.750
he was active in the civil rights movement in New York in the early 60s.

00:25:50.750 --> 00:25:54.210
Her meeting with Malcolm had a very strong impact on her,

00:25:54.210 --> 00:25:56.790
where she became involved

00:25:56.790 --> 00:25:59.150
initially in the black community,

00:25:59.150 --> 00:26:01.450
but she felt it was very important to make that connection

00:26:01.450 --> 00:26:04.490
with the evolving Asian movement

00:26:04.490 --> 00:26:07.770
and to tie them in America.

00:26:07.770 --> 00:26:13.290
The Asian American movement began around 1968,

00:26:13.290 --> 00:26:15.490
and it was sort of simultaneous

00:26:15.490 --> 00:26:18.090
with the fight for ethnic studies,

00:26:18.090 --> 00:26:20.380
the movement against the Vietnam War

00:26:20.380 --> 00:26:24.400
and the issue of identity crisis.

00:26:24.400 --> 00:26:28.600
Both me and Matsuda and I had college aged children,

00:26:28.600 --> 00:26:33.080
and our children were involved in the anti-war movement,

00:26:33.080 --> 00:26:36.750
but they were in white groups.

00:26:36.750 --> 00:26:40.180
When we started Asian Americans for action, it was just

00:26:40.180 --> 00:26:42.720
we just thought it was just an organization

00:26:42.720 --> 00:26:45.100
our children could could relate to.

00:26:45.100 --> 00:26:49.180
Triple H did a lot of work against the Vietnam War,

00:26:49.180 --> 00:26:53.190
did a lot of organizing and writing leaflets,

00:26:53.190 --> 00:26:55.040
took up most of the issues

00:26:55.040 --> 00:26:58.960
that leftist groups in New York became involved in, everything

00:26:58.960 --> 00:27:02.680
from jobs and housing because of racism.

00:27:02.680 --> 00:27:05.900
Also the same issues of better health care,

00:27:05.900 --> 00:27:09.240
and started organizations in Chinatown,

00:27:09.240 --> 00:27:11.720
which took care of health.

00:27:11.720 --> 00:27:15.600
We thought it would be a cultural group

00:27:15.600 --> 00:27:18.980
to to discuss identity

00:27:18.980 --> 00:27:23.960
and and explore heredity and so forth.

00:27:23.960 --> 00:27:27.860
But after all, these were people who were all participating

00:27:27.860 --> 00:27:30.860
in the in protest of the Vietnam War.

00:27:30.860 --> 00:27:32.500
So they were very political.

00:27:32.500 --> 00:27:36.060
And they said, now this is going to be a political organization, political

00:27:36.060 --> 00:27:39.300
as well as social and cultural.

00:27:39.300 --> 00:27:43.580
The Confucius Plaza action was very important.

00:27:43.580 --> 00:27:46.900
I think it was almost the same thing that the Black and Puerto Ricans

00:27:46.900 --> 00:27:50.440
did ten years earlier, in 1963, at downstate.

00:27:50.440 --> 00:27:54.660
It was a fight for construction jobs for Asians.

00:27:54.660 --> 00:27:56.700
Uh, here they were building

00:27:56.700 --> 00:27:59.240
Confucius Plaza, which was right in Chinatown.

00:27:59.240 --> 00:28:02.480
And yet, I don't think there were any Asians that they hired.

00:28:02.480 --> 00:28:04.300
And Asians were told that.

00:28:04.300 --> 00:28:07.300
Oh, but, uh, Chinese or Asians,

00:28:07.300 --> 00:28:11.720
they're not construction workers, which was absolutely not true.

00:28:11.720 --> 00:28:15.220
Actually, there were many, many construction

00:28:15.220 --> 00:28:17.230
workers coming in from China

00:28:17.230 --> 00:28:19.210
and Taiwan and Hong Kong

00:28:19.210 --> 00:28:22.630
and they could never get construction jobs.

00:28:22.630 --> 00:28:24.570
Well, I thought it was good

00:28:24.570 --> 00:28:26.970
that there were two different kinds of movement.

00:28:26.970 --> 00:28:30.410
The movement for integration

00:28:30.410 --> 00:28:33.050
and the movement really for separation.

00:28:33.050 --> 00:28:35.590
While nationalists like Malcolm,

00:28:35.590 --> 00:28:38.650
I mean, his whole thing was about self-determination.

00:28:38.650 --> 00:28:41.170
And it was not to go into the mainstream

00:28:41.170 --> 00:28:43.690
like the civil rights activists

00:28:43.690 --> 00:28:46.910
who are, I guess you might call them integrationist.

00:28:46.910 --> 00:28:48.990
Uh, they were talking about

00:28:48.990 --> 00:28:51.690
we have to build our own institutions.

00:28:51.690 --> 00:28:53.530
We have to go our own way.

00:28:53.530 --> 00:28:57.610
Uh, we have to have our families and our children

00:28:57.610 --> 00:28:59.350
learn about Africa

00:28:59.350 --> 00:29:01.850
and making the hookups with Africa.

00:29:01.850 --> 00:29:05.490
And at that time, all those African countries were trying

00:29:05.490 --> 00:29:09.010
to free themselves from European colonization.

00:29:09.010 --> 00:29:11.630
So I felt that, well,

00:29:11.630 --> 00:29:17.270
Malcolm and and nationalists were either.

00:29:17.270 --> 00:29:20.650
I don't know if you say ahead of their time for here,

00:29:20.650 --> 00:29:23.750
or that they were more on target on what black people

00:29:23.750 --> 00:29:25.290
should be about.

00:29:34.770 --> 00:29:41.870
On February 21st, 1965 was the date that Malcolm was killed.

00:29:41.870 --> 00:29:44.990
That afternoon.

00:29:44.990 --> 00:29:47.750
My son Billy was 16

00:29:47.750 --> 00:29:50.290
then, and I went to the Audubon,

00:29:50.290 --> 00:29:53.810
and it began with the diversion

00:29:53.810 --> 00:29:57.070
and all was like, all hell broke loose

00:29:57.070 --> 00:29:59.470
and all the chairs came crashing down.

00:29:59.470 --> 00:30:05.190
Everybody was on the ground, but a young brother came running past me,

00:30:05.190 --> 00:30:07.310
so I figured he must be going up to the stage

00:30:07.310 --> 00:30:08.830
and knows how to get up there.

00:30:08.830 --> 00:30:09.950
So I followed him.

00:30:09.950 --> 00:30:14.140
I ran right to where Malcolm had fallen

00:30:14.140 --> 00:30:17.380
and I put his head on my lap,

00:30:17.380 --> 00:30:20.280
hoping that he was alive.

00:30:20.280 --> 00:30:24.620
Um, he never made one sound.

00:30:24.620 --> 00:30:27.080
He never said one word.

00:30:29.160 --> 00:30:32.140
This was, I think, one of the biggest blow

00:30:32.140 --> 00:30:35.720
to the black liberation struggle.

00:30:43.320 --> 00:30:46.920
There was a greater militancy after that.

00:30:46.920 --> 00:30:50.320
I think those who were active at that time

00:30:50.320 --> 00:30:52.300
saw and Malcolm,

00:30:52.300 --> 00:30:55.960
someone who was leading the way, the correct way.

00:30:55.960 --> 00:30:59.160
And I think especially here in Harlem,

00:30:59.160 --> 00:31:01.360
it was not about integration.

00:31:01.360 --> 00:31:04.240
It was about self-determination.

00:31:12.340 --> 00:31:14.920
For several years after that.

00:31:14.920 --> 00:31:16.960
I mean, people kept saying

00:31:16.960 --> 00:31:20.580
they've got to continue Malcolm's legacy.

00:31:20.580 --> 00:31:24.760
And I think in Detroit, there was a group called the Malcolm X society,

00:31:24.760 --> 00:31:32.280
and they're the ones who called, I think, a meeting of, uh, revolutionary nationalists

00:31:32.280 --> 00:31:35.300
who may want to form something

00:31:35.300 --> 00:31:37.320
as a tribute to Malcolm.

00:31:37.320 --> 00:31:40.200
And they wrote out a constitution

00:31:40.200 --> 00:31:42.980
and a declaration of Independence

00:31:42.980 --> 00:31:45.060
and called their group

00:31:45.060 --> 00:31:47.140
Republic of New Africa.

00:31:49.900 --> 00:31:52.820
They felt that the Black Belt South

00:31:52.820 --> 00:31:55.560
would comprise a black nation.

00:31:55.560 --> 00:31:58.200
They chose five states

00:31:58.200 --> 00:32:02.340
Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, Louisiana and Mississippi

00:32:02.340 --> 00:32:04.480
as the black nation.

00:32:04.480 --> 00:32:07.440
And when it began and of course, it was just all black.

00:32:07.440 --> 00:32:12.370
It still is really all black, but, um, Right from the beginning.

00:32:12.370 --> 00:32:16.690
They there was a group called friends of the RNA.

00:32:16.690 --> 00:32:19.630
And so I joined the friends of the RNA.

00:32:19.630 --> 00:32:23.310
But then came a time in 1969 that they said

00:32:23.310 --> 00:32:26.290
they would maybe even allow

00:32:26.290 --> 00:32:29.450
some non-blacks to become citizens.

00:32:29.450 --> 00:32:32.010
They asked if I would like to take an oath

00:32:32.010 --> 00:32:34.210
to the Republic of New Africa,

00:32:34.210 --> 00:32:36.130
which I did.

00:32:42.010 --> 00:32:45.350
She was one of the very, very few Asians

00:32:45.350 --> 00:32:48.170
to mix in with with the blacks.

00:32:48.170 --> 00:32:50.110
Some may have questioned her,

00:32:50.110 --> 00:32:54.810
but I'm sure they began to see how sincere she was

00:32:54.810 --> 00:33:01.010
and how concerned she was in her work.

00:33:01.010 --> 00:33:03.950
Same thing happened with the Latino groups.

00:33:03.950 --> 00:33:07.070
She befriended a lot of the young Lords,

00:33:07.070 --> 00:33:11.200
as she did with the Black Panther group.

00:33:11.200 --> 00:33:13.370
The Young Lords

00:33:13.370 --> 00:33:16.490
Party was founded in 1969,

00:33:16.490 --> 00:33:19.370
originally by a group of young Puerto Ricans in Chicago

00:33:19.370 --> 00:33:21.370
that had been a gang called the Illinois.

00:33:21.370 --> 00:33:24.830
They had come in contact with Fred Hampton of the Black Panther Party,

00:33:24.830 --> 00:33:29.570
who actually organized them and got them to stop Gangbanging and killing each other,

00:33:29.570 --> 00:33:32.790
and helped shift their focus to serve the community.

00:33:32.790 --> 00:33:34.930
At the same time, the group of young Puerto Ricans

00:33:34.930 --> 00:33:37.910
in New York City were very interested in forming something

00:33:37.910 --> 00:33:43.040
along the lines of the Panther Party and approached the Young Lords of Chicago.

00:33:43.040 --> 00:33:46.870
The Lords philosophy was very similar to the Panthers,

00:33:46.870 --> 00:33:49.990
or as Puerto Ricans living inside the United States.

00:33:49.990 --> 00:33:55.170
We wanted independence for Puerto Rico, self-determination for Puerto Ricans in the United States.

00:33:55.170 --> 00:33:57.890
We believe that a prerequisite to social change

00:33:57.890 --> 00:34:00.410
was going to be the unity of people of color.

00:34:00.410 --> 00:34:02.610
And the young Lords in New York City probably became

00:34:02.610 --> 00:34:04.890
most known in 1969

00:34:04.890 --> 00:34:07.469
for the takeover of a church in East Harlem

00:34:07.469 --> 00:34:11.179
that was empty six days a week and refused request

00:34:11.179 --> 00:34:13.920
to use the space for breakfast program

00:34:13.920 --> 00:34:16.940
and health testing programs, as well as a liberation school.

00:34:16.940 --> 00:34:18.980
It was during that takeover that I joined.

00:34:18.980 --> 00:34:21.260
We came here because you have a big church,

00:34:21.260 --> 00:34:26.000
because you are Christian, because this church is not open at all during the week.

00:34:26.000 --> 00:34:29.340
And what we asked you for is for space, that's all.

00:34:29.340 --> 00:34:31.080
We will supply the manpower.

00:34:31.080 --> 00:34:33.100
We will supply the food for the children.

00:34:33.100 --> 00:34:36.820
All we asking for the space of this church is community.

00:34:44.300 --> 00:34:49.340
I want to be like you.

00:34:49.340 --> 00:34:53.480
Do you sell out?

00:34:53.480 --> 00:34:55.060
What? Are you free?

00:34:55.060 --> 00:34:57.480
There was a takeover of the Harlem

00:34:57.480 --> 00:35:00.380
YWCA in the late 60s.

00:35:00.380 --> 00:35:03.640
And the reason was because many people here,

00:35:03.640 --> 00:35:06.200
and especially, I guess you call black movement

00:35:06.200 --> 00:35:09.620
people felt that the YWCA in Harlem

00:35:09.620 --> 00:35:12.460
was not fully utilized by the community.

00:35:12.460 --> 00:35:19.120
So many people felt that the YWCA was hardly used, the facility was hardly used,

00:35:19.120 --> 00:35:21.240
and only certain kind of people

00:35:21.240 --> 00:35:24.820
could attend YWCA activities.

00:35:24.820 --> 00:35:26.680
Certainly not movement kind of people.

00:35:26.680 --> 00:35:28.720
We had a rally in front of the y

00:35:28.720 --> 00:35:30.780
y the the rally was taking place.

00:35:30.780 --> 00:35:32.940
About ten of us walked into the wide

00:35:32.940 --> 00:35:36.360
and we went from floor to floor telling people who were there was working there

00:35:36.360 --> 00:35:40.060
that we was taking over the building, and they could either leave or stay.

00:35:40.060 --> 00:35:42.300
Most of the people there for a few stayed

00:35:42.300 --> 00:35:44.660
and we just stopped.

00:35:44.660 --> 00:35:46.380
We ran all the programs out of the water.

00:35:46.380 --> 00:35:50.260
We wanted to rent the free breakfast program for the Panther Party.

00:35:50.260 --> 00:35:52.020
We ran the Y at that time.

00:35:52.020 --> 00:35:55.260
We were going over there every single day to make sure

00:35:55.260 --> 00:35:59.920
that the YWCA would belong now to the people

00:35:59.920 --> 00:36:02.600
and not to the National Y.

00:36:02.600 --> 00:36:05.860
And, uh, many, many young,

00:36:05.860 --> 00:36:08.250
uh, activist women,

00:36:08.250 --> 00:36:10.590
like people from the Panther Party,

00:36:10.590 --> 00:36:12.270
started classes there.

00:36:12.270 --> 00:36:16.590
Panthers were probably at the helm of the takeover then.

00:36:16.590 --> 00:36:19.530
Or they're the ones that sent the most people over there.

00:36:19.530 --> 00:36:21.450
And then, of course,

00:36:21.450 --> 00:36:26.070
the breakfast for children program was very, very well run.

00:36:26.070 --> 00:36:30.450
I mean, it was not just a haphazard kind of thing

00:36:30.450 --> 00:36:32.890
because first they had to get all the bacon

00:36:32.890 --> 00:36:34.910
and eggs and bread and stuff

00:36:34.910 --> 00:36:37.270
to take to places where they could hold,

00:36:37.270 --> 00:36:39.630
uh, free breakfast programs.

00:36:39.630 --> 00:36:41.210
The whole purpose is just to see to it

00:36:41.210 --> 00:36:43.510
that our children can eat in the mornings.

00:36:43.510 --> 00:36:47.310
We all have to be strong revolutionaries.

00:36:58.950 --> 00:37:02.770
The Harlem Committee for Self-Defense was college

00:37:02.770 --> 00:37:05.510
students who were involved in various organizations

00:37:05.510 --> 00:37:08.230
throughout the city of New York and in Harlem.

00:37:08.230 --> 00:37:12.070
Um, most of them were connected

00:37:12.070 --> 00:37:15.110
in some way, either to the Black Panther Party

00:37:15.110 --> 00:37:19.950
or to the Revolutionary Action Movement or to Bla Black.

00:37:19.950 --> 00:37:24.370
They organized the takeover of the reclamation site.

00:37:24.370 --> 00:37:26.570
Number one, the site on 125th Street.

00:37:26.570 --> 00:37:28.990
I think the most exciting thing that happened in

00:37:28.990 --> 00:37:32.990
Harlem was the takeover of the site

00:37:32.990 --> 00:37:36.010
that the state office building was later

00:37:36.010 --> 00:37:39.210
built on, and it was called Reclamation Site

00:37:39.210 --> 00:37:42.650
Number one, and it was to reclaim that land

00:37:42.650 --> 00:37:44.870
that that the people here in Harlem,

00:37:44.870 --> 00:37:49.610
the activists anyway, did not want it to become a state park property.

00:37:49.610 --> 00:37:54.010
They felt that that site, which was central to Harlem, belonged to the people.

00:37:54.010 --> 00:37:56.270
Members of the community voted on what they wanted,

00:37:56.270 --> 00:37:59.290
and the community decided something, anything

00:37:59.290 --> 00:38:02.310
other than the state office building, either a high school.

00:38:02.310 --> 00:38:06.420
Um, something that would be more conducive to the members of the community.

00:38:06.420 --> 00:38:08.320
Uh, Rockefeller vetoed it.

00:38:08.320 --> 00:38:10.980
Uh, so we went on the land and we squatted on the land

00:38:10.980 --> 00:38:14.140
for about eight weeks throughout the summer of 69.

00:38:14.140 --> 00:38:17.940
We who believe in the.

00:38:17.940 --> 00:38:21.940
People started coming into the to that area,

00:38:21.940 --> 00:38:24.500
which is one whole block from Seventh

00:38:24.500 --> 00:38:26.800
Avenue to, uh, what is now

00:38:26.800 --> 00:38:29.020
Malcolm X or Lenox Avenue.

00:38:29.020 --> 00:38:33.000
And that whole block became occupied.

00:38:33.000 --> 00:38:36.160
That which touches me most.

00:38:36.160 --> 00:38:37.940
We made a tent city.

00:38:37.940 --> 00:38:40.380
We put in a sewage system.

00:38:40.380 --> 00:38:43.200
We put in a running water system.

00:38:43.200 --> 00:38:45.200
We we built shacks.

00:38:45.200 --> 00:38:46.980
Uh, we had a security system.

00:38:46.980 --> 00:38:49.860
We got some tents, um, military tents,

00:38:49.860 --> 00:38:52.040
as well as a big circus tent.

00:38:52.040 --> 00:38:54.400
And we organized the little government,

00:38:54.400 --> 00:38:58.220
the flagpole on the corner of 125th Street and seven.

00:38:58.220 --> 00:39:02.440
We raised the Liberation colored flag every morning when the sun came up,

00:39:02.440 --> 00:39:06.360
we would line up in little terror fashion and and, um,

00:39:06.360 --> 00:39:11.400
recite the creed, the Republican creed, to the flag and to the flag.

00:39:11.400 --> 00:39:13.720
And it became a common thing on the corner

00:39:13.720 --> 00:39:15.740
of 125th Street for people

00:39:15.740 --> 00:39:19.100
going to work to see about 50 people lined up,

00:39:19.100 --> 00:39:22.320
you know, in twos with their fists up in the air,

00:39:22.320 --> 00:39:24.020
chanting black power.

00:39:24.020 --> 00:39:27.220
And rest until then.

00:39:31.580 --> 00:39:35.440
Our movement didn't just function without government response.

00:39:35.440 --> 00:39:38.080
And one of those responses was the Cointelpro program.

00:39:38.080 --> 00:39:40.240
Much of what they did is still not known,

00:39:40.240 --> 00:39:42.180
but we at least know the outlines of it.

00:39:42.180 --> 00:39:46.160
A lot of what we know is because of the freedom of information lawsuits

00:39:46.160 --> 00:39:48.040
that have been used by political prisoners

00:39:48.040 --> 00:39:50.720
to find out about the frameworks that put them into prison.

00:39:50.720 --> 00:39:53.720
I'd like to say that this pattern of. Harassment.

00:39:53.720 --> 00:39:56.920
Is going on against the Black Panther Party. Across the country.

00:39:56.920 --> 00:40:00.150
They have, uh, 21 Panthers locked up in New York

00:40:00.150 --> 00:40:02.550
and they having grand jury investigations,

00:40:02.550 --> 00:40:05.170
subpoenaing other people to come up with new cases.

00:40:05.170 --> 00:40:09.990
On Friday, the Watts office of the Black Panther Party was bombed and demolished.

00:40:09.990 --> 00:40:12.790
Last week, the Des Moines office was bombed.

00:40:12.790 --> 00:40:16.530
This week, they raided the San Francisco office.

00:40:21.530 --> 00:40:24.090
Because of Cointelpro

00:40:24.090 --> 00:40:27.830
counterintelligence program of the US government.

00:40:27.830 --> 00:40:31.590
The Panther Party was crushed across the country,

00:40:31.590 --> 00:40:33.830
and so many of the Panthers were imprisoned

00:40:33.830 --> 00:40:35.830
for different charges.

00:40:35.830 --> 00:40:38.770
And so many of us out here said what we need

00:40:38.770 --> 00:40:41.010
now is a committee

00:40:41.010 --> 00:40:44.430
to defend these Panthers who are in prison.

00:40:44.430 --> 00:40:47.630
So we formed this group called National Committee

00:40:47.630 --> 00:40:49.750
for the Defense of Political Prisoners.

00:40:49.750 --> 00:40:53.770
And it wasn't just Panthers, and it was political prisoners in general,

00:40:53.770 --> 00:40:56.170
because besides supporting

00:40:56.170 --> 00:41:00.430
black political prisoners, we supported the Puerto Ricans,

00:41:00.430 --> 00:41:02.890
uh, and the very few Native

00:41:02.890 --> 00:41:05.190
American cases that we knew of.

00:41:12.710 --> 00:41:17.030
He was an activist in the movement to free political prisoners

00:41:17.030 --> 00:41:19.430
in almost every community.

00:41:19.430 --> 00:41:20.690
Not only for the Panthers,

00:41:20.690 --> 00:41:24.330
but also people who have been imprisoned fighting for Puerto Rican independence.

00:41:24.330 --> 00:41:26.790
And we work very closely around some of the cases

00:41:26.790 --> 00:41:29.250
that were dear to our community.

00:41:29.250 --> 00:41:32.450
And she was an activist and approached each of these amazingly,

00:41:32.450 --> 00:41:34.610
with the same kind of enthusiasm

00:41:34.610 --> 00:41:37.350
as if they were people from her own community.

00:41:40.550 --> 00:41:43.490
In the late 1970s,

00:41:43.490 --> 00:41:45.850
in the US prisons there existed

00:41:45.850 --> 00:41:48.510
the longest held political prisoners in the Western Hemisphere.

00:41:48.510 --> 00:41:50.710
These were the Puerto Rican nationalists

00:41:50.710 --> 00:41:53.790
that in 1950 and 1954,

00:41:53.790 --> 00:41:58.980
had carried out armed attacks against Congress and against the president

00:41:58.980 --> 00:42:01.640
in an attempt to bring to world attention

00:42:01.640 --> 00:42:04.980
the continuing colonial situation of Puerto Rico.

00:42:04.980 --> 00:42:06.960
Around 1977,

00:42:06.960 --> 00:42:10.120
because one of the 4 or 5 Puerto

00:42:10.120 --> 00:42:13.620
Rican nationalists had come down with cancer.

00:42:13.620 --> 00:42:16.180
All the people said, we've got to get

00:42:16.180 --> 00:42:18.760
at least the person with cancer.

00:42:18.760 --> 00:42:20.300
That's Cordero.

00:42:20.300 --> 00:42:22.180
We have to get Cordero out.

00:42:22.180 --> 00:42:24.340
And people said, what could we do

00:42:24.340 --> 00:42:27.120
to focus on Cordero

00:42:27.120 --> 00:42:30.480
and make a huge splash in the paper?

00:42:30.480 --> 00:42:33.540
It had to be something that would hit the newspaper.

00:42:35.220 --> 00:42:36.580
But.

00:42:39.380 --> 00:42:41.400
I don't remember.

00:42:41.400 --> 00:42:45.680
All the names of the the leadership, but I think Richie Perez was one

00:42:45.680 --> 00:42:49.980
and, uh, Vincent Panama Alba.

00:42:49.980 --> 00:42:54.080
But they gave us a direction for what we should do.

00:42:54.080 --> 00:42:57.940
It was to get over to the statue

00:42:57.940 --> 00:42:59.700
and get there before

00:42:59.700 --> 00:43:03.220
all the tourists and everybody else would get there and

00:43:03.220 --> 00:43:06.360
and just take over, lock up the place,

00:43:06.360 --> 00:43:11.560
um, and hold on to the statue as long as we could.

00:43:11.560 --> 00:43:13.480
And how long. Do they plan to stay there?

00:43:13.480 --> 00:43:15.840
They're not leaving until the four

00:43:15.840 --> 00:43:18.160
remaining prisoners are freed.

00:43:46.840 --> 00:43:50.660
Up for the helicoptered into the island.

00:43:50.660 --> 00:43:52.360
And they broke through our barricades.

00:43:52.360 --> 00:43:56.150
And they arrested us all and took us back to Foley Square,

00:43:56.150 --> 00:44:00.330
where by this time there was a demonstration of about 400 people in our support.

00:44:00.330 --> 00:44:02.670
The nationals were released the next year

00:44:02.670 --> 00:44:06.650
and their sentences were commuted by President Carter.

00:44:06.650 --> 00:44:08.590
And for all of us, it was a great victory.

00:44:08.590 --> 00:44:10.570
We felt that our action contributed

00:44:10.570 --> 00:44:12.870
to public awareness of their case.

00:44:12.870 --> 00:44:15.470
When the nationalists came out, that kind of closed

00:44:15.470 --> 00:44:17.610
that period of history in terms of one

00:44:17.610 --> 00:44:19.990
set of political prisoners that had been freed,

00:44:19.990 --> 00:44:22.890
but that still left the island of Puerto Rico colonized

00:44:22.890 --> 00:44:25.150
and many other people in prison.

00:44:29.310 --> 00:44:31.010
As we were growing up,

00:44:31.010 --> 00:44:35.030
we always heard my parents talk about the camps

00:44:35.030 --> 00:44:39.090
and referring to people that they knew

00:44:39.090 --> 00:44:41.190
or the activities that they did.

00:44:41.190 --> 00:44:45.470
My mother was a Sunday school teacher in the camp, and she, uh,

00:44:45.470 --> 00:44:48.330
she also, I think, had a girls group

00:44:48.330 --> 00:44:51.950
that would write to the Japanese American soldiers.

00:44:51.950 --> 00:44:54.950
So she my both my parents would talk about it

00:44:54.950 --> 00:44:57.770
in a more positive outlook.

00:44:57.770 --> 00:45:02.490
It wasn't until the late 60s, early 70s,

00:45:02.490 --> 00:45:04.670
through the Asian American movement,

00:45:04.670 --> 00:45:07.630
that the consciousness about the internment

00:45:07.630 --> 00:45:09.710
camps became more widespread.

00:45:09.710 --> 00:45:14.110
And then my parents talked about it more in terms of

00:45:14.110 --> 00:45:17.310
what were the political situation

00:45:17.310 --> 00:45:20.130
that created the camps and the racism

00:45:20.130 --> 00:45:23.670
and how that affected their lives personally.

00:45:23.670 --> 00:45:28.860
The Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians

00:45:28.860 --> 00:45:33.970
was created by a congressional um legislation.

00:45:33.970 --> 00:45:38.390
The mandate of the commission was to, uh, investigate

00:45:38.390 --> 00:45:40.550
whether or not a wrong had been committed

00:45:40.550 --> 00:45:42.910
against Japanese-Americans during World War Two

00:45:42.910 --> 00:45:45.750
and then recommend appropriate action

00:45:45.750 --> 00:45:47.270
to the Senate.

00:45:47.270 --> 00:45:50.210
The question we put to this commission is

00:45:50.210 --> 00:45:52.260
how does the government intend

00:45:52.260 --> 00:45:55.260
to measure the effect and scope of the evacuation,

00:45:55.260 --> 00:45:59.660
and how will it enact proper legislation to remedy the injustice?

00:45:59.660 --> 00:46:01.660
I was selected to testify

00:46:01.660 --> 00:46:06.540
before the commissions in Washington, D.C. and New York City,

00:46:06.540 --> 00:46:08.640
and before the New York City Council,

00:46:08.640 --> 00:46:11.680
because I was one of the very, very few

00:46:11.680 --> 00:46:13.900
Japanese Americans in New York

00:46:13.900 --> 00:46:15.940
that was incarcerated

00:46:15.940 --> 00:46:20.380
and at the same time served with the 42nd

00:46:20.380 --> 00:46:23.880
all Japanese-American combat unit.

00:46:25.760 --> 00:46:27.220
Finally, this morning,

00:46:27.220 --> 00:46:29.640
the commissioner called William Commissioner,

00:46:29.640 --> 00:46:32.340
who served in the 42nd

00:46:32.340 --> 00:46:35.580
and also had really interesting experiences.

00:46:35.580 --> 00:46:38.460
We went and lobbied in Washington,

00:46:38.460 --> 00:46:40.820
D.C., lobbied the Congress people.

00:46:40.820 --> 00:46:44.280
Almost 50% of the Congress people we lobbied

00:46:44.280 --> 00:46:51.260
were either born just after the war broke out or Much later.

00:46:51.260 --> 00:46:56.000
They never heard about the Japanese-Americans being incarcerated.

00:46:56.000 --> 00:46:58.880
They never heard about the wartime record

00:46:58.880 --> 00:47:01.720
of the Japanese American servicemen.

00:47:01.720 --> 00:47:04.220
So we talked with them and

00:47:04.220 --> 00:47:06.340
and I think all of them,

00:47:06.340 --> 00:47:10.630
those that we met and lobbied, voted

00:47:10.630 --> 00:47:15.840
to grant compensation to the Japanese Americans

00:47:15.840 --> 00:47:19.660
who were incarcerated in 1988.

00:47:19.660 --> 00:47:23.100
Those Japanese Americans who were incarcerated in the camps

00:47:23.100 --> 00:47:26.840
were awarded $20,000 apiece.

00:47:26.840 --> 00:47:31.710
And, uh, an official apology

00:47:31.710 --> 00:47:35.980
from the president of the United States and from the Congress.

00:47:39.100 --> 00:47:41.520
I hope, because the Japanese

00:47:41.520 --> 00:47:44.460
and the allies were able to win redress,

00:47:44.460 --> 00:47:48.280
that other people who feel that they have been wronged in any way

00:47:48.280 --> 00:47:50.650
that they will also initiate

00:47:50.650 --> 00:47:53.690
a reverse movement and the blacks have

00:47:53.690 --> 00:47:55.550
the black reverse movement

00:47:55.550 --> 00:47:59.190
has been going on for a long time, I think.

00:47:59.190 --> 00:48:03.490
However, in the last ten years it has been organizing

00:48:03.490 --> 00:48:05.170
a great deal more.

00:48:05.170 --> 00:48:07.530
All the most

00:48:07.530 --> 00:48:12.750
radical black organizations are part of in Cobra,

00:48:12.750 --> 00:48:14.630
which is the umbrella group

00:48:14.630 --> 00:48:19.950
for redress, and all the groups that are part of Cobra, and which of course,

00:48:19.950 --> 00:48:22.130
the public of New Africa is to

00:48:22.130 --> 00:48:25.970
have had at least three national conferences.

00:48:25.970 --> 00:48:29.210
It's going to have to be all people supporting them.

00:48:29.210 --> 00:48:32.370
It can't be just within the black community.

00:48:32.370 --> 00:48:36.230
But already Africa is very, very much interested.

00:48:36.230 --> 00:48:38.210
And three countries in Africa

00:48:38.210 --> 00:48:40.970
are starting suits against the US government

00:48:40.970 --> 00:48:44.290
that their people were taken away as slaves.

00:48:44.290 --> 00:48:48.890
And so I think, I hope within a few years

00:48:48.890 --> 00:48:51.470
more people will be hearing about this.

00:48:53.670 --> 00:48:57.010
My mother is such an active person.

00:48:57.010 --> 00:49:02.570
Her level of energy, her level of commitment at age

00:49:02.570 --> 00:49:04.790
70 is still the same than it was,

00:49:04.790 --> 00:49:07.900
you know, 25 years ago.

00:49:07.900 --> 00:49:10.550
Hi.

00:49:10.550 --> 00:49:12.670
How are you?

00:49:12.670 --> 00:49:17.010
Oh, that's good to see you again.

00:49:17.010 --> 00:49:19.330
Yeah. You haven't changed.

00:49:19.330 --> 00:49:22.250
Hey, listen. I'm one of these people. She's great.

00:49:22.250 --> 00:49:24.950
She goes out and she talks to young people all the time.

00:49:24.950 --> 00:49:27.750
You know, people know her. They ask her to come speak.

00:49:27.750 --> 00:49:29.940
I can't see what I'm writing

00:49:29.940 --> 00:49:32.760
because I don't have my glasses.

00:49:32.760 --> 00:49:37.070
The T-shirt I'm wearing is Mumia Abu-Jamal.

00:49:37.070 --> 00:49:40.070
How many of you have heard of Mumia

00:49:40.070 --> 00:49:42.110
Abu-Jamal? Right.

00:49:42.110 --> 00:49:45.690
He was a member of the Black Panther Party in the 60s.

00:49:45.690 --> 00:49:51.040
and after the Black Panther Party days,

00:49:51.040 --> 00:49:52.400
he became a journalist

00:49:52.400 --> 00:49:56.720
and he was a target of the police department and the FBI.

00:49:56.720 --> 00:49:59.040
They had been watching him for a long time,

00:49:59.040 --> 00:50:02.860
but he is one of the most important political prisoners today.

00:50:02.860 --> 00:50:05.080
And of all the political prisoners,

00:50:05.080 --> 00:50:07.420
he's the only one on death row.

00:50:07.420 --> 00:50:10.540
Ability to really relate to

00:50:10.540 --> 00:50:15.840
and nurture the sort of the progressive desires and instincts of young people

00:50:15.840 --> 00:50:18.400
and directed in a really positive way.

00:50:18.400 --> 00:50:20.440
You know, battle against it.

00:50:20.440 --> 00:50:22.880
But first of all, there's Afro

00:50:22.880 --> 00:50:27.620
centricity is not just one person's idea.

00:50:27.620 --> 00:50:31.180
You know, there's so many people who are into Afro centricity,

00:50:31.180 --> 00:50:33.020
but it's not all the same.

00:50:33.020 --> 00:50:37.020
People think that Asians didn't come here to mid 1800.

00:50:37.020 --> 00:50:40.180
No, this is like 1700

00:50:40.180 --> 00:50:43.140
that they were slaves on Spanish ships.

00:50:43.140 --> 00:50:45.820
And then because they were here,

00:50:45.820 --> 00:50:50.040
they had to also fight in America's wars.

00:50:50.040 --> 00:50:53.200
They could not be buried anywhere.

00:50:53.200 --> 00:50:55.260
They could not be buried in,

00:50:55.260 --> 00:50:57.920
you know, in cemeteries where whites were buried.

00:50:57.920 --> 00:51:02.780
And that's why we have this Chinese cemetery and a Filipino cemetery.

00:51:02.780 --> 00:51:06.740
And I think it's important that we know where these places are.

00:51:06.740 --> 00:51:07.800
You're right.

00:51:07.800 --> 00:51:10.380
We know because everybody else has.

00:51:10.380 --> 00:51:11.980
The colors are. Dull.

00:51:11.980 --> 00:51:14.300
I think that she's really contributed

00:51:14.300 --> 00:51:17.440
to developing cross-cultural ties between

00:51:17.440 --> 00:51:19.360
Asians and blacks.

00:51:19.360 --> 00:51:21.700
I think that's a major

00:51:21.700 --> 00:51:26.470
that's a major part of her life.

00:51:26.470 --> 00:51:27.900
One. Mama.

00:51:27.900 --> 00:51:31.000
Mama mama mama.

00:51:35.560 --> 00:51:40.320
Mama mama mama mama.

00:51:45.950 --> 00:51:49.270
Malcolm used to always reiterate.

00:51:49.270 --> 00:51:50.790
Study history.

00:51:50.790 --> 00:51:53.370
Learn about yourselves and others.

00:51:53.370 --> 00:51:57.590
There's more commonality in all of our lives than we think.

00:51:57.590 --> 00:52:00.470
It will help us understand one another.

00:52:00.470 --> 00:52:03.970
Knowledge of history can be used as a weapon

00:52:03.970 --> 00:52:05.890
to divide us further,

00:52:05.890 --> 00:52:09.430
or to seek truth and learn from past errors

00:52:09.430 --> 00:52:11.570
and flagrant premises.

00:52:11.570 --> 00:52:14.530
Our ultimate objective in learning about

00:52:14.530 --> 00:52:17.210
anything is to try to create

00:52:17.210 --> 00:52:21.670
and develop a more just society than we have seen.

00:52:32.550 --> 00:52:36.090
We grew, always grew up in communities

00:52:36.090 --> 00:52:40.070
that were primarily black and Latino

00:52:40.070 --> 00:52:44.930
and that Being Asian in those communities

00:52:44.930 --> 00:52:47.910
made us always feel like we were on the outside.

00:52:47.910 --> 00:52:50.310
And yet, it also made us

00:52:50.310 --> 00:52:52.690
feel that there was a direct link

00:52:52.690 --> 00:52:55.450
to the struggles of other people.

00:52:55.450 --> 00:52:57.670
Because we we did identify

00:52:57.670 --> 00:53:00.410
with the struggles of third World people.

00:53:06.690 --> 00:53:08.150
They kept coming over.

00:53:08.150 --> 00:53:11.710
My mother would always try to educate my friends and get them involved,

00:53:11.710 --> 00:53:15.350
and she would have me get my friends to go to demonstrations also.

00:53:15.350 --> 00:53:18.670
And some of them eventually became active

00:53:18.670 --> 00:53:20.690
in the movement themselves.

00:53:22.570 --> 00:53:24.590
When I met Yuri,

00:53:24.590 --> 00:53:27.610
um, through through her daughter.

00:53:27.610 --> 00:53:31.010
I was just really beginning to develop my understanding

00:53:31.010 --> 00:53:35.270
of the civil rights struggle and the black liberation struggle.

00:53:35.270 --> 00:53:39.370
And, you know, where did I fit as a young black woman, Yuri?

00:53:39.370 --> 00:53:41.880
And really all of the coaches,

00:53:41.880 --> 00:53:44.800
in their own way contributed to,

00:53:44.800 --> 00:53:47.900
um, I think not just my growth,

00:53:47.900 --> 00:53:50.700
but really the growth and development

00:53:50.700 --> 00:53:53.980
of so many people way beyond

00:53:53.980 --> 00:53:58.240
what, um, would have occurred if we had not met her.

00:54:00.080 --> 00:54:03.060
We've been married 47 years now,

00:54:03.060 --> 00:54:05.320
but I shudder to think that, uh,

00:54:05.320 --> 00:54:07.420
if I hadn't met Yuri,

00:54:07.420 --> 00:54:10.280
what would have happened to me?

00:54:13.280 --> 00:54:17.680
When it came to a political activities

00:54:17.680 --> 00:54:21.020
at first, maybe some of them I didn't agree with,

00:54:21.020 --> 00:54:23.060
but in the end I did,

00:54:23.060 --> 00:54:26.440
because I became educated through her.

00:54:26.440 --> 00:54:28.740
And I'd like to take. This opportunity.

00:54:28.740 --> 00:54:30.900
To publicly. Tell.

00:54:30.900 --> 00:54:33.840
My parents that I'm speaking on behalf of Billy

00:54:33.840 --> 00:54:35.840
or Jimmy and Tammy,

00:54:35.840 --> 00:54:37.540
that we are very. Proud.

00:54:37.540 --> 00:54:41.500
Of all of your time, commitment, dedication,

00:54:41.500 --> 00:54:43.480
spirit and love that you've given

00:54:43.480 --> 00:54:46.700
not only to the struggle of the Japanese-American community,

00:54:46.700 --> 00:54:50.800
but for the struggle for peace, justice, and equality everywhere.

00:54:50.800 --> 00:54:51.660
In the world.

00:54:51.660 --> 00:54:53.960
Congratulations. Ding 71.

00:54:53.960 --> 00:54:58.960
Um, I'm not going to be able to keep moving, marching,

00:54:58.960 --> 00:55:01.040
you know, on and on through.

00:55:01.040 --> 00:55:02.680
Even this decade.

00:55:02.680 --> 00:55:06.900
That's why I want to put in as much time as I can

00:55:06.900 --> 00:55:09.520
while I while I am in good health.

00:55:09.520 --> 00:55:11.440
But I think it's, um,

00:55:11.440 --> 00:55:14.080
it's that the movement is contagious,

00:55:14.080 --> 00:55:18.680
and the people in it are the ones who pass on the spirit.

00:55:18.680 --> 00:55:22.140
And because of that, I mean, uh, it just,

00:55:22.140 --> 00:55:25.080
you know, makes you want to always be a part of it.