Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Yuri Kochiyama Interview
Narrator: Yuri Kochiyama
Interviewer: Megan Asaka
Location: Oakland, California
Date: July 21, 2009
Densho ID: denshovh-kyuri-01-0013

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MA: Okay, so I wanted to start by asking you about Harlem when you moved to Harlem in 1960. And if you could talk about what Harlem was like at that time when you moved there, and what political activities were going on at the time when you moved.

YK: It was 1960s, it was, the Civil Rights Movement was very... what's the word? It was very active. Some of the issues in Harlem, like one of the things they fought for was for more black teachers. Because in the public school system, there were very few blacks. Not only teachers, but I don't even know if there was any principals. It might have been very few vice-principals. But they wanted also principals and vice-principals, because, well, Harlem is all black, but I mean, throughout Manhattan, there's a lot of black students. And I don't think there were really many black principals. And another issue was... oh, Harlem did not have, it seemed like everywhere from 110th Street down, Harlem was maybe, they call it 110th or 116th North. But any part of Manhattan, they have traffic lights. But in Harlem, after 116th Street all the way to 155th, I don't think they had traffic lights, and kids would be hit on the street. And I know we did a lot of, what do you call, demonstrations to get traffic lights, and Harlem did. And I'm sure it helped, the children wouldn't be hit on the street. Also, Harlem... the subway makes so much noise coming into a station. I know where we lived on 125th and Broadway, because the noise is so loud, the train coming in, that people who live right there on Broadway can't hear themselves in their own apartment. We protested to make the subway trains slow down from like 137th to 125th so that by the time it hit 125th, we would hear each other speak inside the buildings. And we did win that, too.

MA: And this was with the Harlem Parents Committee?

YK: Yeah...

MA: This was your work with HPC, Harlem Parents Committee?

YK: Right.

MA: And tell me about the Freedom School that they ran, and your involvement with that and what you learned through that school.

YK: Well, I think it's good that the Harlem Parents Committee, which are parents who live in Harlem, I think they were mostly black but I think there were a few whites maybe who lived in Harlem, and they were also part of the Harlem Parents Committee. The teachers, I thought, were very good. They were not radical teachers, you know. But most of us knew so little about black history that we did get some of the more beginning history, which we needed. And Harlem Parents Committee, I mean, they, well, anywhere that they felt there was racism, they would bring up the issues. Well, they even felt that the education that Harlem children were getting, there were racism in what they were learning. And that's why they thought if they had black teachers, it might change the situation. But you know, I mean, the teachers, the board of education that chooses teachers, not any group in Harlem I don't think. But Harlem Parents Committee really worked hard and they did bring in more in the educational field, not only teachers but people who worked in the offices in schools. I think all the demonstrations for that did bring about some results of change.

MA: Was this your first involvement with, like, active protesting?

YK: It might have been, but it seemed like we were always fighting for something. and so much of it was because of racism which caused segregation and other problems of inequality and injustices.

MA: And at the time, Harlem was a mostly black community, right?

YK: Uh-huh.

MA: Were you one of the few Asian American families there in Harlem?

YK: I think so. In our project, which was a very big project, Manhattanville, I don't... well, when we first went into Manhattanville in 1960, there were three families that were part Filipino, I think. Within six months or before, they left. So I don't think there were any other Asians. I don't know why, but Asians hardly, there were hardly any Asians in any project. Midtown or wherever, Brooklyn, I mean, I don't think there were many Asians. For some reason, they shied away from. Maybe it's because they saw that most projects were black and Puerto Ricans.

MA: And you think they didn't want to have anything to do with black and Puerto Rican people?

YK: Uh-huh, yeah. I think so.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.