Yuri Kochiyama and Malcolm X’s Boundary-Breaking Friendship

Yuri Kochiyama and Malcolm X’s Boundary-Breaking Friendship

ByPapaga Bless

On paper, Yuri Kochiyama and Malcolm X made an surprising pair — a Japanese American mom of six and a firebrand Muslim minister and Black nationalist. However their temporary friendship, interrupted by his assassination in 1965, sheds mild on the multi-racial cooperation of the civil rights movement and the broader battle in opposition to racial injustice…

Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X: Inside Their Brief But Impactful Relationship

Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X: Inside Their Brief But Impactful Relationship

ByPapaga Bless

In late spring 1962, Muhammad Ali was a brash 20-year-old boxer who’d already received two nationwide Golden Glove titles and claimed an Olympic gold medal. Nonetheless often called Cassius Clay (he would change his identify two years later), he was already working his means into competition for the game’s heavyweight championship. As a Black man raised within the…