American civil rights activist and writer Kiyoshi Kuromiya.
Credit: Estate of Kiyoshi Kuromiya

June is LGBTQ+ Pride Month. All month long, Behind the Headlines will feature lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer or questioning pioneers in a variety of areas.

Kiyoshi Kuromiya was an influential American civil rights activist and writer. He helped organize and took part in anti-war demonstrations and protests for civil rights and gay rights. Later, Kuromiya became an advocate for people with AIDS and worked to connect patients with the latest research.

Steven Kiyoshi Kuromiya was born May 9, 1943, at the Heart Mountain Relocation Center near Cody, Wyoming. He and his family were among the 110,000 Japanese Americans forcibly relocated by the United States government during World War II (1939-1945) as part of a policy called internment. One of his uncles, also a Heart Mountain resident, refused to participate in the draft and served three years in prison. After the war ended, Kuromiya’s family moved to Ohio and then to California. During this time, Kuromiya began to realize that he was gay. He used special library privileges his parents had gotten him to read about being gay at the county library. As a teen, he subscribed to the few gay news publications available at the time.

In 1961, Kuromiya moved to Philadelphia to attend the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied architecture. There, he became involved in the civil rights movement. He participated in diner sit-ins in Maryland and protests against nuclear testing. In 1963, he attended the March on Washington and afterward met the American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. In 1965, he joined a group of protesters staging a sit-in at Independence Hall in Philadelphia and participated in the famous march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. During the march, he was knocked unconscious by the police and required stitches. He became close to the King family during these protests, and he helped to care for the King children in the immediate aftermath of their father’s assassination.

In 1968, Kuromiya organized a protest against the Vietnam War (1957-1975). To draw a crowd, he started a rumor that a dog was going to be set on fire. When a crowd of people arrived to try and stop it from happening, they instead found a flier from Kuromiya. It read, “Congratulations on your anti-napalm protest. You saved the life of a dog. Now, how about saving the lives of tens of thousands of people in Vietnam?” Kuromiya was also arrested that year for distributing a poster that encouraged people to burn their draft cards, a criminal act.

Kuromiya joined one of the first protests for gay rights in 1965, despite not being fully out at the time. The Annual Reminder picket lines at Independence Hall were organized by the East Coast Homophile Organizations (ECHO), a collaboration between several early gay rights groups, and held on July 4 every year. Kuromiya later became one of the founders of the Philadelphia branch of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF), a more radical group fighting for gay rights. The loosely structured group lasted only about a year. Kuromiya continued to host a Gay Coffee Hour on the University of Pennsylvania campus, which became the first gay organization to receive funds from the university.

During the 1970’s and 1980’s, Kuromiya worked closely with the American engineer and inventor Buckminster Fuller. They co-authored Critical Path, published in 1981. The book explored how architecture, design, and technology can be used to solve world problems.

Kuromiya was diagnosed with AIDS in the late 1980’s. Afterward, he became heavily involved in advocacy organizations such as AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power (ACT UP) and People With AIDS (PWA). He founded the Critical Path Project, a group that published newsletters with information on AIDS research. Additionally, he established a hotline for people with AIDS to get more information about treatments. He set up a computer lab in his home to enable people with AIDS to connect via the internet, which was a relatively new technology at the time.

In 1996, Kuromiya was one of the plaintiffs in a successful case to get the Communications Decency Act thrown out. This law had placed restrictions on what information could be shared publicly, prohibiting “patently offensive” materials. The law had threatened efforts by the Critical Path Project to get AIDS-related information to people who needed it. Kuromiya lost a 1999 class-action suit that sought to overturn bans on the use of marijuana for medicinal and therapeutic purposes in the United States.

Kuromiya died on May 10, 2000. He has been honored with a spot on the San Francisco Rainbow Walk and a placard on the National LGBTQ Wall of Honor at the Stonewall Inn, now a national monument.

April 4, 2018

Fifty years ago today, on April 4, 1968, American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. The killing shocked the world and dealt a major blow to the civil rights movement in the United States. Numerous events are being held to remember King’s life and legacy, including a solemn 50th anniversary commemoration at the National Civil Rights Museum, which is built around the Lorraine Motel where King was killed. The commemoration is part of a yearlong program of events at the museum called MLK 50.

American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated 50 years ago today on April 4, 1968. Credit: © Flip Schulke, Corbis

Martin Luther King, Jr., was the most prominent leader of the civil rights movement, which sought to end discrimination against African Americans. While organizing a campaign against poverty, King went to Memphis to support a strike of black garbage workers. At about 6 p.m. on April 4, 1968, King stood on the balcony outside his room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. A bullet struck King in the neck, killing him. James Earl Ray, a white drifter and escaped convict, pleaded guilty to the crime in 1969.

The National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee, is built around the Lorraine Motel where Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated in 1968. The wreath on the balcony outside room 306 marks the spot where King was shot. Credit: © F11 Photo/Shutterstock

People throughout the world mourned King’s death. The assassination produced immediate shock, grief, and anger. African Americans rioted in more than 100 cities. A few months later, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1968, which prohibited racial discrimination in the sale and rental of most housing in the nation.

In March 1969, Ray pleaded guilty to killing King. Ray was sentenced to 99 years in prison. He later tried to withdraw his plea, but his conviction was upheld. Ray died in 1998. Although Ray confessed to King’s killing, many people doubted that Ray had acted alone.

Following the shooting, the owner of the Lorraine Motel kept King’s room, 306, as a memorial. In 1991, the motel became the centerpiece of the National Civil Rights Museum. The Memphis museum preserves King’s room in period detail. Events at the museum marking King’s death began at 6:01 p.m. on April 4, 2017, and will continue through the end of April 2018.

December 1, 2015

Sixty years ago today, Rosa Parks decided she’d had enough. The African American seamstress, tired after a long day’s work, decided to break the law by refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. A city law at the time required blacks to leave their seats in the next rows when all seats in the front rows were taken and other whites still wanted seats. Parks was arrested, triggering a boycott of the Montgomery bus system that lasted over a year. Her action helped bring about the civil rights movement in the United States.

Rosa Parks sits toward the front of a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, soon after the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that segregation on city buses was unconstitutional. Credit: © Underwood Archives/Getty Images

Rosa Louise McCauley was born on Feb. 4, 1913, in Tuskegee, Alabama. She attended Alabama State Teachers College. In 1932, she married Raymond Parks, a barber. She held a variety of jobs and, in 1943, became one of the first women to join the Montgomery Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). She served as the organization’s secretary from 1943 to 1956.

Parks lost her job as a seamstress as a result of the Montgomery boycott. She moved to Detroit in 1957. From 1967 to 1988, she worked on the Detroit staff of John Conyers, Jr., a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives. In 1979, she won the Spingarn Medal for her work in civil rights. In 1996, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 1999, she was awarded a Congressional Gold Medal. Parks died on Oct. 24, 2005. A statue of Parks was dedicated at Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol in 2013.

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January 19, 2015

Parades, musical performances, speeches, and church services are among the activities scheduled to celebrate the birthday and legacy of famed civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., on January 19. King, the main leader of the civil rights movement in the United States during the 1950′s and 1960′s, was assassinated in 1968. In 1983, Congress established the third Monday in January as a federal holiday in King’s honor. First celebrated on Jan. 20, 1986, Martin Luther King, Jr., Day is now observed by the federal government and by all the states.

Martin Luther King, Jr., organized a boycott of the Montgomery bus system in 1955. Many blacks stopped riding buses because the law required them to sit in the rear. In 1956, a federal court ordered Montgomery to desegregate its buses. (AP/Wide World)

Many Americans also planned to devote time on the holiday to community service. In 1994, the U.S. Congress designated the holiday as a national day of service–a “day on, not a day off.” Many volunteers work with nonprofit and community groups, faith-based organizations, and schools and businesses to promote King’s dream of a Beloved Community, a society of justice, peace and harmony achieved through nonviolence.

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama planned to spend part of their day participating in a community service project at the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Washington. Vice President Joe Biden planned to deliver remarks at the Organization of Minority Women’s 31st Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Breakfast in Wilmington, Delaware.

Additional World Book articles:

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August 28, 2013

The civil rights march held on Aug. 28, 1963, known in full as the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, became a turning point in the movement to end racial discrimination in the United States.

The ringing of bells, marches, commemorations, Twitter streams, and a major address by President Barack Obama are helping the international community mark the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and the “I Have a Dream” speech given by civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1963. The site was well chosen, as King referenced President Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address in his speech. In King’s speech—one of the most significant in United States history—he outlined his dream for the nation. He dreamed of a future when his children, and all children, would be judged on their character and not their skin color; a time when the sons of slaves and the sons of slaveholders would sit down together in brotherhood; a time when justice would become a reality for all. King also called on the government to improve the economic conditions of both black and white Americans.

The march and speech inspired U.S. legislators to pass new laws to improve racial equality. The Civil Rights Act, which bans discrimination because of a person’s color, race, national origin, religion, or sex, was passed in 1964. The Voting Rights Act, which states that “no voting qualification or prerequisite to voting … shall be imposed … to deny or abridge the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color,” was passed in 1965.

Martin Luther King, Jr. (© Time Life Pictures/Getty Images)

Today, at 3 p.m. Eastern Time, the hour at which King gave his speech, bells rang from sites, including New Hampshire, California, and Stone Mountain in Georgia, that were called out when he demanded that freedom be allowed to ring. Bells rang in nearly every U.S. state and from many places in Washington, D.C. At the Lincoln Memorial, a bell was rung by President Obama, who was joined by former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, members of King’s family, and Georgia representative John Robert Lewis. Lewis was a keynote speaker at the march in 1963. In his speech, President Obama paid tribute to the heroes of the civil rights movement, arguing that their sacrifices benefitted all Americans. Stressing the link between liberty and livelihood, the president also decried growing economic inequality and called on Americans to work toward equal opportunity for all.

Internationally, commemorations will be held in London, at Trafalgar Square, as well as in such countries as Japan, Switzerland, and Liberia.

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Jan. 16, 2012

Parades, musical performances, speeches, and church services were among the activities scheduled to celebrate the birthday and legacy of famed civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., on January 16. King, the main leader of the civil rights movement in the United States during the 1950′s and 1960′s, was assassinated in 1968. In 1983, Congress established the third Monday in January as a federal holiday in King’s honor. First celebrated on Jan. 20, 1986, Martin Luther King, Jr., Day is now observed by the federal government and by all the states.

Many Americans also planned to devote time on the holiday to community service. In 1994, the U.S. Congress designated the holiday as a national day of service–a “day on, not a day off.” Many volunteers work with nonprofit and community groups, faith-based organizations, and schools and businesses to promote King’s dream of a Beloved Community, a society of justice, peace and harmony achieved through nonviolence.

Martin Luther King, Jr., was an African American Baptist minister who was the main leader of the civil rights movement in the United States during the 1950's and 1960's. He won the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize for leading nonviolent civil rights demonstrations. © Time Life Pictures/Getty Images

On January 15, King’s actual birthday, President Barack Obama and his family attended services at Zion Baptist Church, an historic church in Washington, D.C. Also on that day, the National Park Service laid a wreath at the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial on the National Mall in Washington. The towering granite monument was dedicated on Oct. 16, 2011.

Additional World Book articles:

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The Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., was dedicated on October 16, with President Barack Obama and his family in attendance. The memorial honors the life and work of the famed American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., who was assassinated in 1968.

The Martin Luther King, Jr., National Memorial

The entrance to the memorial consists of two towering granite blocks, which represent the “Mountain of Despair.” Beyond is a 30-foot (9-meter) carving of King, called the “Stone of Hope.” Both “Mountain of Despair” and “Stone of Hope” are from King’s famous “I have a dream” speech: “With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.”

Additional World Book articles:

• African Americans
• Civil Right Movement
• March on Washington
• Back in Time (Civil rights 1968)