Great Wall Institute: The Process of the Great Wall of Los AngelesMain MenuResearch of the DecadesResearch1960s Illustration DevelopmentIllustration DevelopmentPlaylists of the DecadesPlaylistssparcinla.org185fc5b2219f38c7b63f42d87efaf997127ba4fcGreat Wall Institute - Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC)
1970s Gay Rights Activist Kiyoshi Kuromiya 1
1media/Screen Shot 2023-04-03 at 4.09.34 PM_thumb.png2023-04-03T23:10:34+00:00Gina Leonf0ac362b4453e23ee8a94b1a49fbeeafde2a0a4911Kiyoshi Kuromiya (front row, right) at a University of Pennsylvania anti war rally in the late 1960s. One such person was Kiyoshi Kuromiya, later to become a well-known AIDS activist. Born in an “internment” camp (Heart Mountain, Wyoming) in 1943, he grew up as a homosexual youngster in Los Angeles during the McCarthy era. An early activist in the Civil Rights Movement, he participated in restaurant sit-ins on Route 40 in Maryland at establishments that refused to serve blacks. Meeting Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1963, he would later become a family friend, caring for King children, at the King home after their father was assassinated in 1968. He also participated in anti-war protests during that period, becoming one of the 12,000 arrestees in 1972 when anti-war protestors attempted to shut down Washington, D.C.plain2023-04-03T23:10:34+00:00late 1960sGina Leonf0ac362b4453e23ee8a94b1a49fbeeafde2a0a49