Malcolm X Spoke at Rally for 1199

Author: JJ Johnson

May 19th marked the centenary of Malcolm X’s birth. Some 60 years after his assassination, he remains a controversial figure in many circles. But to many others, especially rights advocates and youth of color, he is an icon. To 1199ers,  he was a friend.

Shortly after the 1992 release of Spike Lee’s epic film “Malcolm X”, Moe Foner, then the executive director of 1199’s Bread and Roses Project, wrote a letter to The New York Times.

The letter recounted a July 21, 1962 support rally 1199 during 1199’s 56-day strike for union recognition. The rally was called by leaders of the Committee for Justice to Hospital Workers – a collective of some of the key leaders of the Black, Puerto Rican, labor and progressive communities in the city. The committee was led by labor leader A. Philip Randolph and Puerto Rican Department of Labor official Joseph Monserrat. Among the most prominent committee leaders was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 

Before the date of the rally leaders of the state legislature and. Gov. Nelson Rockefeller agreed and to support collective bargaining legislation in part to prevent the spreading of the strike. Although an agreement was at hand, the committee decide to go forward with the rally as a means of putting further pressure on management. 

Among the rally speakers was Malcolm X. He said:

“The masses of the people who are workers want a solution to their problems. Don’t select anybody to speak for you who is compromising or who is afraid of upsetting the status quo or the apple cart of those people who are running City Hall or sitting in Albany or sitting in the White House. As former 1199SEIU President Leon Davis has already proven, you don’t get a job done unless you show the man that you’re not afraid to go to jail.”

 

Moe Foner wrote in his Times letter:

 “It was the only time Malcolm X identified himself with a labor union. At the last moment Dr. King (who was scheduled to speak) was called to a civil rights demonstration in Albany, Ga., and sent a taped message to the rally. If he had been present, it would have been the only time he and Malcolm X shared the same platform.”

After his departure from the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X continued his evolution towards a more internationalist perspective and a sharper critique of the economic system.

When Malcolm X was shot down at Manhattan’s Audubon ballroom on Feb. 21, 1965, rally attendant Yuri Kochiyama rushed to his aid and cradled his head in her hands. The moment was famously captured in a Life magazine photo.

Kochiyama was a renowned and beloved Japanese American activist for many progressive causes, including Black liberation, Puerto Rican independence, Asian American equality and reparations for Japanese Americans interred during WWII, as she and her family were.

Today, a mural on 125^th St. and Broadway, not far from Kochiyama’s Harlem home, celebrates her activism with Malcolm X. It’s entitled “From Harlem with Love: A Mural Project for Yuri and Malcolm.”

Kochiyama, who died in 2014, is also remembered on May 19. She was born four years to the day before her dear friend, Malcolm X.