She was a close friend, political ally, and member of Malcolmx later organization. Kochiyama and Malcolm X met in 1963. He was a pivotal influence on her shift toward Black nationalism, while she introduced him to Japanese anti-nuclear activists and survivors of the Hiroshima/Nagasaki bombings.
Kochiyama was in the audience at the Audubon Ballroom in 1965 and was famously photographed cradling Malcolm X's head in her lap as he lay dying.

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