Kiyoshi Kuromiya
Encyclopedia
Kiyoshi Kuromiya was an author and civil and social justice advocate. He was born in a Japanese American internment
camp on May 9, 1943 in Heart Mountain, Wyoming
. He died on the night of May 10, 2000, due to complications from AIDS
.
In the 1950s, Steven Kiyoshi Kuromiya lived with his father and mother and younger sister in Monrovia, California
, a suburb of Los Angeles in the east San Gabriel Valley. In 1961, he graduated with honors from Monrovia High School
, where he was active in the Scholarship Society and the Science Club. He was accepted at the University of Pennsylvania
.
He was a committed civil rights
and anti-war
activist. He was also one of the founders of Gay Liberation Front
- Philadelphia and served as an openly gay delegate to the Black Panther
Convention that endorsed the gay liberation struggle. Kuromiya was an assistant of Martin Luther King Jr. and took care of King's children immediately following his assassination.
To protest of the use of napalm
in Vietnam
in 1968, he announced that a dog would be burned alive in front of the University of Pennsylvania
's Van Pelt Library. Thousands turned up to protest, only to find a message from Kuromiya: "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 involved in all aspects of the AIDS movement, including radical direct action with ACT UP Philadelphia and the ACT UP network, PWA
empowerment and coalition-building through We The People Living with HIV/AIDS, national and international research advocacy, and loving and compassionate mentor ship and care for hundreds of people living with HIV. Kiyoshi was the editor of the ACT UP Standard of Care, the first standard of care for people living with HIV produced by PWAs.
Kiyoshi is perhaps best known as the founder of the Critical Path Project, which brought the strategies and theories of his associate/mentor Buckminster Fuller
to the struggle against AIDS. The CRITICAL PATH newsletter, one of the earliest and most comprehensive sources of HIV treatment information, was routinely mailed to thousands of people living with HIV all over the world. He also sent newsletters to hundreds of incarcerated individuals to insure their access to up-to-date treatment information.
Critical Path provides free access to the Internet
to thousands of people living with HIV
in Philadelphia and the region, hosted over a hundred AIDS related web pages and discussion lists, and showed a whole generation of activists and people living with HIV that the Internet can be a tool for information, empowerment and organizing.
Kiyoshi Kuromiya was a leader in the struggle to maintain freedom of speech on the Internet, participating in the successful lawsuit against the Communications Decency Act
.
Kuromiya was the leading plaintiff in the Supreme Court
case, Kuromiya vs. The United States of America, calling for the legalization of marijuana for medical uses.
He was also a nationally ranked Scrabble
player and a master of Kundalini yoga
. He was the author (as Steve Kuromiya) of 1968 Collegiate Guide to Greater Philadelphia (1967) and, with R. Buckminster Fuller, of Cosmography: A Posthumous Scenario for the Future of Humanity (1992).
Japanese American internment
Japanese-American internment was the relocation and internment by the United States government in 1942 of approximately 110,000 Japanese Americans and Japanese who lived along the Pacific coast of the United States to camps called "War Relocation Camps," in the wake of Imperial Japan's attack on...
camp on May 9, 1943 in Heart Mountain, Wyoming
Wyoming
Wyoming is a state in the mountain region of the Western United States. The western two thirds of the state is covered mostly with the mountain ranges and rangelands in the foothills of the Eastern Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie known as the High...
. He died on the night of May 10, 2000, due to complications from AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
.
In the 1950s, Steven Kiyoshi Kuromiya lived with his father and mother and younger sister in Monrovia, California
Monrovia, California
Monrovia is a city located in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains in the San Gabriel Valley of Los Angeles County, California, United States. The population was 36,590 at the 2010 census, down from 36,929 at the 2000 census...
, a suburb of Los Angeles in the east San Gabriel Valley. In 1961, he graduated with honors from Monrovia High School
Monrovia High School
Monrovia High School is a public high school located in Monrovia, California, a northeastern suburb of Los Angeles. Monrovia High School is the only 9-12 comprehensive high school in the Monrovia Unified School District...
, where he was active in the Scholarship Society and the Science Club. He was accepted at the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
.
He was a committed civil rights
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
and anti-war
Anti-war
An anti-war movement is a social movement, usually in opposition to a particular nation's decision to start or carry on an armed conflict, unconditional of a maybe-existing just cause. The term can also refer to pacifism, which is the opposition to all use of military force during conflicts. Many...
activist. He was also one of the founders of Gay Liberation Front
Gay Liberation Front
Gay Liberation Front was the name of a number of Gay Liberation groups, the first of which was formed in New York City in 1969, immediately after the Stonewall riots, in which police clashed with gay demonstrators.-The Gay Liberation Front:...
- Philadelphia and served as an openly gay delegate to the Black Panther
Black panther
A black panther is typically a melanistic color variant of any of several species of larger cat. Wild black panthers in Latin America are black jaguars , in Asia and Africa they are black leopards , and in North America they may be black jaguars or possibly black cougars A black panther is...
Convention that endorsed the gay liberation struggle. Kuromiya was an assistant of Martin Luther King Jr. and took care of King's children immediately following his assassination.
To protest of the use of napalm
Napalm
Napalm is a thickening/gelling agent generally mixed with gasoline or a similar fuel for use in an incendiary device, primarily as an anti-personnel weapon...
in Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
in 1968, he announced that a dog would be burned alive in front of the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
's Van Pelt Library. Thousands turned up to protest, only to find a message from Kuromiya: "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 involved in all aspects of the AIDS movement, including radical direct action with ACT UP Philadelphia and the ACT UP network, PWA
PWA
PWA may stand for:* Patients' welfare association* Pacific Western Airlines* People With AIDS* Pirates With Attitude, a warez release group* Prince Willem Alexander, Crown prince of the Netherlands* Printed Wiring Assemblies, Printed Circuit Boards...
empowerment and coalition-building through We The People Living with HIV/AIDS, national and international research advocacy, and loving and compassionate mentor ship and care for hundreds of people living with HIV. Kiyoshi was the editor of the ACT UP Standard of Care, the first standard of care for people living with HIV produced by PWAs.
Kiyoshi is perhaps best known as the founder of the Critical Path Project, which brought the strategies and theories of his associate/mentor Buckminster Fuller
Buckminster Fuller
Richard Buckminster “Bucky” Fuller was an American systems theorist, author, designer, inventor, futurist and second president of Mensa International, the high IQ society....
to the struggle against AIDS. The CRITICAL PATH newsletter, one of the earliest and most comprehensive sources of HIV treatment information, was routinely mailed to thousands of people living with HIV all over the world. He also sent newsletters to hundreds of incarcerated individuals to insure their access to up-to-date treatment information.
Critical Path provides free access to the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
to thousands of people living with HIV
HIV
Human immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome , a condition in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive...
in Philadelphia and the region, hosted over a hundred AIDS related web pages and discussion lists, and showed a whole generation of activists and people living with HIV that the Internet can be a tool for information, empowerment and organizing.
Kiyoshi Kuromiya was a leader in the struggle to maintain freedom of speech on the Internet, participating in the successful lawsuit against the Communications Decency Act
Communications Decency Act
The Communications Decency Act of 1996 was the first notable attempt by the United States Congress to regulate pornographic material on the Internet. In 1997, in the landmark cyberlaw case of Reno v. ACLU, the United States Supreme Court struck the anti-indecency provisions of the Act.The Act was...
.
Kuromiya was the leading plaintiff in the Supreme Court
Supreme court
A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of many legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, instance court, judgment court, high court, or apex court...
case, Kuromiya vs. The United States of America, calling for the legalization of marijuana for medical uses.
He was also a nationally ranked Scrabble
Scrabble
Scrabble is a word game in which two to four players score points by forming words from individual lettered tiles on a game board marked with a 15-by-15 grid. The words are formed across and down in crossword fashion and must appear in a standard dictionary. Official reference works provide a list...
player and a master of Kundalini yoga
Kundalini yoga
Kundalini yoga is a physical, mental and spiritual discipline for developing strength, awareness, character, and consciousness. Practitioners call Kundalini yoga the yoga of awareness because it focuses primarily on practices that expand sensory awareness and intuition in order to raise individual...
. He was the author (as Steve Kuromiya) of 1968 Collegiate Guide to Greater Philadelphia (1967) and, with R. Buckminster Fuller, of Cosmography: A Posthumous Scenario for the Future of Humanity (1992).
Brief timeline
- 1962 CORE restaurant sit-ins, Route 40, Aberdeen, MD
- 1963 Martin Luther King speech, 8/28, Lincoln MemorialLincoln MemorialThe Lincoln Memorial is an American memorial built to honor the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. It is located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The architect was Henry Bacon, the sculptor of the main statue was Daniel Chester French, and the painter of the interior...
, and later to meet King at Willard Hotel, Washington, DC - 1965 Injured at State Capitol BuildingAlabama State CapitolThe Alabama State Capitol, also known as the First Confederate Capitol, is the state capitol building for Alabama. It is located on Capitol Hill, originally Goat Hill, in Montgomery. It was declared a National Historic Landmark on December 19, 1960....
, Montgomery Alabama, leading black high school students in voter registration march, 3/13 - 1965 First homosexual rights demonstration ever - Independence Hall, Philadelphia, 7/4
- 1967 "Armies of Night" march on Pentagon Building
- 1968 Lincoln Park and Conrad Hilton, Chicago, Democratic National Convention1968 Democratic National ConventionThe 1968 Democratic National Convention of the U.S. Democratic Party was held at the International Amphitheatre in Chicago, Illinois, from August 26 to August 29, 1968. Because Democratic President Lyndon Johnson had announced he would not seek a second term, the purpose of the convention was to...
riots at Grant Park - 1968 Martin Luther King funeral, Atlanta - cared for Martin Jr. and Dexter week of funeral at King house in Vine City
- 1969 Spoke at Black Panther Party's Revolutionary People's Constitutional Convention, Temple UniversityTemple UniversityTemple University is a comprehensive public research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Originally founded in 1884 by Dr. Russell Conwell, Temple University is among the nation's largest providers of professional education and prepares the largest body of professional...
, Philadelphia - 1970 "Rebirth of Dionysian Spirit," National Gay Liberation Conference, Austin, TX
- 1972 First Rainbow Family GatheringRainbow GatheringRainbow Gatherings are temporary intentional communities, typically held in outdoor settings, and espousing and practicing ideals of peace, love, harmony, freedom and community, as a consciously expressed alternative to mainstream popular culture, consumerism, capitalism and mass media.Rainbow...
, Granby, CO - 1974-77 Survived metastatic lung cancer
- 1978-83 Traveled worldwide with Buckminster FullerBuckminster FullerRichard Buckminster “Bucky” Fuller was an American systems theorist, author, designer, inventor, futurist and second president of Mensa International, the high IQ society....
, collaborated on his last 6 books, wrote last book posthumously in 1992 (Fuller died in 1983), Philadelphia, California - 1988 First employee of We the People with Aids and charter member of ACT-UPAIDS Coalition to Unleash PowerAIDS Coalition to Unleash Power is an international direct action advocacy group working to impact the lives of people with AIDS and the AIDS pandemic to bring about legislation, medical research and treatment and policies to ultimately bring an end to the disease by mitigating loss of health and...
, Philadelphia - 1992 ACT-UP members injured at demo at Bellevue Stratford HotelThe Bellevue-Stratford HotelThe Bellevue is a landmark building at Broad & Walnut Streets in Center City, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It has continued as a well-known institution for more than a century. In the past 30 years the hotel has undergone minor name changes, but still is widely known by its historic name, The...
, numerous ACT-UP arrests around the country - 1996 Sat on FDA panel that recommended approval of first potent protease inhibitors
- 1997 Critical Path Aids Project - Supreme Court overturns communications decency act on internet censorship - lead litigant
- 1999 Kuromiya vs. United States of America - class action suit on medical use of marijuana.