Turning to Vietnam, Malcolm said, “If America sends troops to Vietnam, you progressives should protest. The bomb that hit us was racism.” He went on to discuss his years in prison, education, and Asian history. You just saw that we have also been scarred. Malcolm told the hibakusha, “You have been scarred by the atom bomb. Kochiyama opened the door, and there stood Malcolm X. Shortly after the reception began, there was a knock at the door. In an effort to make the hibakusha’s wish come true, Kochiyama contacted Malcolm’s office months before their arrival, but received no response and remained doubtful that Malcolm would attend the reception. Yuri Kochiyama, a Japanese-American activist, organized a reception for the hibakusha at her home in the Harlem Manhattanville Housing Projects. However, traveling to Harlem was the highpoint for the hibakusha, who were thrilled at the prospect of meeting Malcolm X. Speaking out against nuclear proliferation, the group traveled to at least five other countries before reaching the United States. On June 6, 1964, three Japanese writers and a group of hibakusha arrived in Harlem as part of the Hiroshima/ Nagasaki World Peace Study Mission. However, a little-known story about Malcolm X was the first piece of evidence I found that proved they were wrong. Colleagues argued that African Americans were too focused on trying to gain their own freedom and equality and simply did not have the time to worry about nuclear weapons. When I started this project, many expressed doubt that I would find much on the subject. dropping the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Finding out the answer to this question began the journey that ultimately became the book African Americans Against the Bomb: Nuclear Weapons, Colonialism, and the Black Freedom Movement. To begin, I asked one question: What did African Americans think about the U.S. I began thinking about how I could combine black history with nuclear disarmament. After meeting with atomic bomb survivors ( hibakusha) and learning about what the United States had done to the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, I knew I could not return home and ignore how I felt about nuclear weapons. However, that changed when I set foot in Japan. Nuclear disarmament was simply not on my radar. Up that point, most of my career as an academic focused on African American history. In 2005, I made my first trip to Hiroshima and Nagasaki with American University’s Nuclear Studies Institute. His essay, which appears below, tells the compelling story of courageous black activists who connected the fight for racial equality with the campaign for the elimination of nuclear weapons. In the description of his 2015 book, African Americans Against the Bomb: Nuclear Weapons, Colonialism, and the Black Freedom Movement, historian Vincent Intondi describes the long but little-known history of black Americans in the Nuclear Disarmament Movement.
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