Young Lords

The Young Lords was a Puerto Rican revolutionary organization formed to fight racial, cultural, and language discrimination and economic exploitation. It established chapters in several US cities in the early 1970s.

The first Young Lords Organization (YLO) was formed in Chicago and worked with local Black Panthers and a white revolutionary group in a so-called Rainbow Coalition. A group of young Puerto Ricans in New York City read an article about the Chicago YLO in the June 7, 1969, issue of the Black Panther newspaper, and a month later obtained permission to start their own chapter. In addition to Puerto Ricans, the membership included Dominican Americans, African Americans, Cuban Americans, and Latinos. The group’s admiration for the Black Panther Party can be seen in its thirteen-point political program, paramilitary style, and the brown berets that members wore. In May, 1970, the East Coast YLO became the Young Lords Party and published a bilingual newspaper, Palante (literally “forward in struggle”). Chapters formed in Hoboken, Newark, and Jersey City, New Jersey; Bridgeport and New Haven, Connecticut; Boston, Massachusetts; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

New York City’s chapter was the most active, with early actions focused on improving living conditions in the barrio. When a church refused to give them space to run a free breakfast program, the Young Lords occupied it for eleven days. When neighborhood cleanups were met with hostility from the sanitation department, the Young Lords turned them into “garbage protests” in which the streets of East Harlem were blockaded with trash until the city picked it up. Later, the Young Lords used direct action to improve community health care by hijacking a medical truck to service the community, starting drug treatment programs, and occupying a hospital in the South Bronx to demand better services. Support of Puerto Rican nationalism and prison struggles were other major areas of activity.

The Young Lords gave voice to an increasing militancy in the Latino community. Internal debates about sexism and homophobia resulted in advances for women and gays within the organization and also served to educate the community about the dangers of “machismo.” In part by embracing an Afro-Indio-Latino multiculturalism, the Young Lords facilitated connections between activists of differing racial and cultural backgrounds.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s COINTELPRO (Counterintelligence Program), which targeted Puerto Rican independence activists, many of whom were also active in the Young Lords, took a toll on the organization. In January, 1971, the group split over whether to open chapters in Puerto Rico or continue working only in US communities. Two island chapters were started but did not survive long. In July, 1972, the Young Lords Party changed its name to the Puerto Rican Revolutionary Workers Organization and shifted to labor organizing. By 1976, it had dissolved.

Bibliography

Bessa, Sergio, ed. Young Lords. Black Dog, 2014. Print.

Enck-Wanzer, Darrel, ed. The Young Lords: A Reader. New York: New York UP, 2010. Print.

Melendez, Miguel. We Took the Streets: Fighting for Latino Rights with the Young Lords. New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 2005. Print.

"New York Young Lords History." Palante.org. Latino/a Education Network Service, n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2015.

"Young Lords in Lincoln Park Collection." Grand Valley State University. GSVU, 26 Feb. 2014. Web. 24 Apr. 2015.