Black Panther Party Press Conference
1 2023-05-31T21:15:15-07:00 Hayden Holliman e670fc01e2419044e98b24b13def84be8a2daff6 42723 3 Members of the Black Panther Party meet January 21st, 1969 to discuss the recent inequalities among minority groups and implement a plan of action. Five members of the party can be seen, primarily in leather jackets, several in berets and sunglasses as well. plain 2023-06-01T19:26:39-07:00 Hayden Holliman e670fc01e2419044e98b24b13def84be8a2daff6This page has annotations:
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The Origin and Early Presence of the Young Lords Party
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This page illustrates the history and initial activism of the Young Lords Party. Modeled after the Black Panthers, the Young Lords consisted of BIPOC citizens of Chicago and Harlem, primarily the poor and working-class Puerto Rican youth who aimed to be a voice for minorities and provide them equal access to healthcare, employment, education and housing while simultaneously launching platforms for Puerto Rican independence. Their first successful campaign is known as the "garbage offensive" and it encapsulates the YLP's desire to advocate for people at a community level first.
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Origin of the YLP
The Young Lords Organization (YLO) was a group formed originally in Chicago in 1968 by Puerto Rican youth who hoped to give a voice to minorities who lacked access to housing, healthcare, education, and employment. Its members consisted of Latino/x, African American, LGBTQ, and female-identifying individuals. The Young Lords aimed to revolutionize civil rights for all people, particularly marginalized groups on the East Coast. Some of their biggest platforms included the independence and freedom of Puerto Rican people, political prisoners, and the retraction of military troops stationed in both Puerto Rico and Vietnam. They lofted their organization with a 13 Point Program which outlined their rules, values, and liabilities. Eventually, the YLO extended to other cities on the East Coast, most importantly New York City where a chapter of the YLO was established by university students who renamed the group the Young Lords Party (YLP). Although their goals were tremendous in ambition, their method was rooted in the well-being of their local community and therefore their impact paralleled their grandeur objectives.
Black Panther Influence
This militant civil rights group based itself on the Black Panther Party, which started in Oakland, in 1966. As a result of the Black Panther Party's advocacy for self-defense violence against the police and open-carrying of guns in addition to the imprisonment of its group leaders—Bobby Seale and Huey Newton—people often recall the group as threatening. However, this group is also known by many people of color for their initiatives in community service and programming, something that heavily inspired the YLP. With the creation of "community survival programs" the Black Panther Party was able to repurpose abandoned infrastructure and turn it into centers for childcare and resource distribution.
Additionally, the Black Panther Party used its voice and momentum to advocate for a variety of minority groups and situations of disparity. Namely, education for welfare children, wrongful incarceration of people of color, and racism within systems of law and school in America. They did this via local campaigns, newspaper publications, press conferences, and demonstrations. At the left is an image of one of the aforementioned printed publications. The Young Lords used this model of activism to inspire their own initiatives, hence the occurrence of the Garbage Offensive in New York City in 1969.
Below is an image of one of the press conferences the Young Lords Party hosted which falls in the likeness of the BPP, the Puerto Rican flag is front and center.
Garbage Offensive (1969)
In the summer of 1969, many East Harlem activists were exhausted by the unsanitary, unlivable conditions they were surrounded by. Uncollected, rotting trash would remain in the street for several weeks at a time, sweeping was a moot point and the capacity for trash in receptacles was negligent considering the proportion of people who occupied these neighborhoods. After having asked the city for help with sanitation, the workers offloading more garbage in the streets, and asking the city for the tools to clean their community on their own, they took it upon themselves to take a stand and advocate for the suffering masses. The "garbage offensive" was the first campaign that this group of people organized and executed, it is a perfect example of how their impact and efforts to make a difference were rooted in their community first. Members of the YLP spent days sweeping up the uncollected trash and relocating it to sidewalks in anticipation of sanitation workers removing it. This was to no avail, so they began placing the garbage in the middle of the streets, adding in old furniture and appliances to the mess. The Young Lords believed that the city's refusal to help them out was indicative of racism held by the city's inner-Italian-working-circle.“Coffee grounds and discarded milk containers…Garbage is also…the squalor that surrounds burned-out buildings and rubblestone lots, which kids play in because the playgrounds have gone to seed, while rats dance and junkies shoot up. Garbage is refuse dumped into ghetto areas by unscrupulous, often mob-controlled private carting companies who sometimes drop hazardous medical and other industrial wastes while looking for a short end run.” - Pablo Guzman
The "garbage offensive" is just one example of the way in which the Young Lords Party launched their organization off of the ground. Through the model of the Black Panther Party and the overlap of its members with the newly formed activist group, the Young Lords created a consortium of people and values that successfully changed the lives of many.
Conclusion (Early Impact of the Young Lords)
The Young Lords Party quickly made an impact on the community around them and people in general during the 1960s and 70s. The YLP was a catalyst for young leaders, artists, and professionals to participate in the Puerto Rican cultural renaissance that was occurring in New York City at this time. Among enduring victories within the realm of access to healthcare, their impact was bountiful. We will learn about their ideology, goals, tactics, organization, legacy, and accomplishments as we move through the rest of this chapter.
Bibliography“Black Panthers Press Conference.” 1969. Calisphere. January 21, 1969. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/hb35800504/.
Fernández, Johanna. 2021. “When the Young Lords Put Garbage on Display to Demand Change.” HISTORY. September 15, 2021. https://www.history.com/news/young-lords-garbage-offensive.
Jim Westcott. 2018. “A Brief History of the Young Lords, Puerto Rican Activist Group.” ThoughtCo. 2018. https://www.thoughtco.com/young-lords-history-4165954.
Older, Daniel José. 2019. “Garbage Fires for Freedom: When Puerto Rican Activists Took over New York’s Streets (Published 2019).” The New York Times, October 11, 2019, sec. New York. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/11/nyregion/young-lords-nyc-garbage-offensive.html.
The Black Panther Party. 1969. “Panthers Assassinated by US Organization.” The Black Panther: Black Community News Service, January 25, 1969.
The Editors of the Encyclopedia Britannica. n.d. “Young Lords | Chicago, History, Black Panthers, & Facts | Britannica.” Www.britannica.com. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Young-Lords.
Thurber, Maria. n.d. “Research Guides: A Latinx Resource Guide: Civil Rights Cases and Events in the United States: 1968: The Young Lord’s Organization/Party.” Guides.loc.gov. https://guides.loc.gov/latinx-civil-rights/young-lords-organization#:~:text=Modeled%20and%20inspired%20after%20the.