History and Origin of the Young Lords Party
The Young Lords Party was a group formed originally in Chicago by Puerto Rican youth who hoped to give a voice to minorities who lacked access to housing, healthcare, education, and employment. In a general sense, 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 as well as political prisoners and the retraction of military troops stationed in both Puerto Rico and Vietnam. Although their goals were tremendous in ambition, their method was rooted first in their local community and therefore their impact paralleled their grandeur objectives for the lives of many.
This militant civil rights group based itself on the Black Panther Party, an organization 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, as was heavily inspiring for the Young Lords, this group is also known by many people of color for their initiatives in community service and programming. With the creation of "community survival programs" the Black Panther Party was able to repurpose abandoned infrastructure and turn them into centers of child care and resource distribution. Additionally, the Black Panther Party used its voice and momentum to advocate for numerous minority groups and situations of disparity. Namely, education for welfare children, wrongful incarceration of people of color in power, and racism within systems of law and school in America. They did this via local campaigns, newspaper publications, press conferences and demonstrations among other things. In 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.
In the summer of 1969, many East Harlem activists were exhausted by the unsanitary and even unlivable conditions they were surrounded by. After having asked the city for the tools to clean their community, they took it upon themselves to take a stand and advocate for the masses of people who were suffering. 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.
