Young Lords Msg Still Relevant 40 Years Later

[nattyreb]

One-time Young Lords say struggles of 1968 just as relevant today
By Jeff Long

Chicago Tribune reporter

September 22, 2008

One-time Young Lords say message still relevant, 40 years later -- chicagotribune.com
chicagotribune.com

One-time Young Lords say message still relevant, 40 years later
One-time Young Lords say struggles of 1968 just as relevant today
By Jeff Long
Chicago Tribune reporter
September 22, 2008

Jose "Cha-Cha" Jimenez returned to his Chicago roots on
Sunday, speaking to an audience of more than 200 people
gathered in a modest Humboldt Park church about the role
played by a one-time street gang, the Young Lords, as a force
for community and political activism during the turbulent
1960s.

As part of a program remembering the Young Lords, which
Jimenez helped form into a community activist group in 1968,
speakers said some of the issues the Young Lords dealt with
still exist today.
Their brand of community activism is needed now more than
ever, speakers said.
Jimenez, who lives in Cleveland, said gang violence is perpetuated in part by a lack of direction.
"They don't have any leadership to show them a different way," Jimenez told the group gathered at San Lucas
United Church of Christ. "Like when we had the Young Lords and the Black Panthers."

Gentrification changed the Lincoln Park neighborhood where the Young Lords evolved, and Jimenez said he
sees that happening now in Humboldt Park.
"When we talk about urban renewal and gentrification, sometimes we forget what we're trying to say,"
Jimenez said. "Every support network put there by the community is broken apart. It's dislocated."

For years, Puerto Ricans and other minorities had been displaced from gentrifying neighborhoods such as
Lincoln Park and Wicker Park. In 1968, the Young Lords took matters into their own hands when they
briefly took over a neighborhood church basement and other buildings—installing food programs and other
services. It became a rallying call for community building in Chicago, New York and several other cities.
Jimenez and other Young Lords followed the Black Panther Party, becoming militant nationalists who
brought services and a spirit of defiance to areas they thought were ignored by city officials.

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They fought against tenant evictions, created a People's Church in Lincoln Park, and joined groups pushing
for Puerto Rican independence.
Their rough style included spurts of violence. In 1969, Jimenez was sentenced to a year in jail for the
destruction of a city urban renewal office.

But the group also had some victories. Its People's Church on Armitage Avenue became a hub for Latino
activism and featured a day nursery for working mothers and a free breakfast program.
"We call it a 40-year struggle," Jimenez said before the anniversary program on Sunday commemorating the
four decades since the Young Lords became politically active in the community. "We want people to know
the struggle is still going on. We're for progress. We're for diversity."
"What happened then happens today," said another Young Lords founder, Carlos Flores. "It's going to happen
all over again."

Part of what made the Young Lords effective is their ability to work with groups like the Black Panthers,
rather than against them, some said Sunday.
Kathleen Cleaver, communications secretary for the Black Panther Party from 1967 to 1971 and the one-time
wife of late Black Panther leader Eldridge Cleaver, said that history must be remembered and emulated.
"Our struggles were rooted in principles, not personalities," she said.
"We are again in another historical moment," added another former Young Lords activist from New York, Iris
Morales. "To mobilize the masses, we must train another generation of organizers. We must do the day-to-day
work that builds unity."
jjlong@tribune.com
Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune
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