Young Lords: From a Turf Gang to a Civil Rights Movement

Obama 2008 First Defeat
** FILE ** Bobby Rush, deputy defense minister of the Illinois Black Panther party, reads a statement June 4, 1969, during a news conference following an early morning raid on the Chicago Panther headquarters by FBI agents, who arrested eight persons. Rush called the raid "...a trick ..to attack the party." At left, Cha Cha Jimenez, chairman of the Young Lord, a Chicago-area Puerto Rican group. EK / AP Photo
Obama 2008 First Defeat
** FILE ** Bobby Rush, deputy defense minister of the Illinois Black Panther party, reads a statement June 4, 1969, during a news conference following an early morning raid on the Chicago Panther headquarters by FBI agents, who arrested eight persons. Rush called the raid "...a trick ..to attack the party." At left, Cha Cha Jimenez, chairman of the Young Lord, a Chicago-area Puerto Rican group. EK / AP Photo

Young Lords: From a Turf Gang to a Civil Rights Movement

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In the 1960s, Chicago’s Puerto Rican community protested unfair housing, and a lack of other civil rights. In 1968, when the City’s Lincoln Park neighborhood was a Puerto Rican enclave, activist José “Cha Cha” Jiménez transformed the Young Lords street gang into a social movement. The movement still exists today. A Young Lords 50th anniversary symposium was held at DePaul University’s Lincoln Park Campus, Sept. 21 to 23, 2018. Sunday, Sept. 23 also marked the 150th anniversary of Grito de Lares, the uprising against Spanish rule in Puerto Rico. For this week’s installment of Worldview’s “Puerto Ricanstruction” segment, Jiménez and Puerto Rican scholar, Jacqueline Lazú, will discuss the anniversary, current affairs in  Puerto Rico, and the Young Lords movement.