WEBVTT - Part Two: The Young Lords: How Some Puerto Rican Socialists Changed Everything 0:00:00.800 --> 0:00:03.960 Hello, and welcome to well, actually Sophie's not here, so 0:00:04.000 --> 0:00:06.960 we can name it whatever we want. Welcome to Sophie Town, 0:00:07.520 --> 0:00:10.080 the only podcast where all of us are named Sophie 0:00:10.560 --> 0:00:12.600 and pretend like we live in a town called Sophie 0:00:12.600 --> 0:00:19.400 Town where only good things happen. No, yeah, that's true. Yeah, Sophie, 0:00:19.480 --> 0:00:21.320 you've done a really good I like what you've done 0:00:21.360 --> 0:00:24.800 with the place. And our audio editor is Sophie. Or 0:00:24.960 --> 0:00:26.759 this is cool. People did cool stuff which you probably 0:00:26.840 --> 0:00:28.400 knew because this is a part two of a series 0:00:29.160 --> 0:00:32.879 for which I'll be host Margaret Sophie Killjoy and with 0:00:32.920 --> 0:00:37.239 me today is my guest, a Linda Sophie Sagata, the 0:00:37.320 --> 0:00:40.199 one and only. Yeah, are you doing a Linda on 0:00:40.240 --> 0:00:43.159 this day? That's totally a different day than last day. Oh, 0:00:43.200 --> 0:00:46.279 I'm doing good. I had a snack a sleek bar, 0:00:46.880 --> 0:00:50.000 so I'm feeling great. I'm here in New Orleans. You 0:00:50.040 --> 0:00:55.000 know New Orleans also known as Sophie Town, right and yeah, yeah, 0:00:55.240 --> 0:00:57.960 doing good? Yeah, excited to talk about one of my 0:00:58.000 --> 0:01:04.120 favorite topics. Hell, yeah, Sophie, I mean the young Lord. Yea. 0:01:05.040 --> 0:01:07.800 Our producer is Ian Sophie Or. Theme music was written 0:01:07.840 --> 0:01:09.440 for us by young woman, and I'm going to drop 0:01:09.480 --> 0:01:12.440 that bit now. This is part two of our extra 0:01:12.480 --> 0:01:15.160 cool four part on the Young Lords, only the second 0:01:15.160 --> 0:01:20.080 topic to end up four part and where we last 0:01:20.120 --> 0:01:22.160 left our heroes. You've got this guy named Cha Cha 0:01:22.600 --> 0:01:25.640 who's just been politicized in jail and then he gets 0:01:25.680 --> 0:01:27.440 out and he's the leader of a gang called the 0:01:27.480 --> 0:01:30.560 Young Lords. So he puts two to two together and 0:01:30.720 --> 0:01:34.520 decides to get some shit done. First, he tries to 0:01:34.520 --> 0:01:37.640 get shit done the normal way. He doesn't. He doesn't 0:01:37.640 --> 0:01:41.919 immediately be like, hey, the Young Lords, now we're radical socialists. 0:01:42.520 --> 0:01:45.760 He forms an activist group. He forms an activist group 0:01:45.800 --> 0:01:50.280 called the Puerto Rican Progressive Movement. Oh wow, it doesn't 0:01:50.320 --> 0:01:55.200 get off the ground. He's like, this doesn't really work. 0:01:55.280 --> 0:01:58.280 No one's like really, says he go, joid, I think 0:01:58.280 --> 0:02:01.040 this is an important lesson. No one's excited to go 0:02:01.120 --> 0:02:02.880 join the like blah blah blah blah blah blah blah 0:02:02.880 --> 0:02:06.720 thing that. And then think's like, do you want to 0:02:06.720 --> 0:02:10.919 be a become a Young Lord, And people are like absolutely, yeah, 0:02:11.040 --> 0:02:14.960 totally yeah, Like our background is crime and our future 0:02:15.040 --> 0:02:19.040 is the overthrow of capitalism. Yeah yeah, you were like, 0:02:19.200 --> 0:02:22.960 sign me up. Yeah, So yeah, he's like, all right, well, 0:02:23.000 --> 0:02:25.480 I'm a gang leader and I need a bunch of 0:02:25.480 --> 0:02:27.120 people to try and get some stuff done, and we 0:02:27.200 --> 0:02:30.080 exist to defend ourselves from white racists. So fuck it, 0:02:30.680 --> 0:02:34.440 and I will say best as I can tell. Most 0:02:34.440 --> 0:02:36.799 of the history center on him a little bit too much. 0:02:36.840 --> 0:02:39.760 He is really great, he's cool, but in all of us, 0:02:39.840 --> 0:02:42.600 he's not alone. A few of the other Young Lords 0:02:42.600 --> 0:02:44.639 are with him from the start of all this change 0:02:45.000 --> 0:02:47.400 and like are part of all the radicalization and are 0:02:47.480 --> 0:02:49.800 largely left out of the histories because people kind of 0:02:51.520 --> 0:02:55.840 they pick a guy right to I, and he seems 0:02:55.840 --> 0:02:57.320 like a great guy to have picked. I got no. 0:02:58.320 --> 0:03:02.200 You know, there's always worth pointing out. The first thing 0:03:02.240 --> 0:03:05.399 that they did as the new well, they didn't change 0:03:05.440 --> 0:03:07.880 their name yet. Eventually they're the Young Lords organization. But 0:03:10.560 --> 0:03:12.200 twenty of them show up to a meeting. There's a 0:03:12.200 --> 0:03:14.280 neighborhood meeting where a bunch of people are talking about 0:03:14.280 --> 0:03:17.160 gentrifying the neighborhood and like literally bulldozing huge trunks of it. 0:03:18.480 --> 0:03:21.360 So the Young Lords are very polite and calm, they said, 0:03:21.360 --> 0:03:23.280 politely through the whole thing, and then they point out 0:03:23.280 --> 0:03:25.639 the lack of Puerto Rican representation in the group making 0:03:25.680 --> 0:03:31.079 these decisions. And then they trashed the place after sitting 0:03:31.160 --> 0:03:39.240 very politely. Yeah, they like threw chairs around. I feel 0:03:39.280 --> 0:03:41.840 like it just like emphasizes the sort of intimidation factor 0:03:41.880 --> 0:03:46.120 if they're like, oh m interesting, yes, and then smash 0:03:46.160 --> 0:03:50.800 it up. Then they went home and they studied. They 0:03:50.840 --> 0:03:53.280 just like sat down and fucking read and they talked 0:03:53.320 --> 0:03:57.720 to people, and they studied leftist movements and they did 0:03:57.720 --> 0:04:00.240 their homework. And in the end they were like, right, 0:04:00.600 --> 0:04:04.240 Black Panther Party, that's our model. And I think that 0:04:04.280 --> 0:04:06.360 the Black Panther Party, who again I haven't even done 0:04:06.400 --> 0:04:09.240 episode on yet, but they're like in the center of 0:04:09.280 --> 0:04:14.600 almost everything we're talking about. So many groups exist because 0:04:14.640 --> 0:04:17.200 of them. Right, And so the Young Lords they put 0:04:17.200 --> 0:04:21.320 together a ten point program. And if cha cha had 0:04:21.360 --> 0:04:24.280 been a target for harassment from cops before when he was, 0:04:24.880 --> 0:04:27.680 you know, a gang leader with a long record, he 0:04:27.720 --> 0:04:30.440 has twice as much of one. Now he gets stopped 0:04:30.440 --> 0:04:35.039 and arrested like twice a week. Oh Jesus. Everywhere the 0:04:35.040 --> 0:04:37.920 Young Lords go, the cops are there usually like already, 0:04:37.960 --> 0:04:42.279 I think, and this is really telling anti gang enforcement 0:04:42.320 --> 0:04:45.080 in the city of Chicago, including a new intelligence unit 0:04:45.880 --> 0:04:50.240 started because gangs went political. It was fine when you 0:04:50.279 --> 0:04:52.520 had raised his gangs of Irish and German youth, and 0:04:52.560 --> 0:04:54.600 then it was like they actually literally all just get 0:04:54.640 --> 0:04:57.680 city jobs. And then it was like fine ish when 0:04:57.720 --> 0:05:00.320 you have the newer non white gangs who just do cry. 0:05:00.839 --> 0:05:03.200 But once they go political, then we can arrest you. 0:05:03.440 --> 0:05:06.600 I'm like, you can all fight each other and yeah, yeah, 0:05:06.640 --> 0:05:10.680 it's like you're staying as a fighting each other. Yeah. 0:05:10.760 --> 0:05:14.840 Now when they're politicized, they're fucking scared. Yeah, and the 0:05:14.920 --> 0:05:18.400 oppression doesn't stop them. They went some of the things 0:05:18.400 --> 0:05:22.200 that they did in their early days. They defended welfare activists, 0:05:22.240 --> 0:05:24.960 mothers who did a sit in to demand their back payments, 0:05:25.080 --> 0:05:29.440 like because they weren't getting paid, and so they went 0:05:29.440 --> 0:05:33.480 into security for them. They formally integrated. There was always 0:05:33.520 --> 0:05:35.960 apparently a not I don't know always, but there was 0:05:35.960 --> 0:05:38.640 a women's auxiliary to the young lords called the lordets. 0:05:39.440 --> 0:05:43.440 And the women's role in this movement is going to 0:05:43.520 --> 0:05:47.160 increase over time, and we'll talk about that um and 0:05:47.200 --> 0:05:51.040 when yeah, yeah, and I and going political as a 0:05:51.080 --> 0:05:52.960 huge part of it, right, So they formally integrate the 0:05:52.960 --> 0:05:56.559 women's auxiliary into the main group, and then everyone, I believe, 0:05:56.560 --> 0:06:00.080 including the men, start starts working on offering childcare to 0:06:00.120 --> 0:06:03.000 their community. They also get together with a black gang 0:06:03.080 --> 0:06:06.719 to fundraise through community picnics, teach people about drug safety, 0:06:07.120 --> 0:06:10.280 They get toys for Christmas for kids, and like food 0:06:10.360 --> 0:06:13.040 for people's tables, and they're doing mutual aid and they're 0:06:13.080 --> 0:06:17.120 doing community defense and they're just like doing the ship 0:06:17.240 --> 0:06:22.640 that makes sixties groups so fucking cool. And meanwhile the 0:06:22.640 --> 0:06:26.560 city is like, we have to destroy this violent gang. Yeah, exactly, 0:06:27.320 --> 0:06:31.760 who are giving Christmas presents two children? Yeah? When they 0:06:31.760 --> 0:06:34.679 were stabbing people in the beach, the cops were like, ah, 0:06:34.720 --> 0:06:40.960 you know, yeah, there was a there was a community 0:06:40.960 --> 0:06:44.640 council meeting at a police station about what to do 0:06:44.680 --> 0:06:46.839 with the young lords or whatever. And so three to 0:06:46.920 --> 0:06:51.839 five hundred people, many in purple berets, showed up to 0:06:51.920 --> 0:06:55.600 this community council meeting and then they disrupted it. They 0:06:55.960 --> 0:06:58.880 hung up signs on the walls with slogans like city 0:06:58.960 --> 0:07:02.640 law does not allow pig on the street and pigs 0:07:02.640 --> 0:07:05.520 need support centers to keep them off the street. They 0:07:05.560 --> 0:07:08.000 started pushing for what gets called or what they called 0:07:08.080 --> 0:07:11.320 Third World unity, welcoming in black and white members as 0:07:11.360 --> 0:07:14.760 well if they were working class. So working class people 0:07:14.800 --> 0:07:17.320 of all races were allowed to join the Young Lords. 0:07:18.760 --> 0:07:23.080 Oh wow, they Yeah, it's interesting. And when we talk 0:07:23.960 --> 0:07:26.560 the New York one will have even more information, or 0:07:26.600 --> 0:07:30.880 I have even more information about the multiracial makeup of 0:07:30.920 --> 0:07:33.760 the Young Lords. They threw a conference on the matter 0:07:33.800 --> 0:07:37.160 with Chicago Black Panther chairman Fred Hampton as the keynote 0:07:37.200 --> 0:07:40.360 speaker for this third world unity concept and trying to 0:07:40.360 --> 0:07:44.160 get everyone together. And then they joined up with this group. 0:07:44.880 --> 0:07:46.720 If you ever I hadn't Have you ever heard of 0:07:46.760 --> 0:07:53.640 a group called the Young Patriots? No, all right, imagine, okay, 0:07:53.640 --> 0:07:55.800 well first I'm gonna say, okay, so they form the 0:07:55.920 --> 0:07:58.440 Rainbow Coalition. That's what they because there's all the different 0:07:58.600 --> 0:08:02.200 you know, colors of people or whatever. And one of 0:08:02.240 --> 0:08:06.360 the groups is the Young Patriots, who are a leftist 0:08:06.400 --> 0:08:11.480 socialist street gang in Chicago who are white Appalachians who 0:08:11.640 --> 0:08:15.200 use the Confederate battle flag as the flag of their 0:08:15.360 --> 0:08:21.320 socialist movement. Anyway, can see Elenda's eyes are like staring, 0:08:22.840 --> 0:08:28.400 just like, wait, my brain is bending, and I'm not 0:08:28.520 --> 0:08:31.520 like laughing at them. I'm laughing at how incredibly this 0:08:31.520 --> 0:08:35.880 doesn't translate to modern politics. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. 0:08:35.920 --> 0:08:38.400 Also I'm just like I was first even like, whoa 0:08:38.480 --> 0:08:43.720 Appalachian folks in Chicago, Like that was interesting to me. Yeah. Well, 0:08:43.720 --> 0:08:45.800 and that's actually the thing is that they were facing. 0:08:47.520 --> 0:08:51.640 It's not ethnic oppression, right, but they're facing a specific 0:08:51.720 --> 0:08:54.960 class oppression that is based on where they're from, right, 0:08:55.040 --> 0:08:57.160 because they're not just poor white people, but they're poor 0:08:57.160 --> 0:09:01.760 white Appalachians and it's a different type of classism that 0:09:01.920 --> 0:09:05.920 still exists to this day, right, Like, um, and so 0:09:05.960 --> 0:09:09.800 they get called Hillbillies. They're poorest. Fuck, they're iced out 0:09:09.800 --> 0:09:13.640 of proper white society, and so they're like, all right, 0:09:14.360 --> 0:09:17.720 fuck you Yankee, piece of shit. Wasps were doing our 0:09:17.720 --> 0:09:22.080 own thing or whatever. And they work to start interracial 0:09:22.200 --> 0:09:25.720 working class organizations to get medical care to children and 0:09:25.760 --> 0:09:29.720 to end the draft. They tied in their struggle with 0:09:29.840 --> 0:09:32.920 poor oppressed people everywhere as part of the uprisings around 0:09:32.920 --> 0:09:37.480 the world. Their party platform specifically spoke out against cultural nationalism, 0:09:37.679 --> 0:09:41.080 which makes sense, right because they're white people, right. So yeah, 0:09:41.120 --> 0:09:43.040 you kind of just I can't do a nationalism if 0:09:43.040 --> 0:09:46.440 you're white, right, in any given context, I mean, if 0:09:46.480 --> 0:09:50.000 you're Ireland trying to decolonize as complicated, but that's like 0:09:50.040 --> 0:09:54.160 literally an Ireland, not some fucking Irish racist gang in Chicago, 0:09:54.880 --> 0:09:58.720 and like, yeah, they're just like doing all of the 0:09:58.840 --> 0:10:04.120 right stuff. They they first met the Panthers when they 0:10:04.160 --> 0:10:06.880 and the Panthers accidentally double booked a church in Lincoln 0:10:06.880 --> 0:10:10.920 Park to do a talk. That's really that's like a 0:10:11.040 --> 0:10:15.760 cute meetings, you know, And so then they just talked 0:10:15.760 --> 0:10:19.880 about their mutual class interests and anti war interests, right, 0:10:19.920 --> 0:10:21.640 because this is another thing that's like part of all 0:10:21.679 --> 0:10:23.240 of us too. You have the Vietnam War going on 0:10:23.280 --> 0:10:26.199 and or in all of us. I was just thinking that, 0:10:26.240 --> 0:10:29.120 like we have the draft going on. My father actually 0:10:29.160 --> 0:10:31.800 went to Vietnam, so that was like a huge part 0:10:31.880 --> 0:10:35.720 of my growing up was learning. I was just learning 0:10:35.720 --> 0:10:39.680 through his eyes and like his experience as a marine, 0:10:40.160 --> 0:10:43.760 Aquerriican marine in Vietnam when he was super young, and 0:10:43.800 --> 0:10:47.520 it just like radicalized him. Yeah so much when he 0:10:47.600 --> 0:10:51.920 was able to make it home, you know. Yeah, yeah, 0:10:51.960 --> 0:10:55.600 when I was young, Like my father was very clear 0:10:55.640 --> 0:11:00.120 with me, you know, elementary school age, just like they 0:11:00.120 --> 0:11:02.839 put people of color, they put black people and Porto 0:11:02.880 --> 0:11:06.320 Ricans on the front lines because they expected us to 0:11:06.360 --> 0:11:10.320 die and we were totally disposable. Just like That's what 0:11:10.440 --> 0:11:14.160 I was raised with, you know, was from that perspective. 0:11:15.480 --> 0:11:17.200 When I say that rules, I mean that rules that 0:11:17.240 --> 0:11:19.240 your dad knew that and passed that along, not that 0:11:19.320 --> 0:11:24.640 it rules that they did that. Yeah, he was a 0:11:24.679 --> 0:11:27.560 total dadass. But that is like such a big part 0:11:27.600 --> 0:11:30.160 of like the background of this story that is hard 0:11:30.160 --> 0:11:32.760 for me to remember. I like forget, like, oh yeah, 0:11:32.760 --> 0:11:38.720 at the same time, you guys were being fucking drafted. Yeah, yeah, 0:11:38.760 --> 0:11:41.880 it doesn't. There's so many different things that are happening 0:11:41.920 --> 0:11:44.880 in the late sixties, yeah, that it's hard to keep 0:11:44.920 --> 0:11:46.560 them all in your head at once and hard to 0:11:46.559 --> 0:11:49.840 realize that they're all absolutely part of each other. Right, 0:11:50.320 --> 0:11:53.760 And like you have the young Patriots with their Confederate 0:11:53.760 --> 0:11:57.120 battle flag, which it only makes sense as a like 0:11:57.280 --> 0:12:01.400 fuck you to Northerners, right, I mean it does not. 0:12:01.559 --> 0:12:05.360 I am not advocating that anyone call themselves patriots or 0:12:05.400 --> 0:12:10.640 fly Yeah the American either the North or the South 0:12:10.679 --> 0:12:15.440 flag not a good idea, but like yeah, yeah, And 0:12:15.440 --> 0:12:18.839 and so they they meet up, right and they're talking 0:12:18.840 --> 0:12:22.840 about anti warship with the Panthers, and from then on, 0:12:23.240 --> 0:12:25.720 while they continue to fight for white working class, the 0:12:25.720 --> 0:12:29.000 white working class, they almost never appear in public to 0:12:29.080 --> 0:12:32.560 speak without Panthers or Young Lords around to support them 0:12:32.720 --> 0:12:36.160 and to show interracial solidarity. And I suspect that this 0:12:36.240 --> 0:12:38.680 was like specifically a move if you're a white organizer 0:12:38.720 --> 0:12:40.520 to be like, it's a little bit weird because it's 0:12:40.520 --> 0:12:42.520 a little bit tokenizing, but it's also a way of 0:12:42.559 --> 0:12:46.440 being like, you need to know we are not organizing 0:12:46.480 --> 0:12:50.040 white people in contrast and against people of color, you know, 0:12:50.640 --> 0:12:54.960 like yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And let's see some of 0:12:54.960 --> 0:12:57.920 the shit they did by nineteen sixty nine, nineteen seventy. 0:12:57.920 --> 0:12:59.679 I'm gonna skip ahead for them just because I'm doing 0:12:59.679 --> 0:13:03.200 a little side on the Young Patriots. They're taking pages 0:13:03.200 --> 0:13:06.440 out of the Panther playbook. They organized free breakfast programs, 0:13:06.480 --> 0:13:10.319 they ran medical clinics, they organized clothing drives, they cop watched, 0:13:10.840 --> 0:13:12.360 and one of the main things that they did that 0:13:12.400 --> 0:13:15.160 they got remembered for is they took patient advocacy. And 0:13:15.160 --> 0:13:17.120 this is gonna time to Young Lords later too. They 0:13:17.160 --> 0:13:20.480 took patient advocacy seriously, people who had to go to 0:13:20.520 --> 0:13:22.960 the doctor in the communities at this like street gang 0:13:23.000 --> 0:13:26.080 of socialists, like we're taking care of They would get 0:13:26.080 --> 0:13:29.400 a Patriot at their door to advocate for them and 0:13:29.480 --> 0:13:32.080 to come with them to their appointments and shit, whoa 0:13:32.880 --> 0:13:35.640 yeah incredible. Yeah, you're like trying to be a shitty 0:13:35.640 --> 0:13:39.360 classist doctor. And there's this like angry hillbilly is just 0:13:39.480 --> 0:13:44.680 like yeah, socialists just like you're gonna you're gonna treat 0:13:44.720 --> 0:13:51.480 them right. Yeah. Wow, especially for like older folks are 0:13:51.559 --> 0:13:54.120 just like I mean, that's something I always I always 0:13:54.200 --> 0:13:56.559 knew about like the Young Lords at least was this 0:13:56.760 --> 0:14:03.240 like yeah, like very much connection with like older generation, 0:14:03.520 --> 0:14:07.440 you know, totally. And a lot of medical work that 0:14:07.600 --> 0:14:10.280 is like a huge things particularly in New York, are 0:14:10.280 --> 0:14:13.679 going to do. We're gonna be talking about mostly next week. Yeah. 0:14:13.760 --> 0:14:16.120 They ran a medical clinic, the Young Patriots. They ran 0:14:16.120 --> 0:14:18.720 a medical clinic. This ends up the most famous of 0:14:18.720 --> 0:14:21.680 all their activities. It started off serving one hundred and 0:14:21.720 --> 0:14:24.960 fifty people at dental and medical care. Cops fucked with 0:14:25.000 --> 0:14:29.760 it constantly. They arrested Patriots for trespassing on their own property. Like. 0:14:30.560 --> 0:14:33.560 They fought it all in court. It took forever. Eventually 0:14:33.560 --> 0:14:35.440 they won and their clinic was back open and it 0:14:35.480 --> 0:14:40.000 served two thousand people for years, four years. It kept 0:14:40.000 --> 0:14:43.440 it up until nineteen seventy three. The Feds fucked with them, basically, 0:14:44.440 --> 0:14:48.120 and it also fucked with all of the churches that 0:14:48.240 --> 0:14:51.800 supported both them and the Young Lords, and the whole 0:14:51.840 --> 0:14:55.240 thing fell apart because of federal oppression. And anyone who's 0:14:55.240 --> 0:14:57.720 curious can listen to probably last week by the time 0:14:57.760 --> 0:15:02.600 you'all are listening to this episode about the religious radicals 0:15:02.640 --> 0:15:05.960 and the movement of pacifists that brought down Cointelpro, or 0:15:05.960 --> 0:15:10.520 at least revealed it. Yeah, they're cool. There was a 0:15:11.120 --> 0:15:14.560 I went to the Bronx Museum years ago when I 0:15:14.600 --> 0:15:16.960 was first learning about the Young Lords because there was 0:15:17.000 --> 0:15:21.680 a big exhibit about them, and one wall was just 0:15:22.240 --> 0:15:26.120 printed out papers of like Cointeal Pro find things. Yeah, 0:15:26.280 --> 0:15:29.720 that makes out all of them and just like phone recordings, 0:15:29.800 --> 0:15:33.480 just like spying on people, just like covered an entire wall, 0:15:34.520 --> 0:15:36.360 which is like a whole other like we're talking about. 0:15:36.360 --> 0:15:37.920 The draft is a big part of the background of this. 0:15:37.960 --> 0:15:43.600 It's like constant infiltration, constant more than just infiltration and monitoring, 0:15:43.720 --> 0:15:50.320 constant fucking with right, you know. Yeah, and so yeah, 0:15:50.320 --> 0:15:53.920 that's the Young Lords. Sorry, that's the Young Patriots, and 0:15:53.960 --> 0:15:57.640 that's the Rainbow Coalition. Yeah, the Young Lords, the Black Panthers, 0:15:57.640 --> 0:16:00.560 the Young Patriots. And then there's another whitish group called 0:16:00.680 --> 0:16:02.600 Rising Up Angry, who are some of the more radical 0:16:02.600 --> 0:16:05.960 trunks of the Students for Democratic Society, who are mostly 0:16:06.000 --> 0:16:10.600 working class greasers from union families. Cool, I know, like 0:16:10.640 --> 0:16:12.280 I want them to show up on scooters or so 0:16:12.360 --> 0:16:14.840 at any I don't know shit about racers. They look 0:16:14.920 --> 0:16:18.400 cool and I'm not. And it's funny because I'm not. Again, 0:16:18.440 --> 0:16:20.680 I haven't like Covered Black Panthers deeply, but for anyone 0:16:20.720 --> 0:16:23.640 who doesn't have a basic understanding, they're a black power 0:16:23.720 --> 0:16:26.960 organization that I'm certain we'll talk about more or later. 0:16:27.640 --> 0:16:29.880 They scared the ever living fuck out of the US government. 0:16:29.920 --> 0:16:33.160 They were violently repressed through direct application of force and 0:16:33.160 --> 0:16:37.240 through co intel. Pro Black Panthers were into black power, 0:16:37.520 --> 0:16:40.320 by which I mean a declaration of self determination for 0:16:40.360 --> 0:16:43.520 black people, and it included such ideas as to quote 0:16:43.760 --> 0:16:46.440 quote from this book The Young Lords by Johanna Fernandez, 0:16:46.440 --> 0:16:49.320 which is the main source, the best book that I'm 0:16:49.360 --> 0:16:52.440 able to find about the Young Lords, she says that 0:16:52.480 --> 0:16:55.720 black Panther. Black power is quote, the right to arm 0:16:55.760 --> 0:16:59.440 self defense against white racist violence, black pride, and the 0:16:59.480 --> 0:17:02.560 development of independent black political leadership free from pressures to 0:17:02.600 --> 0:17:07.600 accommodate the interests of northern white liberals. That's the Rainbow Coalition. 0:17:08.000 --> 0:17:12.120 Let's talk more about the Lords. By nineteen sixty nine, 0:17:12.400 --> 0:17:15.280 the Young Lords had their own newspaper which covered all 0:17:15.280 --> 0:17:17.880 the protests they were up to. It talked about imperialism, 0:17:17.880 --> 0:17:19.959 it talked about what connected, It connected everything to what 0:17:19.960 --> 0:17:22.840 was happening in Puerto Rico to what was happening in 0:17:22.920 --> 0:17:26.760 Vietnam and Africa, and had kind of an unoriginal name 0:17:26.920 --> 0:17:32.120 was called y l O or Young Lord's Organization. It's 0:17:32.119 --> 0:17:35.919 still the point, you know. Yeah, I bet it had 0:17:35.960 --> 0:17:39.000 great graphic design, I think so. I know the New 0:17:39.080 --> 0:17:42.080 York one. Did I know more about the New York one, 0:17:42.160 --> 0:17:44.200 which is named after one of your songs, But we'll 0:17:44.240 --> 0:17:49.119 talk about that later. Oh yeah. The paper covered a 0:17:49.119 --> 0:17:51.200 ton of stuff, including what was going on and their 0:17:51.200 --> 0:17:53.719 sisters struggles like the Panthers. It had a Pig of 0:17:53.720 --> 0:18:00.520 the Month feature covering a local coup. Incredible. Um, I 0:18:00.520 --> 0:18:02.400 can't figure out why the cops get sucking with him? 0:18:02.720 --> 0:18:09.080 But you know whatever, Wow, And they were all organizing, 0:18:09.080 --> 0:18:11.639 and there were other organizations they were buds with, like LADDO, 0:18:11.760 --> 0:18:15.920 the Latin American Defense Organization, and so they provided security 0:18:16.280 --> 0:18:21.520 for for LADDO. It didn't they didn't just like perfectly 0:18:21.600 --> 0:18:24.680 overnight stop being they're doing usual gang shit. It took 0:18:24.720 --> 0:18:27.560 a while, but their connections in the gang world were 0:18:27.560 --> 0:18:31.359 really useful to them. One of their own was killed 0:18:31.359 --> 0:18:34.000 by a cop at a birthday party. I can't remember 0:18:34.000 --> 0:18:36.720 the details, but he like like walks out on the 0:18:37.240 --> 0:18:39.959 walks out of the house and cops murder him. Right. 0:18:40.720 --> 0:18:42.840 The cop was acquitted. This is going to be shocking 0:18:42.960 --> 0:18:45.840 to anyone living in twenty twenty three. A cop got 0:18:45.840 --> 0:18:49.560 away with murdering someone. Um, because so much has changed since. 0:18:49.600 --> 0:18:55.480 Oh god, that's depressing sarcasm. The cop was acquitted. There's 0:18:55.480 --> 0:18:58.240 a march of thousands, including members of a ton of 0:18:58.240 --> 0:19:02.800 other gangs with names like the Cannibals and the hell Stumpers, 0:19:03.760 --> 0:19:06.240 and this gang that was Irish, Black and Puerto Rican 0:19:06.359 --> 0:19:09.439 called the Almighty Harrison Gentz. Who I believe we're still around? 0:19:11.040 --> 0:19:14.479 Oh really yeah? And I can't like again, I'm not like, 0:19:15.400 --> 0:19:17.800 I try doing more research about the almighty Harrison Jensen. 0:19:17.840 --> 0:19:20.679 It's like I don't have enough context to make useful 0:19:20.720 --> 0:19:24.440 declarations about what gangs are up to. I'm not trying to. Yeah, yeah, 0:19:24.880 --> 0:19:27.040 the Young Lords are an example of gangs do good 0:19:27.440 --> 0:19:33.200 many times, you know, but power power structures are complicated, 0:19:33.480 --> 0:19:37.960 you know. And this gang unity at this march scared 0:19:38.000 --> 0:19:40.399 the ever loving piss out of the cops. And I 0:19:40.440 --> 0:19:43.080 don't know if this is like where the Warriors comes from, right, 0:19:43.760 --> 0:19:47.359 but like, oh it's true, but the whole like there's 0:19:47.400 --> 0:19:49.200 more of us than there are cops, can you dig it? 0:19:49.320 --> 0:19:54.639 Thing like this is what fucking scares like when the 0:19:54.680 --> 0:19:56.720 working class realizes that they not only do we have 0:19:56.760 --> 0:19:59.800 the numbers, but we even literally already sometimes have the organizations, 0:20:00.000 --> 0:20:02.280 the fighting spirit if it could be pointed in the 0:20:02.320 --> 0:20:08.639 right direction. Yeah, as united it didn't last, But what 0:20:09.080 --> 0:20:16.240 does last is the cuteness of baby elephants bathing themselves 0:20:16.240 --> 0:20:20.880 our sponsor, our sponsor. Yeah, and anything that you hear 0:20:21.280 --> 0:20:24.960 during this ad break that isn't about baby elephants was 0:20:24.960 --> 0:20:29.480 a mistake and you should write to complain to Sophie 0:20:29.800 --> 0:20:34.920 on Twitter because she loves to hear about how the 0:20:34.960 --> 0:20:40.439 ads suck and you should tell her, or you can 0:20:40.520 --> 0:20:43.640 just press the forward fifteen seconds button a couple of times. 0:20:43.960 --> 0:20:54.200 It's up to you your choice. Here's some ads, so 0:20:54.280 --> 0:20:57.240 we're back. I, for one, particularly enjoyed the one where 0:20:57.240 --> 0:20:59.840 it was four baby elephants and they were bathing each other. 0:21:01.400 --> 0:21:03.040 That was the best of the ads that I what 0:21:03.200 --> 0:21:04.840 was your favorite of the ads that we just listened 0:21:04.840 --> 0:21:07.720 to that we're all about baby elephants. You know, I 0:21:07.760 --> 0:21:12.200 always love when a mom walks in and starts teaching 0:21:12.440 --> 0:21:15.480 the ways of elephant nature. That's like one of things 0:21:15.480 --> 0:21:18.320 surefire way to make me cry. Yeah, that was that 0:21:18.359 --> 0:21:19.720 may have been the best of the ads that you 0:21:19.720 --> 0:21:24.440 all just listened to. Yeah, yeah, maybe really. I hope 0:21:24.480 --> 0:21:25.920 that some day we can just have well, I guess 0:21:25.960 --> 0:21:30.159 it's not a visual medium, all right, so young I 0:21:30.240 --> 0:21:33.040 was so stoked that wasn't a visual medium. By the way, 0:21:33.320 --> 0:21:37.520 anything to not be perceived, Yeah, I understand. Trans Day 0:21:37.560 --> 0:21:39.919 of Visibility was the other day. I used a picture 0:21:40.000 --> 0:21:42.119 from two years ago because I was like, I'm not 0:21:42.200 --> 0:21:46.919 fucking brushing my hair this like, God, makeup that you 0:21:47.080 --> 0:21:54.399 mother Parker. Absolutely, Yeah, trans day of talking to a microphone, 0:21:54.920 --> 0:22:02.400 Queer Day of Yeah, microphones are great hiding be observed 0:22:02.440 --> 0:22:07.159 by non strangers. That's always my favorite. But what was 0:22:07.280 --> 0:22:11.760 very visible was the May fourteenth, nineteen sixty nine, occupation 0:22:11.800 --> 0:22:17.240 of the McCormick Theological Seminary by the Young Lords in Chicago. 0:22:17.320 --> 0:22:18.919 This will not be the first time the Young Lords 0:22:19.000 --> 0:22:21.000 the last time that the Young Lords take over at 0:22:21.080 --> 0:22:25.280 church basically just spontaneously during one of the marshes for 0:22:25.280 --> 0:22:29.320 their dead friend. The McCormick Theological Seminary is part of 0:22:29.320 --> 0:22:33.560 this urban renewal campaign to bulldoze everyone's houses and so 0:22:33.880 --> 0:22:36.520 people that like that, And I don't know if it's 0:22:36.520 --> 0:22:39.040 actually related, but I think it's really cute that the 0:22:39.119 --> 0:22:41.240 other main story I've talked on the show that takes 0:22:41.240 --> 0:22:45.359 place in Chicago also centers around a McCormick. It was 0:22:45.560 --> 0:22:48.199 the McCormick factory in eighteen eighty six that gave us 0:22:48.200 --> 0:22:51.000 the strike that led to the Haymarket affair, which we 0:22:51.040 --> 0:22:53.959 talked about in our first ever episode, when immigrant anarchists 0:22:54.000 --> 0:22:56.520 faced down the Chicago police and someone huked a bomb 0:22:56.560 --> 0:23:00.280 at them and lots of bad stuff happened. But if 0:23:00.280 --> 0:23:02.439 you want to hear about nineteenth century labor organizing, go 0:23:02.480 --> 0:23:04.920 back to our very first episode and you can hear 0:23:04.920 --> 0:23:07.720 about that. It's all part of the fight for the 0:23:07.760 --> 0:23:14.160 eight hour work day, which included bombs and guns. Anyway, 0:23:14.600 --> 0:23:18.440 back in nineteen sixty nine, when they occupied the McCormick 0:23:18.560 --> 0:23:24.320 Seminary Factory, no theological seminary instead of the McCormick Harvester Factory, 0:23:24.880 --> 0:23:28.840 a bunch of the seminary students joined in, Oh wow, yeah, 0:23:28.880 --> 0:23:31.600 Like this is a thing that comes up a bunch 0:23:31.840 --> 0:23:35.480 is that people, I don't know, people are more radical 0:23:35.480 --> 0:23:37.840 than we give them credit for, like random bystanders sometimes 0:23:37.840 --> 0:23:41.920 you know, not always sometimes by centers. The university conceded 0:23:41.960 --> 0:23:45.440 to most of their demands, which included shit like when 0:23:45.440 --> 0:23:48.040 you rebuild, you'd better include parks and affordable housing and 0:23:48.080 --> 0:23:50.240 a daycare center and a Puerto Rican cultural center and 0:23:50.280 --> 0:23:54.040 a people's law office. Next, they went on to occupy 0:23:54.480 --> 0:23:58.880 Armitage Avenue Methodist Church, where they'd been meeting, which declined 0:23:58.920 --> 0:24:01.120