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The Young Lords of Lincoln Park — A Chicago Stories Documentary — Transcript

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0:00coming up during those years the world
0:04was on
0:07fire in the turbulent streets of 1960
0:11Chicago a fierce struggle
0:14unfolded there were driving us out they
0:17didn't want us they're killing us they
0:20literally want to kill us on one side
0:24the power the city of Chicago in effect
0:28the federal government was about to
0:30devastate their
0:31community on the other side the people
0:35it was a perfect storm communities were
0:39ripe for Rebellion they were a gang that
0:42turned into a political organization the
0:45first to do that they called themselves
0:49the young Lords led by an 18-year-old
0:52Puerto Rican with a lengthy rap sheet
0:55Jose Chacha
0:57jenez when my father left jail he was
1:00ready for a revolution they took a stand
1:02and said no and that changed American
1:06history the young Lords of Lincoln
1:09Park next on Chicago
1:13[Music]
1:21[Music]
1:26stories lead support for Chicago stories
1:30is provided by the nagani
1:33foundation major support is provided by
1:36Gwen
1:37Cohen and the tawani
1:45foundation on May 15th
1:481969 a group of teenage gang members
1:51were looking for trouble in Chicago's
1:53Lincoln Park
1:55neighborhood I remember climbing the
1:58fence and when went into the
2:01building we barricaded ourselves
2:05in they set up people across the
2:07building and all of the
2:09doors we broke in and changeed the doors
2:12and took it
2:15over but the intent of this takeover
2:18wasn't Criminal the group The Young
2:21Lords was there to fight for social
2:24justice for the Puerto Rican
2:26Community the young Lords which later
2:30became the Puerto Rican counterpart of
2:32the Black Panther Party was the first
2:35Latino youth resistance movement of the
2:40[Music]
2:431960s to understand the young Lords you
2:45really have to understand the history of
2:46Lincoln Park and the history of the
2:49neighborhood Lincoln Park today is a
2:51highclass Bastion of wealth luxury and
2:55privilege one of the most affluent
2:58neighborhoods in Illinois
3:01the streets are lined with you know
3:02multi-million dollar homes lots of fancy
3:05shops and
3:07boutiques but it wasn't always that
3:10way in the 1940s and early 1950s Lincoln
3:15Park was home to a diverse population of
3:17poor people mainly ethnic
3:21whites then Puerto Ricans started
3:24arriving it was widespread poverty and
3:26unemployment in Puerto Rico and many
3:30people were coming to the mainland to
3:31look for
3:32work we're talking about a third of the
3:36people of the
3:40island before 1946 there were fewer than
3:44500 Puerto Ricans living in
3:46Chicago over the next decade that number
3:49would jump to more than
3:5330,000 David Rivera arrived at age five
3:58my family flew in to Chicago cuz I
4:01remember as a little tiny kid looking at
4:05this big car and looking at all the big
4:08buildings as we drove to where we were
4:11going the river was landed in an
4:14apartment building on Daton Street in
4:16Lincoln Park and young David quickly
4:19found a friend who lived upstairs named
4:22Jose Chacha he
4:24menz we just became friends
4:27automatically you know two kids Chacha
4:29and I H it off right away we were group
4:32of kids you know we used to get together
4:33in the back alleys and uh uh play all
4:37kinds of
4:38games Rivera couldn't have known that
4:41within a few years his friend Chacha
4:43Jimenez would rise up to become a
4:46revolutionary
4:48leader in this 2012 interview Chacha
4:51remembers the Lincoln Park of his
4:54childhood the Lincoln Park neor was an
4:57ethnic Community was a very segregated
5:00Community poish people or Italian people
5:03or German people Gypsies hilles and
5:08Puerto Ricans and so we were the New
5:10Kids on the Block at that
5:13time Lincoln Park is the place where
5:16they're introduced to what it means to
5:18be an American and they themselves are
5:20engaging in that
5:22process basically War a l Our Heroes
5:25were the TV shows they be cracking
5:29though influenced by mainstream American
5:32culture the boys were surrounded by a
5:35growing number of Puerto Ricans who were
5:37establishing a sense of their Homeland
5:39in Lincoln Park but it hadn't been
5:43easy when Puerto Ricans first arrived
5:46many settled in a near North slum
5:49nicknamed L
5:50Clark Chacha jimenez's family landed
5:53there when he was 4 years old L Clark
5:58was a skid row neighborhood Hood with
6:00dilapitated
6:02buildings and dive bars the neighborhood
6:06was poor and working class but it was
6:09vibrant and it was
6:11home but they wouldn't live in L Clark
6:14for
6:15long the city had essentially
6:19decided that this was an eyesore because
6:23it was too close to the Gold
6:25[Music]
6:28Coast May Rich J Daly was promoting
6:31urban renewal replacing slums with
6:34luxury housing and his crown jewel was
6:37in the works named for the famous poet
6:41Carl Samberg Village was heralded by
6:43developers as a village within the
6:46city the Carl sanberg Village eventually
6:49there'll be 1875 dwelling units in this
6:53Village cha Chaim menz and his family
6:56are literally in the path of the
6:58wrecking ball
7:00the tight-knit bario the jeneses called
7:03home was destroyed almost
7:06overnight the clearance of Slum and
7:09blight is impressive and the results are
7:13[Music]
7:15outstanding dy's promotional film failed
7:18to mention the human cost more than 900
7:22Puerto Rican families were forced
7:26out instead of the city's welcoming the
7:28new immigrant and what they were doing
7:30was to displace them and just push them
7:34to another
7:35neighborhood so urban renewal became
7:38urban renewal those poor
7:42people Chicago's Puerto Ricans spent the
7:45next several years relocating from one
7:48neighborhood to the next as bulldozers
7:50dug at their
7:52heels ChaCha's family moved nine times
7:56in their first 6 years they would travel
8:00in families they would find out what
8:01landlords were willing to R to Puerto
8:03Rican families by the mid-50s hundreds
8:07of Puerto Rican families had made their
8:09way North to Lincoln Park and a vibrant
8:12Enclave finally took
8:15root there were so many resources for
8:18Puerto Ricans in Lincoln Park everybody
8:20had a sense that yes this was where the
8:22Puerto Rican Community could very well
8:24thrive
8:31Puerto Ricans would have been playing
8:34Mambo they would have flown the Puerto
8:38Rican flag if you walked into my
8:41mother's house you would eat Puerto
8:42Rican food there was a man in the corner
8:46of Sheffield and Armitage and he would
8:48make bagas snow cones ice cones just
8:51like they were like from Puerto Rico
8:53there's a broader process of coming to
8:55Lincoln Park being transformed by the
8:58the kinds of diversity in the
9:00neighborhood and then also contributing
9:02to that in terms of the cooking the food
9:05the
9:08music Puerto Ricans are recreating a
9:11sense of home here in The Frigid
9:14Midwest they were committed to culture
9:17they were creating the social fabric
9:18that allowed them to live their lives as
9:21Puerto Ricans within the
9:25diaspora like many of his peers Chacha
9:28Jimenez was raised by a devout Catholic
9:32mother his daughter says this upbringing
9:35influenced his future
9:37dreams he was in Catholic School 6th 7th
9:42and eth grade and wanted to be a priest
9:46he helped his mother set up the Rosary
9:48every night he really thought that his
9:51Destiny was to be a priest and on the
9:53other hand you had these pressures of
9:55the of the
9:57neighborhood some white residents who
9:59inhabited the area looked down on their
10:01new neighbors and Puerto Ricans found
10:04themselves targets of racial hostility
10:06by established white
10:08gangs although they were US citizens
10:12many viewed them as unwelcome
10:16Outsiders there was an enormous amount
10:18of
10:19resentment against their
10:22presence we were made fun of from the
10:26kids cuz my mother would fix our hair
10:29different we did not know how to speak
10:33English we were quote unquote spicks CU
10:37that's what they called us back then
10:39well we've got a lot of undesirable
10:41troublemaking people here that I think
10:44in time will move on in this audio
10:47interview legendary Chicago writer and
10:49broadcaster studge turl captured a white
10:52Lincoln Park resident feelings about
10:54Puerto Ricans in the
10:57neighborhood they're like some of the
10:58roach that crawl out of the woodwork you
11:01know after you exterminate they're gone
11:05I think that'll
11:07happen even jimenez's nickname was born
11:10from a racial
11:12slight that's what the white ethnic
11:14gangs
11:16dingly called him oh who's this guy Cha
11:20Cha Cha chaa the Cha Cha Cha and his
11:23Spears picked up on it and the name
11:26stuck chaa from an early age Chacha had
11:30no qualms about fighting back when he
11:33got picked
11:35on I think being from the street always
11:38fighting for your spot and watching it
11:40constantly being taken from you it
11:43develops that
11:44fight you're meeting with folks who see
11:47you as the problem who see Puerto Ricans
11:50as responsible for the decay of the
11:52neighborhood and so they're being
11:54targeted in many ways and these kids
11:56have to grow up uh in a way defending
11:58themselves
12:00we're getting beat up on the way to
12:01school by the white gangs sometimes we
12:04would even hide uh sticks and rocks
12:07along the way home in case we got chased
12:10it was
12:11rough and so we saw a need uh to begin
12:15our own game for for
12:18protection around 11 years old Chacha
12:21Jimenez and several friends banded
12:23together to form a gang but in those
12:26days it was more of a social club they
12:29called themselves the young
12:32Lords we not only rumbled we actually
12:35played Sports we played baseball and
12:37softball and things like that with other
12:39clubs the young Lords were only 12 13 14
12:43years old they emerged in
12:461959 uh really as a force to solidify
12:50the space for Puerto Ricans in Lincoln
12:51Park where you could go where you
12:53couldn't go this is our territory this
12:55is where we
12:56belong soon the young Lords with see
12:59their own lives mirrored on the Silver
13:04Screen in October of 1961 the Hollywood
13:07Smash Hit Westside Story debuted in
13:10theaters across the country de
13:13baited Westside Story captures the
13:17battles between a Puerto Rican and white
13:21ethnic gangs and even though the film
13:26trafficked in Puerto Rican stereotype
13:29types it gave them a profound sense of
13:32Pride that their story was worthy of
13:36being told the young Lords modeled
13:40themselves after their onscreen
13:41counterparts the Sharks okay fair fight
13:45the commander say yes or no and that's
13:47where we got our Black and Purple colors
13:49it made us proud they did a good job in
13:51making all those white people look
13:53Puerto Ricans we didn't know it back
13:55then later on we found
13:57out but for the young Lord there was no
14:00Hollywood
14:01ending the animosity and racial bias
14:04toward Puerto Ricans extended into law
14:06enforcement who regularly targeted them
14:09for harassment and
14:12worse Puerto Ricans experienced
14:16humiliation and indignity at the hands
14:19of the police the police was always
14:22harassing young people stopping them in
14:24the streets risking them beating them up
14:28you know every body that's dark or
14:30Puerto Rican or Latino is not a criminal
14:33and that's how we were
14:36treated I remember being handcuffed for
14:39sitting on the fire hydrant and they
14:40were pulling laws that were in effect
14:43100 years and never used like spitting
14:46on the
14:48sidewalk by their mid teens the young
14:50Lords were sinking deeper into gang life
14:54they stole cars they got into fights
14:57they tagged walls they did things that
15:00we associate with gang
15:03activities beginning in the summer of
15:061963 Chacha gimenez was in and out of
15:09jail for charges ranging from petty
15:11theft to aggravated
15:15assault Chacha was a little more
15:17aggressive he didn't care if he had a
15:20knife in his hand he would use it you
15:22know while Chacha and his team gang
15:25acted out in the streets many older
15:28Puerto Rican pushed within the system
15:30for inclusion and
15:34acceptance in 1966 their efforts finally
15:38paid
15:39off the city's first Puerto Rican Day
15:42Parade known as Ela de San Juan was held
15:45downtown on June 12th this was the very
15:49first time that the city was recognizing
15:51or acknowledging the Puerto Rican
15:54population in Chicago the Puerto Rican
15:56Community had made it know s everybody
15:59was out
16:00celebrating it felt like you were wanted
16:03to have people that look like you and
16:05talk like you and the food and just the
16:09decorations it was
16:11beautiful but the good feelings were
16:16shortlived a few hours after the parade
16:20in response to a call about a fight
16:22Chicago police shot a 20-year-old
16:24unarmed Puerto Rican man named arelis
16:27Cruz and the the day of Celebration took
16:31a violent
16:32turn I remember someone coming over to
16:35where we were at saying that a Puerto
16:37Rican boy had gotten shot in the back by
16:39a
16:40cop when arcel Cru was shot it was like
16:44a trigger that began the whole rebellion
16:47of the
16:48youth people started throwing rocks and
16:51Bricks at the cops starting fires the
16:54fire trucks will come they set the fire
16:56trucks on fire and that was Unstoppable
16:59because I mean it was all that was all
17:01bottled out for
17:03years The Division Street riots marked
17:06the largest Rebellion ever attributed to
17:09the Puerto Rican
17:11population we saw three days and three
17:14nights of people protesting rioting
17:18burning buildings and businesses in that
17:24neighborhood many young Lords took part
17:26in the uprising
17:28the event would Mark the beginnings of a
17:30dramatic transformation for the group
17:33from thugs to agents of
17:38Change by 1968 ChaCha's illegal
17:41activities had grown to include drug use
17:44at 19 years old he was tried as an adult
17:48and sentenced to 60 days in solitary
17:51confinement in Cook County Jail on
17:53charges of drug
17:55possession I'm in a sell by myself I'm
17:58on the thir level it's an old Civil War
18:01s that that can't walk is made out of
18:03wood there's rats running
18:07around to pass the time Chacha began to
18:10read books about civil rights activists
18:13including Malcolm X and Martin Luther
18:15King and those books awakened a
18:20political Consciousness in him but that
18:24was only the beginning I must say that
18:27while and then came the news on April
18:304th 1968 that he
18:36understand I was deeply saddened last
18:38evening as all men of Goodwill must have
18:40been by the senseless slay of Dr Martin
18:43Luther
18:44King the assassination of Martin Luther
18:47King threw the city of Chicago into
18:50chaos 15 police units held back 1,000
18:53riers while firemen fought the
18:57blazes people are arrested
18:59and funneled into the
19:02prison Chacha watched as the protesters
19:05mostly poor blacks were hauled in on
19:08mass and groups of undocumented Mexican
19:11workers who had been rounded up in raids
19:15followed he sees that these migrants are
19:18being harassed and abused they didn't
19:22speak English and he translated for them
19:26witnessing the struggle of oppressed
19:28people firsthand lit a fire in chaa and
19:32all those things were kind of
19:33contributing to my Enlightenment and
19:35then I started hearing on the news we
19:37had uh a loud speaker with a radio on
19:41and so I was hearing about the Black
19:43Panther
19:44Party it was fascinating because they
19:47were to me they were like an army and uh
19:49you know there were no Lettin models and
19:52I felt you know this is what we need to
19:54do in the Puerto Rican Community when my
19:57father left jail he was was ready for a
20:01revolution when Chacha Jimenez returned
20:04to his Lincoln Park neighborhood he
20:06learned his parents' rent had been
20:08doubled and they faced The Bleak
20:10Prospect of losing their home yet
20:13again and all of a sudden the city of
20:17Chicago decides that they need that area
20:20it's Prime real estate it's 15 minutes
20:23from the Lop
20:25downtown the city had bit plans for l
20:28Park and it did not include Puerto
20:32Ricans mayor Richard J Daly was once
20:35again promoting urban
20:37renewal intent on evicting the poor and
20:40people of color from their
20:43neighborhood they had just come out of
20:45jail and I had seen the changes in two
20:47minutes I mean you can you see people
20:50get their possessions thrown out on the
20:52street that really is the story of the
20:55Puerto Rican Community the diaspora here
20:57in Chicago just when we start start
20:58setting in Roots but we just get up end
21:00it over and over and over
21:03again but this time Puerto Ricans were
21:06not going without a
21:09fight we didn't have any role models we
21:11just had to P for ourselves our parents
21:14were being discriminated but they were
21:17quiet and
21:18silent and we had grown up here and so
21:21we knew we had rights and we were trying
21:23to defend our
21:25rights a chance meeting with
21:28neighborhood activist Pat dine
21:30introduced chaa to community
21:33organizing Chacha introduced himself and
21:36said what are you guys doing and I said
21:38we're making signs that tomorrow night
21:40there's an important meeting a large
21:42section of the Puerto Rican population
21:45is scheduled to be removed I said I'm
21:48here to inform people about what's going
21:50on so here's this young white woman from
21:53Aurora Illinois and ChaCha's like who
21:55are you telling me you know about what's
21:58happening in our neighborhood but it was
22:00a turning
22:01point something clicked and so he
22:04suddenly puts his whole life into a new
22:07context right a new political context
22:10Chacha jenez felt compelled to action
22:13but he knew he couldn't do it alone and
22:16so the 19-year-old turned to his gang
22:19the young Lords imploring them to Cease
22:21the street fights and crime and take up
22:24the mantle of a greater
22:27cause he he hits the local dive bar
22:31where he knows that members of the young
22:33Lords will be hanging out he started
22:36talking about what we're going to do
22:38we're not going to fight gangs anymore
22:40they are people like us they're here
22:42because they're oppressed too they're
22:43poor too and they laughed at him when
22:46they saw me they oh here he comes again
22:49it comes that crazy nut trying to talk
22:51to us I mean I became obsessed with uh
22:54with trying to fight against urban
22:56renewal but I wasn't having much
22:58Congress and Dr half of the young Lords
23:01quit they didn't want anything to do
23:03with me
23:05anymore but Chacha Jimenez wouldn't back
23:09down before long he won over David
23:11Rivera and others like Tony Bas yeah he
23:15he he was the kind of leader that
23:19inspired the people around him everybody
23:22look up to church and 20-year-old Omar
23:27Lopez he was softspoken but very
23:30persuasive he's like a pitbull when
23:33there's an idea uh and he will pursue
23:37it unlike most of the other young Lords
23:40Lopez is
23:42Mexican the issues were almost like
23:45Universal if you had to talk about
23:48health if you talked about housing you
23:50know it's something that affected all
23:52Mexicans Puerto
23:54Ricans in September 1968 Chacha
23:58officially dissolved the young Lord
23:59Street gang and reestablished them as
24:03the young Lords
24:05organization what's so unique is that
24:07they were a gang that turned into a
24:10political organization the first to do
24:15that Chacha declared the young Lords to
24:18be a socialist organization whose
24:21purpose was to stand up for human rights
24:23fair housing and an end to police
24:26brutality for all Puerto Rican and
24:28oppressed
24:29groups as well as self-determination for
24:32the people of Puerto Rico an idea
24:35reflected in their new
24:37slogan Puerto Rico
24:40andik I have Puerto Rico in my heart no
24:43matter where we were at we were Puerto
24:46Ricans and we were going to fight for
24:48that
24:50right Chacha was inspired by Fred
24:53Hampton the charismatic leader of the
24:55Black Panther Party we've say all power
24:58to the people all the powers manifested
25:00in the people we don't have any people
25:02whose lives we believe that should be
25:03thrown away chaa begins to talk about
25:07the young Lords as the Puerto Rican
25:10counterpart of the Black Panther Party
25:13in this process of transformation The
25:15Young Lords do not have to reinvent the
25:20wheel Chacha adopted the Panther's tight
25:23organizational structure and militant
25:26style they needed affordable housing
25:28they needed health care for everyone
25:31they needed food in the bellies of the
25:33babies they needed daycare so the women
25:35could go to work they needed to know
25:38that when they went to work and came
25:39home they still had their home for a
25:43group of gang members who were mostly
25:45teenage dropouts and criminals these
25:48seemed like lofty
25:50goals cha was having problems convincing
25:54all of the membership that the way we
25:56need to go is becoming a politically
26:00active
26:02organization a tragic event would change
26:05their
26:09minds on the night of May 4th
26:121969 several young Lords including
26:1522-year-old Manuel Ramos were
26:17celebrating a birthday in Chicago's
26:19Bridgeport neighborhood on the city's
26:22South
26:23Side Manuel Ramos was a father he was a
26:26brother he was a friend as people
26:29described him softspoken just a really
26:32good
26:32guy there are differing narratives of
26:36what exactly
26:38happened there was a confrontation
26:40outside the party between Ramos and a
26:43white
26:44man Witnesses said the man did not
26:47identify himself as off-duty Chicago
26:49Police Officer James
26:52lamb police officer lamb opens fire
26:59lamb shot Ramos in the face he was
27:02pronounced dead later that
27:05night it really is a painful story for a
27:07lot of people because he was beloved and
27:10they had been friends for many
27:13years the young Lords were outraged and
27:17wanted justice but officer L claimed he
27:20was acting in self-defense and was never
27:23charged I think my first reaction was
27:26let's do something about man's death you
27:28know they they can't get away with
27:31this instead of resorting to Street
27:33Justice the young Lords organized a
27:36rally to honor their fallen
27:38friend all the membersip came out
27:40dressed in black with a purple beras and
27:43I think that the the image that was
27:47projected right there to the community
27:50was
27:52Unity but it wasn't just the young Lords
27:54that showed up Ramos's death at the hand
27:58of a white officer had caught the
27:59attention of the Black Panthers and
28:01other like-minded activist
28:04groups more than 2,000 Latinos blacks
28:07and whites marched together to Ramos's
28:11wake they brought people together from
28:15different gangs Elders in the community
28:18black mothers and Puerto Rican mothers
28:21and Mexican Mothers descended on that
28:23neighborhood and
28:25understood their common cause
28:29this Mass Gathering of ordinary people
28:31of color in solidarity against police
28:34violence became a pivotal moment in
28:36civil rights
28:38history so important it was memorialized
28:42in the 2021 Academy award-winning movie
28:45Judas and the black Messiah but guess
28:49what America's on fire right now
28:52depicting the young Lords and the Black
28:54Panthers standing together
28:58in the wake of the tragedy Chacha formed
29:01an unshakable bond with Fred Hampton
29:05Black Panther Party a lot of people say
29:06we're violent we we're a self-defense
29:08organization that believes that the
29:10people should be educated what's going
29:11on my dad and Fred Hampton were like
29:13brothers and I think they really
29:15inspired each other because of their
29:17shared causes and their shared
29:20struggles Hampton invited the young
29:22Lords to form a multi-racial alliance
29:24with the Black Panthers and the young
29:26Patriots a group group of impoverished
29:29white Appalachians led by 20-year-old
29:31William
29:33fesperman together they called
29:35themselves the Rainbow
29:38Coalition well I think it speaks to the
29:40Brilliance of Fred Hampton and chanta
29:43Jimenez that they saw the importance of
29:47Coalition building and coming together
29:50around the murder of Manuel Ramos was
29:52also a way for the Black Panther Party
29:54to see the young Lords as comrades and
29:58as people in the struggle with them if
30:00they were going to build this movement
30:02they needed to work with each other
30:04that's the power of the Rainbow
30:08Coalition this multi-racial organization
30:11was a first of its kind a remarkable
30:14feat considering the Youth of its
30:17leadership most of them were teenagers
30:19and young men I think
30:22for all of them to be kicked out of
30:25their homes and see people close to you
30:27being murder in front of you my father
30:30in his words he said how could you not
30:33fight the young Lords used every tactic
30:36in the organizer's Playbook to grab
30:38attention and recruit
30:40activists Flyers a newspaper cultural
30:45festivals protests meeting disruption
30:49and one particularly risky but effective
30:52activity
30:56takeovers Pres Ian McCormack Theological
30:59Seminary was one of the oldest
31:01institutions in Lincoln
31:03Park it would become the epicenter of a
31:06battle that pitted the seminary's plans
31:08for development against the needs of the
31:10poor community and would ultimately put
31:13the young Lords on the map as a force of
31:16change to be reckoned with according to
31:20a study that the seminarians themselves
31:22did they found out the mic was really a
31:25slum landlord in Lincoln Park
31:29on May 6th
31:311969 just 2 days after Manny Ramos's
31:34death the young Lord staged a protest
31:37during the dedication ceremony for the
31:39seminary's new $2 million administration
31:44building the United Presbyterian Church
31:47USA had mandated that its institutions
31:50direct and contribute 30% of their
31:52unrestricted funds to help poor
31:55communities so this group is demanding
31:59that McCormack Seminary paid
32:02$61,000 for mixed income housing for a
32:05Puerto Rican legal aid office for
32:09medical clinic for resources for the
32:12Lincoln Park Community so it was a quite
32:16a calling on the church to act on who
32:19they say they
32:20are but the institution rejected every
32:26request it was time for the young Lords
32:29to take dramatic
32:31action we say you know what we can take
32:33this building
32:36over they said we just go in and occupy
32:39it until they decide whether or not
32:41they're going to help us with
32:43housing and they
32:46did it was the Seminary students that
32:49provided chaa Jimenez and the young
32:51Lords with a layout of the
32:53building they gave them advice for when
32:57to execute the occupation who would be
33:00in the
33:02building at midnight on May 15th
33:051969 the young Lords stormed the
33:08building and chained the
33:11doors they set up people across the
33:15building at all of the doors all of the
33:17openings making sure they knew who was
33:18coming in and out they were there to
33:21send a message to McCormack
33:24Seminary the next morning the young
33:27Lords on furled a banner declaring the
33:29occupied site the Manuel Ramos memorial
33:33building over the next few days in
33:35nights more than 200 community members
33:38and activists showed up in support of
33:40the young Lords but Seminary leaders
33:43were not interested in negotiating we
33:46will seek a court order compelling those
33:49occupying the stone building to remove
33:53themselves forth with
33:57we heard that they were going to attack
33:59and take us out of there by force so we
34:02all moved into the
34:04library the seminarians said you know
34:06the library really holds a very valuable
34:09collection of antique biblical documents
34:13and
34:14books the young Lords barricaded
34:17themselves in the library among
34:19Priceless Antiquities and forced their
34:22hand so we told them if okay you know
34:25you bring in the police and we don't
34:27know what what going to happen in the
34:31library the tactic
34:33worked on day five the Seminary relented
34:37and agreed to give the young Lords the
34:40$601,000 for low-income housing in
34:42Lincoln Park Plus $75,000 for cultural
34:46programs health care and a legal aid
34:50office this is not just the young Lord
34:53saying here's everything that's wrong
34:55with urban renewal it was the young Lord
34:57and their Coalition stepping up and
34:59saying here are the things that are
35:01wrong and these are our
35:03Solutions now it went to the next level
35:06of seeing where Community needs were not
35:08being met children going to school
35:11hungry parents not having a place for
35:13their kids to be safe while they were at
35:15work a lack of Health Resources and the
35:18group started trying to meet those needs
35:20as best they
35:22could flush with seed money the young
35:25Lords needed a base of operations for
35:27their
35:28programs so they looked to another
35:30Lincoln Park religious institution the
35:33Armitage Avenue Methodist
35:35Church its Pastor Bruce Johnson was a
35:38Progressive Church
35:41leader Bruce believed that the modern
35:45Church needed to carry out the
35:48principles of the Gospel feed the hungry
35:52clothe the naked provide
35:54housing Chacha asked Johnson if the
35:57Young young Lords could use the church
35:59to set up free social services for the
36:01neighborhood Johnson supported the idea
36:05as did many of his congregants but the
36:07church's conservative Cuban members were
36:09not interested in communist ideology and
36:12talks broke
36:14down one of our heroes was at Chada and
36:17these were Cubans that fled Fidel Castro
36:21so there was no Harmony between us you
36:23know from the
36:25beginning emboldened by the success of
36:27the Seminary takeover and the
36:29Revolutionary Spirit of the times on
36:31June 11th
36:331969 the young Lords marched into the
36:35church and announced a
36:38takeover this time they were armed
36:41prepared for battle with
36:44police and said there's going to be a
36:46blood bath you know there was weapons
36:48there there's going to be a blood bath
36:51and so Reverend Bruce Johnson decided to
36:53tell the police that he had given us
36:55permission to be there we did consider
36:57it a youth gang we consider it a viable
37:00Community organization and as such all
37:02Community
37:03organizations with concern for the
37:06community at heart seeks to organize the
37:08rest of the community around itself did
37:10you ask the pastor of the church if you
37:12could use his his church for this
37:14purpose uh we've talked the pastor of
37:17the church is really in favor of he's a
37:20sympathizer it's uh just the board
37:22members that are not really half of the
37:24board members are not really uh for us
37:26he helped us tremendously by not
37:28throwing us out of the church and
37:30actually standing behind us you planning
37:32on taking over other organizations in
37:34this area only when they need to
37:37be with a new ally in Pastor Johnson the
37:41young Lord set up community services at
37:43the newly renamed People's
37:46Church they had a huge Banner at the
37:48front of the church that
37:50says the Church of the people and they
37:53organized and they used every space of
37:56that church to to create a health clinic
37:59a daycare center and a food
38:04pantry the free healthcare clinic was a
38:07very radical project that had a lot of
38:10momentum more broadly through the
38:13movement the push for uh community
38:16health clinics uh not only here in
38:18Chicago but throughout the
38:21country the idea of the breakfast
38:23program is really something that the
38:26Lords borrow from the black panthers
38:28okay uh because they were like deato
38:31you've already been feeding some
38:32children here how many have been showing
38:34up uh we've been feeding an average of
38:36uh 45 to 50 Children each
38:40morning Carmen Flores Rance was 15 when
38:44she started volunteering with a young
38:46Lord's breakfast
38:47program I would try to go there every
38:50day whatever I could do I would help the
38:53tables were full they weren't serving
38:56breakfast in the Pu public schools these
38:58kids would go to school hungry so when
39:00the word got out the kids would go over
39:02there eat and go to school it was made
39:04with love and everybody chipped in
39:07everybody helped
39:08out and they began the child care center
39:12which was urgently
39:14needed well we're starting uh opening up
39:16a daycare center for welfare mothers uh
39:19mothers that are on welfare that want to
39:21work or just mothers whether they're on
39:23Ware or not and want to work you know uh
39:25something like that so we take care of
39:26the children we go everybody was a
39:28volunteer you know a lot of the the
39:31women played a key
39:33role rather than waiting on city
39:36government or the city of Chicago or the
39:38federal government or some other outside
39:40entity to bring about Public Health
39:42Resources the young Lords did it
39:44themselves this is I think the magic of
39:47The Summer of
39:4969 throughout that summer the young
39:52Lords expanded their Outreach and found
39:55favor in the community but still
39:58couldn't escape their criminal
40:00pasts by the Fall Chacha was in jail
40:04again this time for Bond
40:06jumping while there news came that would
40:09shop the young Lord's
40:11organization to its
40:17core on a Monday morning in September a
40:21mailman arrived at the Lincoln Park
40:23apartment where Pastor Bruce Johnson
40:25lived with his wife Eugenia and and
40:27their three small
40:29children the children were found in the
40:32morning by the mailman wandering right
40:35around the door crying and covered in
40:40blood Reverend Bruce Jansen was stabbed
40:4217 times and their two little children
40:45open the door for the mailman and and
40:48told them
40:54uh and uh told him that there uh
41:00that their parents were asleep that
41:06they that they didn't uh they couldn't
41:08get
41:10up 30-year-old Bruce and 31-year-old
41:13Eugenia Johnson Had Each been stabbed
41:16more than a dozen
41:19times he was such a gentle person and so
41:22was his wife there was a lot of rage
41:26involved in it
41:28it was really brutal whoever did it was
41:32very angry at them that was the saddest
41:36very sad time for
41:38us the church was packed and thousands
41:41of people outside in a funeral March of
41:44about 7,000 people which indicated the
41:47support that Bruce and eugia had for
41:50their boldness and fearlessness and
41:54their actions supporting the young Lords
41:58this remains a case that the
42:00perpetrators have never been brought to
42:02Justice I think at least in part it was
42:05a sense
42:07of folks in the neighborhood that saw
42:10the Reverend Bruce and jinny Johnson as
42:13traitors as people that took the side of
42:15the Puerto Ricans and the Mexicans and
42:17African-Americans in the neighborhood
42:19over white
42:23Americans as they grieved many young
42:26Lords fear they to be next at the hands
42:29of unknown enemies or even their own
42:34government as soon as the young Lords
42:37became
42:38politicized they became the object of
42:42police
42:44repression and of the
42:47FBI the FBI's Counter Intelligence
42:49program a covert campaign to infiltrate
42:52and squash groups deemed subversive
42:55targeted both the black pan
42:57and the young
42:59Lords the fact that they were able to
43:01Ally with the Black Panthers with the
43:04young Patriots to create this massive
43:07force of resistance is really important
43:11it's what was the biggest threat to
43:14state power
43:15structures to the forces that ultimately
43:19try to really erase this history and to
43:23undermine the movement the FBI CIA
43:27contel pro interpo at one point they all
43:31were involved in trying to bring us down
43:35it was a 24-hour a day
43:40surveillance the FBI's Counter
43:42Intelligence tactics were abusive and
43:44growing increasingly aggressive towards
43:47activist
43:48groups and Fred Hampton the Rainbow
43:51Coalition founder and Black Panther
43:53leader was right in the agency's
43:55crosshairs
43:58in the early morning hours of December
44:004th
44:021969 heavily armed police stormed
44:04Hampton's Chicago apartment and sprayed
44:07at least 90 bullets from submachine
44:10guns officers falsely claimed they were
44:13ambushed by the Black Panthers when
44:15executing a search
44:18warrant 21-year-old Hampton was shot at
44:21Point Blank
44:22Range along with 22-year-old black
44:25panther Mark Clark
44:28good afternoon the 20-year-old chairman
44:30of the Illinois Black Panther Party Fred
44:32Hampton was shot and killed in a
44:34pre-dawn shootout with State's Attorney
44:36the brutal assassination had a chilling
44:39effect on the young Lords the first
44:42thing that came to my mind is you know
44:44where where CHA when they killed Fred it
44:47became like more real they're killing us
44:50and they they want to kill us they
44:52literally want to kill us if they did it
44:55to Fred Hampton and a black movement
44:58that was stronger than the puican
45:01movement they could easily get rid of
45:04chin government forces weren't the only
45:07possible threat to ChaCha's life he had
45:10struggled with addiction for years and
45:13in the summer of 1970 was hooked on
45:16Heroin he wasn't the only
45:20one Chacha did struggle with addiction
45:23as well as I and a few others which was
45:26very very
45:27very very sad thing to
45:30see Chacha would continue to wrestle
45:33with drug addiction before finally
45:34getting
45:35clean but the ravages of drug use took
45:39their toll on more than his body
45:42ChaCha's battle with Heroin addiction it
45:45undermined the movement for those that
45:48had built up this figure as being the
45:51leader and the representative of a
45:53movement it kind of alienated a lot of
45:55people
45:58just 2 years after the young Lord's
46:00Inception things had begun to fall apart
46:04by late 1970 police harassment had
46:07reached a crescendo Chacha had 18
46:10pending cases against him charges
46:13included inciting mob action disorderly
46:16conduct and petty theft after he stole
46:20$23 in lumber from an urban renewal site
46:23police issued a warrant for his arrest
46:27we knew that the cases that he had
46:29pending uh if he had shown up for court
46:32he would have been doing a lot of time
46:34Chacha resigned as chairman of the
46:36organization and went
46:39underground he lived Off the Grid on a
46:42farm in
46:44Wisconsin and without their leader the
46:47young Lords drifted apart our progs they
46:50really suffered so internally the
46:54organization was
46:55crumbling one of the things that held
46:58the young Lords back was their own uh
46:59gang rots so while it's important that
47:03we credit the young Lords for the
47:05remarkable things that they did they
47:07also had limitations that shaped what
47:10they were able to
47:11accomplish after nearly 2 years in
47:14hiding Chacha knew it was time to go
47:16home to
47:18surrender Chacha came and said look I
47:21don't want to deal with this anymore and
47:24I need to turn myself in and can you
47:26take me to Chicago I said go I don't
47:29want to do that I want to turn you in he
47:32says no no no I want to do this right
47:35Chacha returned to Chicago in December
47:381972 he beat the trumped up charges but
47:42received the maximum sentence for petty
47:44theft for the lumber one year at Cook
47:47County
47:48Jail upon release Chacha returned to
47:51Lincoln Park and discovered the
47:53Relentless pace of urban renewal had
47:56turned over over the
47:58neighborhood little Trace remained that
48:01a vibrant Puerto Rican Community had
48:03ever been there they were right they
48:07were going to be displaced from Lincoln
48:09Park by wealthy residents and the
48:11Lakeside was going to be turned into a
48:14predominantly white wealthy
48:17space but Chacha gimenez still had the
48:20fight in him rather than using Gorilla
48:23tactics this time he took a different
48:26approach
48:28in 1974 he announced a run for Alderman
48:31of the 46th ward in Chicago's Uptown
48:33neighborhood another area where Latinos
48:36were being
48:37displaced the campaign marked a new form
48:40of activism for Chicago's young
48:44Lords I think it's a testament to the
48:47resiliency of Chacha Jimenez and of
48:50others around that that Rainbow
48:52Coalition as much as the police wanted
48:55to kill it as much as the FBI and those
48:59that were surveilling it wanted to
49:00defeat it that it was too late the
49:04Legacy was there the politics were there
49:07the ideas were there and those politics
49:11continued in a very very real and
49:13significant
49:15way ultimately Chacha received 39% of
49:19the vote and lost to machine backed
49:22Daily Democrat Chris Cohen in the 1975
49:25election
49:27but his political impact was yet to be
49:31realized in 1983 Chacha helped deliver
49:35crucial Puerto Rican votes to elect
49:37Harold Washington as Chicago's first
49:40black
49:41mayor he played a major role in that
49:44election there was 100,000 people in
49:48June of
49:491983 at Humble Park and I was the only
49:52one on stage representing the young Wars
49:54and introducing the the new eling
49:57me you want
50:01H you got him the election of a minority
50:06mayor with the support of other minority
50:08leaders showed that what was once
50:10Unthinkable was now
50:13achievable Chacha himz became an
50:16unlikely
50:17leader of his community he led with
50:21heart he believed in the power and
50:25Brilliance of his peers
50:27and help them fight in their Community
50:30for real revolutionary
50:33transformation The Young Lords
50:35organization 100% encouraged inspired
50:39influenced people's mentality around
50:41running for office seeing it as
50:42something that's attainable and
50:44necessary for the progress of our
50:46people have found inspir 60 years after
50:50the founding of the young Lords
50:51organization in September 2023 a diverse
50:55group of activists and academics came
50:58together at depal University in service
51:01of
51:02reconciliation Chacha Jimenez now in his
51:0570s was there to witness the
51:07University's plans to acknowledge the
51:09displacement of the Puerto Rican
51:12Community the Paul's gesture to gift the
51:15city of Chicago and the Puerto Rican
51:18Community the first historical
51:21[Music]
51:22marker honoring the origin of the
51:24movement is an epic example of
51:27institutional
51:29reconciliation reparative history and
51:32amongst the most vention gestures I've
51:34been able to witness in my time
51:38here the marker was placed at the same
51:41building the young Lords occupied in
51:43protest in 1969 now part of Deal's
51:47campus the historical marker is a
51:50tribute to the history of the young
51:52Lords and the Puerto Rican community of
51:55Lincoln Park
51:57this is a story about young people
52:00taking the rein of power to support
52:03their communities and meet their needs
52:06it's very easy to feel like all the
52:08problems are bigger than you and you
52:10can't make a difference and the Heart of
52:13this story for me is no you absolutely
52:15can make a difference collaboration
52:18solidarity across groups and respect
52:22brought people together in a way that
52:25these young people were able to make
52:26change change and they're an exceptional
52:28example for uh young people
52:32today as it was in Lincoln Park 60 years
52:35ago gentrification is an ongoing concern
52:38for Chicago's Puerto
52:40Ricans but the Puerto Rican Community is
52:42holding their ground in the neighborhood
52:44they have finally been able to lay claim
52:46to Humble
52:49Park you have a strip of land called fil
52:52bodua which is hard to miss you'll see
52:55nearly 60t tall all Puerto Rican flags
52:57made of steel and iron having literally
53:02these gigantic Flags planted and saying
53:05if you're going to move us there's going
53:06to be a fight for it we're not going to
53:08repeat what happened in Lincoln Park
53:10they've learned a lot of lessons from
53:13[Music]
53:15that every June poso borua hosts
53:19Chicago's Puerto Rican Day Parade part
53:21of a 3-day Extravaganza showcasing this
53:25proud and VI
53:27Community it's not just a big party with
53:29great food and great music but it's a
53:31way to really intentionally engage
53:33Puerto Rican Community you can't help
53:35but be proud of your Puerto
53:38Rican the legacy of the young Lords I
53:41think is something that is very powerful
53:43the Puerto Rican youth that we impacted
53:47we gave them like a springboard for them
53:49to
53:50continue not with a feeling of being
53:53victims but as being participants of the
53:56system that you know they have a right
53:59to
54:01enjoy my father would say we're not done
54:04yet we'll let you know when we're done
54:06we're still going what the young Lords
54:09did is actually create a way for people
54:12to engage in politics in a very
54:14significant way it's a legacy that
54:17speaks to the making of a Latino
54:19political identity in the United States
54:22and I think it's kind of cool that it
54:23was these kids from Lincoln Park that
54:24made it all happen
54:26[Music]
54:43[Music]
54:48[Applause]
54:51[Music]

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