I remember …. The Young Lords!
The Young Lords were born in Chicago in the early 1960s.
Radicalized through early contact with the Black Panthers, they opened chapters in other cities with large concentrations of Puerto Ricans.
In New York, the Young Lords forced the Dept. of Sanitation to pick up the trash in East Harlem. They also created free breakfast and drug rehab programs.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Young Lords also demanded reforms in health care, education, housing, employment and community policing.
Felipe Luciano and Juan Gonzalez meet the press
A number of their more visible members – Geraldo Rivera, Juan Gonzalez, Felipe Luciano – progressed into media careers on Fox TV, the Daily News, and NBC TV.
Others, such as Pedro Pietri, writer of the unforgettable Puerto Rican Obituary, became life-long poets, writers and artists.
Others, such as Iris Morales, became true community activists and educators.