This chapter examines the formation and lifespan of the street-gang-turned-political-entity, the Young Lords. Founded as a turf gang in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago in 1959, the group shifted focus and purpose in 1968 under the leadership of José “Cha Cha” Jiménez. This brief history of the Young Lords Organization examines their emergence as a social movement organization, Jiménez’s influences for transforming the group, the group’s activism, and the group’s connections with the Young Patriots Organization and the Black Panther Party under the label of the Rainbow Coalition. The original Chicago chapter granted charters to form branches in New York, Milwaukee, and elsewhere; but the Young Lords Organization in Chicago was largely defunct by 1972.
Robyn C. Spencer, The Revolution Has Come: Black Power, Gender, and the Black Panther Party in Oakland: (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2016), 280pp, £20.00 / $24.95.