The Young Lords: Healing Justice, Youth Power in Action

the following excerpt is from by By Sarah Coffman The Young Lords was one of many militant civil rights groups in Chicago in the 1960s and 1970s that were inspired by the Black Panther Party. Although white people often remember the Black Panther Party as a threatening organization because the group’s leaders, Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, advocated for open carry of guns and self-defense against violent police, many black people recall the community programming and services the Black Panther Party provided in cities all around the country.[1] One of the ways the Black Panther Party created what they called “community survival programs” was by occupying abandoned or dilapidated buildings in poor areas and remodeling the structures into child care or resource distribution centers. In Chicago specifically, the Black Panthers ran free breakfast programs out of such buildings for African American children before schoo