The Young Lords (later Young Lords Organization, then Young Lords Party) was a Puerto Rican group in several United States cities, notably New York City and Chicago.
Sources vary on their origins, and matters are confused by the fact that there were several unlinked or loosely linked groups using the same name. At least one source says they started around 1960 as a Chicago turf gang [1]; however, all sources seem to agree that in January 1969, they were either created or reconstituted in an attempt to create a Puerto Rican equivalent of the Black Panthers, which became the Young Lords Organization, and eventually (in New York) the Young Lords Party.
On June 7, 1969, the Black Panther newspaper announced an alliance called the Rainbow Coalition (no relation to the later organization of that name associated with Jesse Jackson). Besides the Black Panthers, and what was then the Young Lords Organization, the alliance also included the Young Patriots Organization, a street gang of white youths that had turned political. The Coalition sent representatives to the annual convention of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), which, however, was falling apart by that time.[2] The New York chapter of the Young Lords Organization was officially founded on July 26, 1969.
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