"The Young Lords: A Radical History" of Chicago Puerto Rican Vanguard
Johanna Fernandez, assistant professor of history at Baruch College of the City University, to talk about her new book, "The Young Lords: A Radical History," who the Young Lords were and why their struggle is so relevant today, where they fit into the broader Puerto Rican independence struggle and the larger New Left milieu, how elements of racism and classism among self-styled intellectual leftists led to friction between educated whites and the largely Afro-Puerto Rican Young Lords, how Marx and Lenin came to shape the outlook, the role of theory, political education, and messaging in their development of revolutionary cadres throughout Chicago, how their attempts to merge grassroots community organizing with revolutionary politics ended with the push to build a vanguard party for the working class, why they used whatever tools at their disposal--from Biblical scripture to the emerging media force of television--to amplify their message, and why Chicago police and the FBI responded so harshly to their efforts to uplift and empower their community.