Rainbow Coalition Panel, October 23rd, 2016 (Oakland California Museum)
Young Lords (Organization)
Puerto Ricans--United States
Civil Rights--United States--History
Lincoln Park (Chicago, Ill.)
Mexican Americans--Personal narratives
Social justice
Community activists--Illinois--Chicago
Mexican Americans--Illinois--Chicago--Social conditions
Race relations
Social conflict
Cultural identity
Black Panther Party. Illinois Chapter
Panel discussion about the original Rainbow Coalition begun by Illinois Chapter Chairman Fred Hampton. The moderator was Aaron Dixon and panelists included founder of the Young Lords Movement, Jose (Cha-­Cha) Jimenez; Stan McKinney of the Illinois BPP; Co-­founder of the Young Patriots Organization, Hy Thurman; a leader of the Palestinian Hamas Bos Campaign, Dr. Rabab Abdulhadi; Pam of the Asian American Alliance and the Red Guard; Professor Harvey of the I Wor Kuen; and Lenny Foster of the Navajo Nation and the American Indian Movement (A.I.M.).
Rainbow Coalition
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives
In Copyright
Roger Sheppard video interview and transcript
Personal narratives
Oral history of Roger Sheppard, interviewed by Jose 'Cha-Cha' Jimenez on October 23, 2016 about the Young Lords in Lincoln Park.
Sheppard, Roger
Lenny Foster video interview and transcript
Oral history of Lenny Foster, interviewed by Jose 'Cha-Cha' Jimenez on 10/23/2016 about the Young Lords in Lincoln Park.
Foster, Lenny
Lawrence Reyes video interview and transcript
Oral history of Lawrence Reyes, interviewed by Jose 'Cha-Cha' Jimenez on 10/23/2016 about the Young Lords in Lincoln Park.
Reyes, Lawrence
Minerva Solla video interview and transcript
Oral history of Minerva Solla, interviewed by Jose 'Cha-Cha' Jimenez on 10/23/2016 about the Young Lords in Lincoln Park.
Solla, Minerva
Estervina Jiménez Velez video interview and biography
Spanish language--Personal narratives
Although Estervina Jiménez has never lived in Chicago herself, her life has been deeply connected to the city. Born and raised in Barrio San Salvador of Caguas, Puerto Rico, Ms. Jiménez’s husband, Cordero, traveled back and forth to Chicago’s La Clark for work in the early 1950s. Many of her other family members did the same, starting and sustaining the social clubs, congregations, businesses, and other organizations that were at the core of Chicago’s Puerto Rican community. Ms. Jiménez also had several uncles migrate to Detroit during that same period in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Through her memories, it is clear that social clubs like the Hachas Viejas and other were a fundamental source of support for separated families in a strange land. These organizations also provided a way to cope with language and cultural challenges, segregated streets, and housing discrimination. Today, Ms. Jiménez volunteers in her church in San Salvador, the Catholic capilla. She delivers communion to the sick and visits and prays with them. She spends much time sitting on her porch with her husband, who is now in poor health, talking with the travelers who walk down the small path in front of her home. When someone dies in San Salvador, she makes herself available to assist in the traditional novena and helps to lead and to pray the rosary for the nine days. If there is an event or program she also helps out. In fact, she helps the priest whenever called upon and volunteers to daily to clean the church. Ms. Jiménez is a resource for the residents of San Salvador, especially in the Morena and Lao Frío sections of Caguas. Ask anyone from San Salvador and they will also tell you that she is like the unofficial mayor.
Velez, Estervina
Carlos Vasquez video interview and transcript
Mexican Americans--Michigan
Carlos Vazquez is from Detroit, Michigan but he was born in Mexico and his family is from Ciudad Juárez on the border with Texas. Mr. Vasquez’s family settled in Detroit in the 1940s and 1950s. Mr. Vasquez is a musician who has played in several bands. He met José “Cha-Cha” Jiménez while Mr. Jiménez was a senior counselor/supervisor for Project Rehab. Mr. Vasquez decided to join the Young Lords and has volunteered to work on all of the Lincoln Park Camps. Today Mr. Vasquez’s son and other children still recall the event and say that it had a positive effect on them.
Vasquez, Carlos
Rebecca “Buffy” Vance interview and transcript
Rebecca “Buffy” Vance was friends with “Stony,” who was a white southerner and one of the main Young Lords from the Wieland branch of the group before they became human rights activists for Latinos and the poor. Stony was about 17-years-old then and lived across from Wieland on North Avenue. His sisters became members of the auxiliary group, the Young Lordettes. Wieland culture was completely different from the culture at Halsted and Dickens and Burling and Armitage where the other main group of Young Lords hung out. The difference was that on Wieland and North Avenue, they did not have to share space with the other Puerto Rican Clubs of Lincoln Park. Pockets of Puerto Ricans left behind from the destruction wrought by urban renewal in the Puerto Rican barrio of La Clark were still around then. Wieland Street was one of the streets that still survived. Masao Yamasaki, a man of Japanese descent, became friends with Stony and other Young lords and tried to help them with counseling and guidance. Mr. Yamasaki did this through the YMCA, where Young Lords would go for swimming and basketball. He owned a factory and started providing a few of them, including Stony, with jobs. And Stony remained in his packaging company for years, becoming a supervisor for the company. Ms. Vance was never in the Young Lords but grew up in Lincoln Park and attended Alcott Elementary at 2625 North Orchard. Alcott School then had an after school program that would supervise the youth at night to keep them out of trouble and off the streets. A few of the Young Lords attended Alcott and spread the word about the program. They would have to walk 8 to 10 blocks to attend but it did help some of them as they participated in sports, arts and crafts, and other activities. There were also the social dances, where youth danced to tunes such as “Wipe-out,” “Twine Time,” “Monkey Time,” and “Louie Louie.” Today Ms. Vance today works at the University of Illinois Circle Campus as Assistant to Communications and Development and Alumni Relations. Prior to joining the College of Law, she worked as a development Secretary for Will AM-FM-TV. Ms. Vance has also worked at Amdocs Inc. and in benefit planning.
Vance, Rebecca
Vincent Vaca video interview and transcript
Oral history of Vincent Vaca, interviewed by Jose 'Cha-Cha' Jimenez, on 5/8/2013 about the Young Lords in Lincoln Park.
Vaca, Vincent
Puerto Ricans--Personal narratives
Puerto Ricans--Illinois--Chicago--Social life and customs
Ricci Trinidad grew up in Lincoln Park. He describes his memories of the neighborhood, including the work of his parents, Pablo Trinidad Resto and Cristina “Nine” Jiménez. Doña Nine, as Mr. Trinidad’s mother was called, was a businesswoman. Early on as a new immigrant in the early 1950s she opened a restaurant, financing it with only her own funds in the La Clark neighborhood at Wells and Superior Streets. She began by cooking for the new immigrant men who were working to bring their families from Puerto Rico to Chicago in her converted, connecting room apartment at the Water Hotel. The restaurant was creative and domino leagues were organized to serve the patrons and to increase the restaurant’s bottom line. In his early years, he, William, and José “Cha-Cha” Jiménez – who were cousins and close friends -- rode bicycles and skateboards down the cobbled streets of Superior, downtown, and through the Oak Street and North Avenue beaches.
Trinidad, Ricci
Carmen Trinidad video interview and transcript
Carmen Trinidad’s family arrived in Lincoln Park in the 1950s. She was one of only a few Puerto Rican families to attend St. Michael’s Church in those days, although the neighborhood had already become heavily Puerto Rican. She recalls her father’s, Cesario Rivera’s, work as a leader of Council Number Three of the Caballeros de San Juan at St. Michael’s. She also remembers the way that organizations like the Caballeros de San Juan and Damas de María started and sustained softball leagues, picnics, social dances and dinners, retreats, plays, parades, festivals, and the establishment of a credit that still exists to this day.
Trinidad, Carmen
Hy Thurman video interview and transcript
Rural-urban migration--Illinois--Chicago
Poverty--Illinois--Chicago
Young Patriots Organization
Hy Thurman arrived in Chicago when he was seventeen years old from a small farming town in eastern Tennessee. Mr. Thurman co-founded the Young Patriots. In 1969, the Young Patriots became part of the original Rainbow Coalition, along with the Young Lords and the Black Panther Party. Hy Thurman, Jack “Junebug” Boykin, William “Preacherman” Fesperman, and many of the Young Patriots had been involved with JOIN (Jobs or Income Now), a project run by Students for a Democratic Society, and the Goodfellows, JOIN’s de facto anti-police brutality committee, for several years which is what led them to form the Young Patriots. One of the Young Patriots’ main organizing efforts led to the Summerdale Scandal which exposed the then accepted criminal activities of eight policeman and put them in jail for burglaries, thefts, and extortions. Today, Hy Thurman has a B.A. in Cultural Anthropology, has conducted ethnology interviews with a prominent anthropologist, worked for VISTA and for the Uptown People’s Northeastern Illinois University Center, and has held benefits for community organizations via Bluegrass Inc. He is also a teacher who specializes in Appalachian history and migration.
Thurman, Hy
America “Mecca” Sorrentini interview and transcript
Puerto Rico--Autonomy and independence movements
Chicago (Ill.)--Politics and government--1951-
Puerto Rico--Politics and government
Puerto Ricans--Social life and customs
America Sorrentini was born in Puerto Rico. She moved first to Boston and then to Chicago, arriving in the 1970s. Ms. Sorentini's parents were prominent organizers and activists in the struggle for Puerto Rican self-determination, working primarily in and around Santurce, Puerto Rico. Ms. Sorrentini, or “Mecca” as she is known, began her own community activism in Boston working on a variety of issues including housing. By the time Ms. Sorrentini arrived in Chicago she was already aware of the work of the Young Lords and remained in solid contact with the Young Lords. She, and the Chicago Puerto Rican Socialist Party, assisted with the Jiménez aldermanic campaign and later the Harold Washington campaign. When the Young Lords celebrated their official founding date, which is September 23rd the same day as the Grito de Lares or Puerto Rican Independence Day, they selected Ms. Sorrentini to be their keynote speaker.
Sorrentini, America
Lacey Smith video interview and transcript, interview 2
Oral history of Lacey Smith, interviewed by Jose 'Cha-Cha' Jimenez, on 12/14/2012 about the Young Lords in Lincoln Park.
Smith, Lacey
Lacey Smith video interview and transcript, interview 1
Oral history of Lacey Smith, interviewed by Jose 'Cha-Cha' Jimenez, on 10/19/2012 about the Young Lords in Lincoln Park.
Paul Siegel video interview and transcript
Paul Siegel was a precinct captain in the Jiménez for Alderman Campaign (1973-1975). He was also a member of the Inter Communal Survival Committees that moved to Chicago to concentrate their forces and work in uptown organizing the poor at the grassroots level. Mr. Siegel also ran for alderman of the 46th ward and nearly won. Like the Jiménez campaign, his run helped to lay important groundwork in the ward for the victory that arrived with Helen Shiller’s election in 1987.
Siegel, Paul
Helen Shiller video interview and transcript
Helen Shiller, a Jewish American born in 1947 in Long Island, New York. Her father had immigrated to the United States from Latvia and her mother from Belarus. She moved to Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood in 1972, living on N. Malden Street. Initially she drove a cab and worked as a waitress. At an early age, she became active in the anti-Vietnam War movement while attending college at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. In Chicago, she helped to organize the Intercommunal Survival Committee with Rev. Walter “Slim” Coleman. The organization functioned as a sort of white support arm of the Black Panther Party and later evolved into the Heart of Uptown Coalition, a group dedicated to providing essential services to the poor. She also edited Keep Strong magazine.
Shiller, Helen
Steven Sapp video interview and transcript
African Americans--Personal narratives
Black Panther Party
Arts, African American--New York (N.Y.)
Steven Sapp was born and raised in South Bronx, New York City. He earned his BA degree at Bard College and is married to Mildred Ruiz-Sapp of the Universes Theatre Ensemble. Together, Mr. Sapp and Ms. Ruiz-Sapp co-founded THE POINT, a community development corporation (Hunts Point) in 1993 and Universes, a New York-based theatre group that fuses poetry, jazz, hip hop, politics, blues and Spanish boleros to create its own productions which are performed on and off Broadway, nationally and internationally. Mr. Sapp has received numerous awards for his acting and has written, acted in, and directed scores of productions. One of his most recent productions is “Party People” (2012) which is primarily about the Black Panther Party and the Young Lords.
Sapp, Steven
William Ruiz video interview and transcript
Puerto Ricans--New York (N.Y.)
Arts, Puerto Rican--New York (N.Y.)
William “Ninja” Ruiz is the brother of Mildred Ruiz-Sapp of Universes and they grew up in New York City on the Lower East Side. He earned his BA in Theatre at Bard College where he also studied poetry. Today he makes his home in Santurce, Puerto Rico and is a leading member of the Universes Theatre Ensemble. Universes is a New York-based theatre group that fuses poetry, jazz, hip hop, politics, blues and Spanish boleros to create its own productions which are performed on and off Broadway, nationally and internationally. One of their most recent productions is “Party People” (2012) which is primarily about the Black Panther Party and the Young Lords.
Ruiz, William
Wanda Ross video interview and transcript
Wanda Ross grew up in Chicago, the granddaughter of migrants from the southern United States. Shortly after she began college, she started attending political education classes taught by “Teach” of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense (BPP). She joined the BPP shortly thereafter. She was chief developer of the BPP’s Breakfast for Children Program. The BPP Breakfast Program was used as a model by other organizations, including the Young Lords and Young Patriots. Ms. Ross remains a community activist in Chicago, putting into practice her reminder that “saving the world” is a lifetime commitment.
Ross, Wanda
Gloria Rosario video interview and transcript
Latin Kings--Illinois--Chicago
Puerto Ricans--Illinois--Chicago--Social conditions
Gloria Rosario grew up in Lincoln Park and Wicker Park during the 1960s, as those communities were becoming unstable, and the forced dislocations had already pushed many of the areas Latino pioneers from their homes. Ms. Rosario describes spending time with a neighborhood branch of the Latin Kings, many of whom were the younger brothers and sisters of Young Lords. Like the Lords, they wore Young Lords buttons and supported the community. Ms. Rosario remembers helping out with the Young Lords Breakfast for Children Program and the Emeterio Betances Free Health Clinic. She also recalls the proliferation of drugs that were allowed to flow into Lincoln and Wicker Park during the 1960s and 1970s, undermining the activism and well-being of many of the young Puerto Rican men and women who remained in those neighborhoods.
Rosario, Gloria
María Romero video interview and transcript
María Romero first joined the Young Lords on Wilton and Grace Streets. She was recruited by then Angie Lind-Rizzo (later Angie Adorno) and the other Young Lord women members. It was 1973 and the Young Lords were emerging from two long years of being completely underground, or inoperative publicly as a human rights organization. There were no longer remnants of the Young Lords Movement left in the Lincoln Park neighborhood that gave birth to them in 1968. The Lincoln Park neighborhood had been cleaned out of Puerto Ricans and the poor, in just a few years, by city hall and the Lincoln Park Neighborhood Association. A directive was given by the leadership for the Young Lords members to move and to establish themselves as a base of operations in the Lakeview Neighborhood, at Wilton and Grace Streets. Many Young Lords moved there with their families. Prior to that, a group of about 25 Young Lords had moved to a rural, rented farm near Tomah, Wisconsin. The farm camp was called a “Training School,” and their sole purpose for their camp was to train new Young Lord’s leaders who would step in and lead the Young Lords. Repression had hit extremely hard within the Lincoln Park Movement, splitting it in several directions. This was aided by pending trials of several Young Lords leaders and the still unsolved murders of United Methodist Rev. Bruce Johnson and his wife Eugenia, of the Young Lords People’s Church. Rainbow Coalition leader of the Black Panther Party, Fred Hampton, and Mark Clark were also assassinated in a raid organized by the States Attorney. The Lincoln Park Movement had seized to exist. José “Cha-Cha” Jiménez, who was then in hiding from the police after being sentenced to one year in Cook County Jail and who had 17 more felony indictments still pending, called for the organizing of a training school in a secluded farm near Tomah, Wisconsin. After members received their training in the farm camp for one and a half years, it was decided that Mr. Jiménez would voluntarily turn himself in, begin serving the year and start to fight the remaining cases which included bond jumping and many trumped up charges of mob actions for demonstrations. The Young Lords would raise his bond, hire attorneys, and then switch their organizing in Lakeview and Uptown where many of the Puerto Ricans of Lincoln Park had moved. They had also moved to Wicker Park and Humboldt Park but the Young Lords wanted to concentrate their forces. If this move was not done, the movement started in Lincoln Park would completely collapse. After serving the year, Mr. Jiménez announced his Aldermanic Campaign for the 46th Ward, as an Independent Democrat. He would use the election not as an electoral revolution but, “as an organizing vehicle for change.” Among other things the campaign would focus on Mayor Daley’s forced displacement of the Puerto Rican Community from the near lakefront and near downtown areas of the city. It not only boldly opposed the banks, the developers, the neighborhood associations but implicated Mayor Richard J. Daley in urban renewal plans that clearly were racist, being utilized to cleanse these areas of lower income minorities. Because of this, María Romero volunteered to serve as Young Lords Office Coordinator. It was Ms. Romero’s job to pass out assignments and to provide support and referrals for services for residents of that Lakeview area of Wilton and Grace. She herself had lived in Lincoln Park but had grown up in Lakeview. There most of the Puerto Ricans knew her family, as her father was a businessman, who for years had owned several Latino botanicas, or stores that sell religious potions and candles of saints, and provide consultation services. Ms. Romero was instrumental in getting a large amount of persons registered to vote. The Jiménez Aldermanic Campaign received 39% of the vote on the first attempt. It was not the 51% needed, but it was still victorious in uniting the community and beginning to expose the prejudice behind displacement. It also opened wide the doors for future Latino political candidates. As Ms. Romero moved west to Humboldt Park she was hired as a community organizer for Bickerdike, a non - profit development corporation. She used her Young Lords organizing skills and passion to promote their mission of being, deeply dedicated to preserving the ethnic and cultural character of their neighborhoods, providing quality affordable housing, preserving jobs, advocating for resources and struggling against gentrification and displacement. One of the main issues that Ms. Romero advocated for was the “Chicago Affordable Set Aside.”
Romero, María
Carmelo Romero grew up in Lakeview and today lives in the Logan Square neighborhood of Chicago. His family lived in Lincoln Park and knew of the Young Lords. Mr. Romero volunteered to help with the Jiménez campaign for Alderman. Maria Romero, his sister, remains a full-fledged member of the Young Lords; in the 1970s she ran the office at Wilton and Grace Streets.
Romero, Carmelo
Urban renewal--Illinois--Chicago
Román Rodríguez served in the U.S. army during World War II and moved to Chicago’s La Clark neighborhood in 1953. For many years, his wife, Clautilde Jiménez, taught in the Chicago public school system. They also lived in Lincoln Park and were both active members in the Damas de María and Caballeros de San Juan of Council Number Three. A powerful and eloquent orator, Mr. Rodríguez has been a frequent speaker at Caballeros de San Juan functions across a variety of parishes. He also became a deacon and participated in the mass at St. Silvesters in Humbolt Park/Logan Square, where he helped to solidify the growing community of Puerto Ricans who were being forced out of Lincoln Park. In his oral history, Mr. Rodríguez reflects on the changes he has seen over the years in Chicago and the displacement of Puerto Rican families from Lincoln Park. He expresses his inability to understand why Puerto Ricans were experiencing discrimination especially after they had served in the U.S. military and given their lives for United States. He describes in rich detail, a community of hard working and religious people, dedicated to their families and their faith. In Puerto Rico in the 1940s, Mr. Rodríguez would entertain his siblings by improvising jibaro music after working a hard day in the fields. Like other Puerto Rican pioneers in Chicago, he brought his love of music with him to the city and continued this tradition there.
Rodríguez, Román