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Women of the Young Lords Party, excerpt
Date: Aug 5, 2015
Caption: This video clip comes from an event at the Bronx Museum of Arts in 2015. At the event women in the Young Lords described the political climate in which the party emerged, why they joined, and how they navigated racism and sexism within the movement. In this clip, Denise Oliver describes the political context in which she and her fellow young activists forged new paths.
As Denise Oliver describes in this video, women involved in the civil rights movement faced sexism within their organizations, even when those organizations said they were committed to liberation and freedom. In addition to Oliver’s community organizing, she also challenged the misogyny within the ranks of the Young Lords Party. In collaboration with Iris Morales and other women in the party, Oliver pushed against masculinist ideas and for more complete ideas of liberation. As a result of this work, the Young Lords withdrew its idea of “Revolutionary Machismo” as necessary for liberation. They elected women to the Central Committee and pushed for representation of women in all levels of leadership. The party instituted punishments for sexist behavior within the party, formed a gay caucus as well as men and women’s caucuses for addressing sexism; and committed to ensuring equal participation between men and women as writers and public speakers.1
If you keep listening to the panel after Oliver’s comments, you can hear Young Lords member Minerva Solla describe why she chose to join the party. She also details her work as a member of the party’s Defense Committee, what she learned about herself and her community from her time in the Young Lords, and how it influenced her choices as a mother.
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Johanna Fernández, The Young Lords: A Radical History (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2019), 263. ↩︎
Categories: national, community activism
Tags: racist segregation, Latinx people, Black people, protest, curriculum, organizing, women's activism
This item is part of "Denise Oliver and the Women of the Young Lords Party" in "Black and Latina Women’s Educational Activism"
Item Details
Date: Aug 5, 2015
Creator: Bronx Museum of the Arts
Source: Bronx Museum of Arts
Copyright: Under copyright.
How to cite: Women of the Young Lords Party, excerpt," Bronx Museum of the Arts, in New York City Civil Rights History Project, Accessed: [Month Day, Year], https://nyccivilrightshistory.org/gallery/women-of-the-young-lords-party.
Questions to Consider
- How does Oliver describe her identity as a “Black American” and her connection to Puerto Rican movements and politics?
- Oliver notes the average person in the Young Lords was 17. Why do you think young people have been so instrumental in pushing social change, especially in education?
- How does Oliver describe the context in which her activism developed in the video clip?
- Why do you think challenging sexism within the party was important to Oliver?
References
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