Episode 47 - The Young Lords - A Radical History by Johanna Fernández

In this episode we talk to author, professor, and organizer Johanna Fernández. Fernández is an assistant professor of history at Baruch College of the City University of New York and editor of the book Writing on the Wall: Selected Prison Writings of Mumia Abu-Jamal. 

In this episode, Johanna Fernández talks to us about her brand new book The Young Lords: A Radical History, which Robin DG Kelley has called “the definitive history of the Young Lords.” It is a history that has deep theoretical and practical lessons and implications for the movements of today and we urge everyone to pick it up and to study it with as many folks as you can. 

In this episode we talk about the origins of the Young Lords in Chicago, and the revolutionary theorization and praxis of the New York Young Lords. We talk about the Young Lords revolutionary public health work, how the women of the Young Lords tackled issues of patriarchy and gender politics within the party, and what differentiated the Lords' methods from groups utilizing the Saul Alinsky method.

We also discuss how the conditions of the era, the climate of internationalism, the war on Vietnam, decolonization, and the beginnings of deindustrialization shaped their movement.