Young Lords

The Young Lords (formerly the Young Lords Organization (YLO) or Young Lords Party) was a Chicago-based group that became a civil and human rights organization. The group aims to fight for neighborhood empowerment and self-determination for Puerto Rico, Latinos, and colonized ("Third World") people. Tactics used by the Young Lords include mass education, canvassing, community programs, occupations, and direct confrontation. The Young Lords became targets of the United States FBI's COINTELPRO program.
In party platform points, the Young Lords may spell "American" as "amerikkkan" or "Amerikkkan" - expressing, among other things, opposition to U.S. military presence in Puerto Rico
and suggesting that America's success is rooted in white supremacy.
The platform follows the mission clearly, stating: "We demand immediate withdrawal of U.S. military forces and bases from Puerto Rico, Vietnam, and all oppressed communities inside and outside the U.S. No Puerto Rican should serve in the U.S. army against his brothers and sisters, for the only true army of oppressed people is the people's army to fight all rulers."
History.
Origins.
The Young Lords formed in 1960 as a local Puerto Rican turf gang in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago and grew to several outposts including several women's auxiliary groups called the Young Lordettes. While Jose Cha Cha Jimenez was president of the group, he reconceived the local gang officially as a national civil and human rights movement, on the 100-year anniversary of Grito de Lares on September 23, 1968. He was inspired by the student movements in Puerto Rico, the Latino movements in the Southwest, and the organizing tactics of the Black Panthers. 
The Young Lords' focus remains self-determination for Puerto Rico, other Latino and Third World countries, and for neighborhood-controlled development. The movement expanded from Chicago to include a broader audience and chapters in 30 cities, including three branches in New York City, the port of entry for the majority of Puerto Rican migrants.
During Mayor Daley's tenure in Chicago, a program of urban renewal resulted in Puerto Ricans in Lincoln Park and several Mexican communities being evicted from what became prime real estate areas near the Loop, Lakefront, Old Town, and Lakeview neighborhoods. The rationale was to increase property tax revenues by luring White, middle-class suburbanites and creating a suburb within the city. Some Young Lords were involved in the Puerto Rican June 1966 Division Street Riots in Wicker Park and Humboldt Park. 
The 1968 Democratic Convention protests in Grant Park and the adjacent Lincoln Park Neighborhood, resulted in the Young Lords, under the leadership of founder José Cha Cha Jiménez, to join with others to form a broader civil and human rights movement. Puerto Rican self-determination and the displacement of Puerto Ricans and poor residents became the primary issues of organizing. The Young Lords organization also began to train students and youth to take on the leadership to organize the Latino community on a national level.
Multiple chapters formed nationwide based on the original Chicago chapter, including several branches in New York City and along the East Coast. The National Headquarters in Chicago asked the loose coalition of chapters in New York to unite as a single regional branch. All chapters considered neighborhood empowerment and Puerto Rican self-determination as unifying missions. 
The Great Migrations of the late 1940s resulted in many Puerto Ricans coming to the mainland for opportunity and settling in the Midwest, Florida, and on the East Coast of the United States. Chicago, one of he most populated center of the Puerto Rican diaspora, took on a significant role as a regional headquarters of the movement.
The office in Chicago attempted to construct a nationwide grassroots movement within the U.S. barrios to unite Puerto Ricans, other Latinos, and carry out its mission for Puerto Rican independence. The New York City regional chapter formed July 26, 1969, ten months after the Young Lords Movement began in Chicago. The National Headquarters in Chicago had gained national prominence by leading protests against conditions faced by Puerto Ricans in the U.S. Because most members in New York were students with a middle-class income, who were media-savvy, the New York chapter flourished. It provided needed support for the National Headquarters then under surveillance by the F.B.I. and the Chicago city government.
The National Headquarters' first action was to ransack and close the Department of Urban Renewal office in Chicago. The Young Lords attended an Urban Renewal meeting and told the panel of the local neighborhood association that no more meetings would be permitted in Lincoln Park until people of color were included on the Urban Renewal Board.
On July 27, 1969, the chapter office in New York City mounted a "Garbage Offensive" to commemorate the 1968 Sanitation Strike and to protest the substandard garbage collection service in East Harlem. The event also promoted the opening of the Young Lords' New York City office. The offensives targeted local city services and were aligned with the National Headquarters mission to develop neighborhood empowerment. In Chicago, the Young Lords occupied local institutions in the Lincoln Park neighborhood to support low-income housing for working families.
The New York members had first read about the Chicago Young Lords in an issue of the Black Panther newspaper. It reported actions for Puerto Rican and Latino self-determination and publicized the increasing repression of Jose "Cha Cha" Jimenez and the Chicago National Headquarters. The New York office followed the actions of the People's Church in Chicago and took over the First Spanish United Methodist Church in East Harlem. Over 100 members were arrested in the two-week takeover. National Headquarters members encouraged the New York members not to resist arrests, in order to avoid bloodshed.
The New York occupation of First Spanish United Methodist Church in East Harlem took place on December 28, 1969, after several similar actions in Chicago: the sit-in at Grant Hospital, the take-over of People's Park, the occupation of McCormick Seminary, and the occupation of Chicago's People's Church (Armitage Avenue United Methodist Church). In several cities, the Young Lords set up free community programs, such as breakfast and classes.<ref>