Resource Page:
Organizing for community health with the young lords and Black Panther Party
RESOURCE PAGE: Organizing for community health with the young lords and black panther party
This resource page is meant to support educators who are attending our workshop on May 15th, 2021.
Guest Speaker: Cleo Silvers, former member of the Young Lords and Black Panther Party and leader of many medical justice campaigns.
Our goal: Help educators build classroom resources that center historical organizing for medical justice and community health, led by oppressed people.
Registration Required. You can register for this event at this link.
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Suggested reading before the workshop:
Who is cleo silvers Painter?
Read: “Genuine Struggle and Care”: An Interview With Cleo Silvers in the American Journal of Public Health.
It was the horrible conditions I witnessed in the South Bronx that spurred me on to do work in the health area. Seeing all these young kids, adults, and elderly dying from these issues, I knew something had to be done about it. There were other young people who agreed with me…
Read this in-depth interview to learn about many community-led health campaigns in which Cleo Silvers played a key role.
See also: Former Black Panther provides vital perspective for Memphis youth
Resources: Organizing for community Health History
Overview:
With Free Medical Clinics and Patient Advocacy, the Black Panthers Created a Legacy in Community Health That Still Exists Amid COVID-19 via TIME Magazine.
For the People’s Health: Lessons from the Young Lords for Today’s New York - Extensive teaching resources via the Museum of the City of NY.
Seize the Hospital to Serve the People via the Social Medicine Portal, Department of Family and Social Medicine of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
The People’s Free Medical Clinics Excerpt from Body and Soul: The Black Panthers and the Fight Against Medical Discrimination by Dr. Alondra Nelson.
Timeline of Young Lords history via Palante.org.
Primary Sources:
Young Lords Seize Lincoln Hospital Building by By Alfonso A. Narvaez, New York Times July 15, 1970.
Ten-Point Program of the Health Revolutionary Movement.
Photo and Article Excerpt: TLC Table at Lincoln Hospital via Hospital Physician Journal, October 1970.
¡Palante, Siempre Palante! The Young Lords documentary via Third World Newsreel.
Health Workers Rally Flyer , rally flyer that connects healthcare to war in Cambodia and Vietnam.
Benefit for an Ambulance Concert Poster featuring artists like Gil Scott-Heron and Eddie Palmieri.
3 ways that black and brown Youth organizers
changed healthcare forever
Why teach this history:
Over the last year our nation has been rocked by a health crisis that has exposed and exacerbated massive disparities in healthcare in our communities. Many youth feel powerless as they watch their community suffer from inadequate care. We think it’s important to empower young people with the history of inspiring and successful campaigns for community health that were led by organizers just like them!
Banning lead paint
Read more about their successful campaign to ban the use of lead paint in residential buildings here:
Help Save Your Children On the Young Lords’ battle against lead poisoning in New York. By Johanna Fernández
The patient’s bill of rights
Reading more about the creation of this important document in this interview with Cleo Silvers: Genuine Struggle and Care
Community-led drug treatment
Read more about the Lincoln Detox Center here:
How Racism Gave Rise to Acupuncture for Addiction Treatment via The Atlantic