Guide to Young Lords Records

A variety of ethnic groups resided in the Lincoln Park area in the 1950s, and by the early 1960s a substantial Puerto Rican community was established around the southwestern borders of the neighborhood. At this time, Orlando Davila formed the Young Lords to counter the mounting antagonism against Puerto Ricans by other youth gangs. In 1964, Jose (Cha-Cha) Jimenez assumed leadership of the Young Lords. In the late 1960s, the Young Lords directed their activities to the social and economic concerns that were prevalent in the Puerto Rican community of Lincoln Park.

Materials donated by Omar López, including press releases, memorabilia, publicity, correspondence, and documentation of Cha-Cha Jimenez's 1974 Aldermanic campaign, are available in Box 1 of this collection. Additional material collected by Special Collections and Archives about the Young Lords or Cha-Cha Jimenez is housed at the end of Box 1. Box 2 contains photographs of the Young Lords taken by Carlos Flores. These photographs are available for reference purposes only and may not be reproduced or photographed without written permission from the photographer. This collection also contains transcripts and audio recordings of oral histories conducted with the Young Lords, and DePaul faculty and student research on the organization. These materials are housed in Boxes 3-4A. Box 5 contains a CD-ROM of digitized publications and posters created by or referring to the Young Lords. The original publications and posters are housed in Box 5A, but due to their fragile nature are not available to researchers. These posters and publications can also be viewed via DePaul University Library's Digital Collections (http://digicol.lib.depaul.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/younglords).

The majority of the files in this collection are arranged by topic or media type, then chronologically.

• Names
  • Jimenez, Jose,--1948-
  • Lopez, Omar
  • Adorno Navedo, Angie
  • Flores, Carlos
  • Matias, Alfredo
  • Lopez, Caralee
  • Lopez, Obed
  • Perez, Fermin
  • Young Lords (Organization)--Archives
• Subject
  • Puerto Ricans--Illinois--Chicago--Archives
  • Political activists--Illinois--Chicago--Archives
  • Puerto Ricans--Civil rights--United States--Archives
  • Puerto Ricans--Social life and customs--United States--Archives
  • Radicalism--History--20th century--United States--Sources
• Geographic CoverageChicago (Ill.)--Ethnic relations--Sources

This collection is open for research use.

The preferred citation is: Young Lords Records, [Box#, Folder#], Special Collections and Archives, DePaul University, Chicago, Illinois.

In 2001, Omar Lopez, former Minister of Information of the Young Lords, donated archival material to the DePaul University Special Collections and Archives that formed the nucleus of the Young Lords Collection. The collection grew as the department gathered additional material related to the Young Lords and Cha-Cha Jimenez. In the 1990s, DePaul University's Center for Latino Research and the Lincoln Park Project conducted a series of oral histories with the Puerto Rican community in Chicago, including members of the Young Lords; audio cassettes and transcripts of these oral histories were later transferred to the Archives. Accession # 2001.09

Restrictions: Photographs by Carlos Flores in Box 2 are available for reference purposes only and may not be reproduced or photographed without written permission from the photographer. Due to the fragile condition of the Young Lords' original newspapers and posters, these materials are not available to researchers without permission from departmental staff. Special Collections and Archives offers digital versions of these materials for patron use.