Baruch College's Johanna Fernández Discusses Her New Book, The Young Lords, Feb. 20
February 13, 2020
Contact: Office of Government and Public Affairs
Phone: 410.837.5739
Johanna Fernández, assistant professor of history at Baruch College of the City University of New York, will discuss her new book, The Young Lords: A Radical History, on Thursday, Feb. 20 beginning at 11 a.m. in Room 135 of the University of Baltimore's William H. Thumel Sr. Business Center, 11 W. Mt. Royal Ave. The Young Lords is the definitive account of the unexpected group of New York radical poor and working-class Puerto Rican youth who emerged in the 1960s. The group patterned themselves after the Black Panther Party and confronted race and class inequality and questioned American foreign policy. Fernández's talk is free and open to the public.
"Against the backdrop of America's escalating urban rebellions in the 1960s, an unexpected cohort of New York radicals unleashed a series of urban guerrilla actions against the city's racist policies and contempt for the poor," says the book's publisher, the University of North Carolina Press. "Their dramatic flair, uncompromising vision, and skillful ability to link local problems to international crises riveted the media, alarmed New York's political class, and challenged nationwide perceptions of civil rights and black power protest."
The Young Lords relies on "oral histories, archival records, and an enormous cache of police records released only after a decade-long Freedom of Information Law request and subsequent court battle," says the publisher. "In riveting style, Fernández demonstrates how the Young Lords redefined the character of protest, the color of politics, and the cadence of popular urban culture in the age of great dreams."
Prof. Fernández's appearance at UB is sponsored by the University of Baltimore’s History program and the History Club.