The First Rainbow Coalition

podcastOPTalksAfroSpiritus
Written By Open Plaza

Dr. Felipe Hinojosa talks to Ray Santiesteban, director of the documentary about the groundbreaking 1960s Chicago alliance between the Black Panthers, Young Lords, and Young Patriots

The Black Panthers, Young Patriots, and Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) join the Young Lords in a march from “People’s Park” to Humboldt Park in honor of Puerto Rican independence leader Pedro Albizu Campos, Chicago, Illinois, 11 October 1969. The photo appears in Y.L.O., the publication of the Young Lords’ Ministry of Information. Source: Y.L.O. Vol. 1 No. 5 (January 1970), p. 3, Young Lords Newspaper Collection, Special Collections and Archives, DePaul University, Chicago, Illinois

 
 

In this episode of OP Talks, historian Dr. Felipe Hinojosa talks to filmmaker Ray Santiesteban about his documentary The First Rainbow Coalition (Independent Lens, 2020) and the need for more Latinx historians and filmmakers. Through rare archival footage and interviews with members of The Rainbow Coalition, Santiesteban tells the story of the groundbreaking alliance between the Black Panther Party, Hispanic activist group The Young Lords, and The Young Patriots, comprising working-class southern whites. In the 1960s, the alliance banded together as The Rainbow Coalition in Chicago—one of the most segregated cities at the time—to fight police brutality and substandard housing.

Though the documentary covers events from 50 years ago, says Santiesteban, the documentary “is still relevant because we're still grappling with [what] people were fighting against in the ‘60s.” Because the United States is more diverse than it was then, he adds, coalitions across ethnic lines have even more potential today.

 

ABOUT THE DOCUMENTARY

In 1969, the Chicago Black Panther Party, notably led by the charismatic Fred Hampton, began to form alliances across lines of race and ethnicity with other community-based movements in the city, including the Latinx group the Young Lords Organization and the working-class young southern whites of the Young Patriots. Finding common ground, these disparate groups banded together in one of the most segregated cities in postwar America to collectively confront issues such as police brutality and substandard housing, calling themselves the Rainbow Coalition. The First Rainbow Coalition tells the movement’s little-known story through rare archival footage and interviews with former coalition members in the present-day. 

While the coalition eventually collapsed under duress from constant harassment by local and federal law enforcement, including the murder of Fred Hampton, it had a long term impact, breaking down barriers between communities, and creating a model for future activists and diverse politicians across America.

READ MORE

Independent Lens Discussion Guide for The Rainbow Coalition [DOWNLOAD PDF]

 
 
Featured
Felipe Hinojosa

Born and raised in Brownsville, Texas, Dr. Felipe Hinojosa is the John and Nancy Jackson Endowed Chair in Latin America & Professor of History at Baylor University. Dr. Hinojosa was formerly on faculty at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas, where he also served as Director for the university's Carlos H. Cantu Hispanic Education & Opportunity Endowment. His research areas include Chicana/o and Latina/o Studies, American Religion, Race and Ethnicity, and Social Movements. He co-edited Faith & Power: Latino Religious Politics Since 1945 (New York University Press, 2022) with Sergio M. González and Maggie Elmore. His recent book, Apostles of Change: Latino Radical Politics, Church Occupations, and the Fight to Save the Barrio (University of Texas Press, 2021) is set in four major cities (Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, and Houston), where, in 1969 and 1970, Latino radical activists clashed with religious leaders as they occupied churches to protest urban renewal, poverty, police brutality, and racism. Latino Mennonites: Civil Rights, Faith, and Evangelical Culture (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014) received the 2015 Américo Paredes Book Award for the best book in Mexican American and Latina/o Studies by the Center for Mexican American Studies at South Texas College. His work has appeared in Zócalo Public Square, Western Historical Quarterly, American Catholic Studies, Mennonite Quarterly Review, and Latina/o Studies collections. Dr. Hinojosa holds a PhD in History from the University of Houston, an MA in History from the University of Texas Pan American, and BA in English from Fresno Pacific University. He serves on the Advisory Board for the interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed, and online moderated forum Latinx Talk.

Featured
Ray Santiesteban

Ray Santisteban has worked for the past 26 years as a documentary filmmaker, teacher, and film curator. His work consistently gravitates toward political subjects and artist profiles, addressing the themes of justice, memory, and political transformation. A graduate of NYU’s Film and TV production program, he has explored a variety of subjects, including the New York-based Black Panther leader Dhoruba Bin Wahad (Passin' It On, co-producer), the roots of Puerto Rican poetry (Nuyorican Poets Cafe, 1994, director, producer, editor), and Chicano poetry (Voices from Texas, director/producer). Santiesteban was senior producer of Visiones: Latino Art and Culture in the U.S.., a three-hour PBS series nationally broadcast in 2004. Honors he has garnered include a 1992 Student Academy Award, a 1993 New York Foundation for the Arts Media Fellowship, a 1996 “Ideas In Action” Award from the National Tele-Media Alliance, a 1996 “Faculty of the Year” Award from the Chicano Studies Program at University of Wisconsin–Madison, a 2005 Rockefeller Film and Video Fellowship, a 2008 and 2016 San Antonio Artists Foundation Filmmaker Award, and a 2016 Tobin Award for Artistic Excellence. Santiesteban is based in San Antonio, Texas.

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