“Radical” Robin Hoods: The Young Lords’ Struggles for Community Health
D'Antony Hernandez and Julia Brannon Image from: Filtermag.org During the summer of 1970, the Young Lords, a primarily Puerto Rican militant group with a radical reputation, seized an X-ray unit and took over Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx for 12 hours in response to the many unanswered calls for action to the city of New York. They used the X-ray unit to conduct door‐to‐door TB screenings, examining more than 900 people in East Harlem within the first 3 months and finding positive reactions to one in three tests. Lincoln Hospital itself was condemned by the rich and left open to abysmally treat the poor. The Young Lords took the needs of their community into their own hands after being continually denied access to proper public health care. Begging the questions…