The Young Patriots Organization was an American left-wing organization of the 1960s and 1970s. Growing out of an SDS project called JOIN (Jobs Or Income Now), Its first leaders included Doug "Youngblood" Blakey, the son of Peggy Terry; Jack "Junebug" Boykin; Bobby Joe Mcginnis; William "Preacherman" Fesperman; and Hy Thurman. Originating in the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago, the organization was designed to support young, white migrants from the Appalachia region. However with Fred Hampton of the Black Panther Party and José "Cha-Cha" Jiménez of the Young Lords Organization the three organizations formed the Rainbow Coalition (unrelated to Jesse Jackson's later Rainbow/PUSH Coalition). The group's early interactions with the Black Panthers are shown in the 1969 documentary American Revolution 2.
The Young Patriots wore a rebel confederate flag on their blue jean jackets and berets, and fought against racism. They participated in demonstrations against police brutality and housing discrimination. In 1971, a portion of the Young Patriots attempted to build a national organization, renamed the Patriot Party, no relation to the right-wing group of the same name.
Famous quotes containing the words young, patriots and/or organization:
“With five to ten hundred pure-minded young women threading the streets of the village every evening unattended, vice must slink away, like frost before the rising sun ...”
—Anna Julia Cooper (1859–1964)
“What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“The newly-formed clothing unions are ready to welcome her; but woman shrinks back from organization, Heaven knows why! It is perhaps because in organization one find the truest freedom, and woman has been a slave too long to know what freedom means.”
—Katharine Pearson Woods (1853–1923)