Independent Lens

The First Rainbow Coalition

In 1969, the Chicago Black Panther Party formed alliances across ethnic and racial lines with other community-based movements in the city, including Latinx group the Young Lords and southern whites the Young Patriots. Banding together in one of postwar America's most segregated cities to confront issues like police brutality and substandard housing, they called themselves the Rainbow Coalition.

Trailer | The First Rainbow Coalition

30s

In 1969, the Chicago Black Panther Party formed alliances across ethnic and racial lines with other community-based movements in the city, including Latinx group the Young Lords and southern whites the Young Patriots. Banding together in one of postwar America's most segregated cities to confront issues like police brutality and substandard housing, they called themselves the Rainbow Coalition.

  • Unlikely Allies | First Rainbow Coalition: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Unlikely Allies | First Rainbow Coalition

    S21 E7 - 2m 20s

    In this excerpt from The First Rainbow Coalition, be a fly on the wall at a first meeting in Chicago in the 1960s, between three wholly different activist groups -- Black Panthers, led by the charismatic Bobby Lee, Latinx group the Young Lords Organization, and the Southern whites of the Young Patriots -- all surprised to discover the common ground, and common foes, they share.

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