Here to Stay
I was inspired to write this poem after reading "Helping the South Bronx Heal: Public Health and the Young Lords” on the Bronx County Historical Society Archives website and watching “Takeover: How We Occupied a Hospital and Changed Public Health Care” and learning about how the Young Lords took over Lincoln Hospital. I learned how powerful the Young Lords became and how inspirational. They took justice in their hands to make sure all Black and Latinx residents of The Bronx received equal treatment after years of being exposed to unsafe conditions like paint-chipped walls in the hospital waiting room. The quotes in the poem are taken from the Democracy Now! special “The Young Lords: Exploring the Legacy of the Radical Puerto Rican Activist Group 50 Years Later.” This poem goes on the journey the Young Lords took to justice.
Founded in 1969 by Felipe Luciano and other Latino and Black young adults
We are Here to Stay
The New York branch of the Young Lords Organization, later renamed the Young Lords Party, was born.
We are Here to Stay
Based in the barrios of the South Bronx and East Harlem, we the Young Lords dedicate our work to serving and empowering our communities.
We are Here to Stay
Getting drugs out our community
Reducing crime rate
That white sugar booger is messing up our people's lives
Mommas, Aunties, Cousins and Grandmas
We are Here to Stay
That white sugar
That you profit of off
That's hurting my peoples
Paint-chipped hallways that our babies eat from
Breathe in and out
That toxic waste
We are Here to Stay
Our people suffer from asthma, tuberculosis
Yet are denied good proper health care
Our ladies and fellas are beating down each other. Open scars from their partner and nothing is
being done about it.
We are Here to Stay
Asthma, drug addiction, and domestic violence, “the most common diseases of poverty of our North American ghettos”
We are Here to Stay
We have taken note of what is urgently needed to change in our communities and campaigned for justice, only to be met by the deaf ears of the city government.
We have written to you countless times.
We told you our problems. Yet you put us in the back seat. To leave us to the hands of defeat.
We wait no more.
We are Here to Stay
Like other hospitals around New York City, Lincoln Hospital poorly serves its primarily
working-class Black and Puerto Rican patients.
We deserve better.
It's our neighborhood, our babies are dying. They are sent to these hospitals to die.
We pay our taxes like everybody else. It's our babies, our youth, our next generation.
Lincoln has been long in need of repairs
Word of new renovations have been going on for years with little action towards the actual repairs
We are Here to Stay
On July 14, 1970, we occupied Lincoln Hospital.
After having hostage security
We took matters into our own hands.
Making sure our patients received treatment.
One of the country’s most impoverished and decaying districts.
We are Here to Stay
During the occupation, the Lords outlined demands for the hospital's future.
More access to preventative care, more accessible testing for various illnesses, and an
in-house childcare center for patients plus better rehabilitation programming.
We are Here to Stay
We exposed the “discrimination and inequality in the delivery of healthcare system among our
Puerto Rican and Black American residents in the South Bronx.”
Our babies are our future
We are more than bad neighborhoods
Poverty and ghettos
We deserve good quality service
We are more than paint chip households & poorly constructed waiting rooms
And We are Here to Stay.
Author
Shawn Lackerson
References
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“Helping the South Bronx Heal: Public Health and the Young Lords.” Bronx History Online, https://digital.bchslibrary.org/helping-south-bronx-heal.
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“Takeover: How We Occupied a Hospital and Changed Public Health Care: Op-Docs.” YouTube, 12 Oct. 2021, https://youtu.be/aK_ALMA1NMk.
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“The Young Lords: Exploring the Legacy of the Radical Puerto Rican Activist Group 50 Years Later.” YouTube, 24 July 2019, https://youtu.be/CWAJS0a1kgg.