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Race, Governmentality, and the De-Colonial Politics of the Original Rainbow Coalition of Chicago

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University of Texas at El Paso DigitalCommons@UTEP Open Access Theses & Dissertations 2012-01-01 In The pirS it Of Liberation: Race, Governmentality, And The e-CD olonial Politics Of The Original Rainbow Coalition Of Chicago Antonio R. Lopez University of Texas at El Paso, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.utep.edu/open_etd Part of the American Studies Commons, and the History Commons Recommended Citation Lopez, Antonio R., "In The pS irit Of Liberation: Race, Governmentality, And The e-CD olonial Politics Of The Original Rainbow Coalition Of Chicago" (2012). Open Access Theses & Dissertations. 2127. https://digitalcommons.utep.edu/open_etd/2127 This is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@UTEP. It has been accepted for inclusion in Open Access Theses & Dissertations by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@UTEP. For more information, please contact [email protected]. IN THE SPIRIT OF LIBERATION: RACE, GOVERNMENTALITY, AND THE DE-COLONIAL POLITICS OF THE ORIGINAL RAINBOW COALITION OF CHICAGO ANTONIO R. LOPEZ Department of History APPROVED: Yolanda Chávez-Leyva, Ph.D., Chair Ernesto Chávez, Ph.D. Maceo Dailey, Ph.D. John Márquez, Ph.D. Benjamin C. Flores, Ph.D. Interim Dean of the Graduate School Copyright © by Antonio R. López 2012 IN THE SPIRIT OF LIBERATION: RACE, GOVERMENTALITY, AND THE DE-COLONIAL POLITICS OF THE ORIGINAL RAINBOW COALITION OF CHICAGO by ANTONIO R. LOPEZ, B.A., M.A. DISSERTATION Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at El Paso in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of History THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT EL PASO August 2012 Acknowledgements As with all accomplishments that require great expenditures of time, labor, and resources, the completion of this dissertation was assisted by many individuals and institutions. At the University of Texas at El Paso, professor’s Yolanda Chávez-Leyva, Ernesto Chávez, Maceo Dailey, Michael Topp, Sandra McGhee Deutsch, Jeff Shepherd, Sam Brunk, Cheryl Martin, Chuck Ambler, and Julia Schiavone-Camacho have always supported my scholarship and provided the space for me to develop as an interdisciplinary scholar and independent thinker. My dissertation advisor, Dr. Leyva, deserves special praise for her steadfast belief in me and the evolution of this study. At the sharp edge of the Empire, my companeros Selfa Chew-Smithart, Nancy González, David Romo, Lina Murillo, John Paul Nuno, Heather Sinclair, Will Guzman, Tim Nelson, Yvette Saavedra, Irma Montelongo, and James Starling have been incredible colleagues and are inspiring examples of devoted scholars and local activists. I would be remiss to not thank the staff at the history department including Edith Yanez and Alma Acosta for all their work on behalf of myself and other students over the years. Writing this dissertation has given me profound lessons in politics and power that have truly humbled and transformed me as a person. For this reason, it is important to recognize that this research project would never have initiated, much less be completed, without the foresight of Dr. John Márquez at Northwestern University. When John moved from UTEP to Evanston, he kept me in mind and introduced the history of the Original Rainbow Coalition to me as a potential dissertation project after sitting on a panel with José “Cha Cha” Jiménez. In addition to this tremendous act of confidence in me, John has been a great model and mentor from day one. His unflinching commitment to combatting racial divisions and advice on how to navigate the academic world as a barrio scholar are second to none. After moving back home to Chicago to conduct research for this study, I was fortunate to encounter several scholars and archivists who facilitated the arduous task of locating sources for a iv project that lacked its own archive. At the Vivian Harsh Research Center Michael Flug and Beverly A. Cook were so welcoming to me at an early stage of this project, and are simply outstanding reservoirs of local Chicago history. Similarly, at DePaul University, Dr. Felix Masud-Piloto and Maria Isabel Ochoa at the Center for Latino Research, and Kathryn DeGraff and Morgen MacIntosh at Special Collections were incredibly helpful. The folks at the Chicago History Museum patiently assisted my scrutiny of the Red Squad Files, and on a brief trip to Washington D.C. Joellen El Bashir helped me navigate the archives at Howard University on very short notice. I have to thank Jomo Cheatham at the Du Sable Museum and Hondo with Spear and Shield Publications for inviting me to events that commemorated the history of the Black Panther Party. In Chi-town, I was also encouraged to finish by fellow doctoral candidates Ian Rocksborough-Smith, Farah Moosa, Sean Ossei-Owusu, Ricardo Sánchez, Myrna García, and Tera Agyepong, along with Dr. Erik Gellman at Roosevelt. It was also a pleasure to meet Anton Miglietta and contribute to the efforts of the Chicago Grassroots Curriculum Task Force. Of course, this study would have been impossible without the willingness of the Chicago activists who were open to sharing their thoughts and memories with me. The conversations I had with Cha Cha Jiménez, Mike James, Jeff Haas, Flip Taylor, Prexy Nesbitt, Mike Klonsky, Hy Thurman, Lynn French, Billy “Che” Brooks, Billy Dunbar, Akua Njeri, Chairman Fred Hampton Jr., Useni Perkins, Willie Calvin, Dennis Cunningham, Penelope Rosemont, Dr. John Bracey, Tim Black, Nwaji Nefajito, Ann Kendrick, Stan McKinney, Rev. Slim Coleman, Omar López, Obéd Lopez, Howard Ehrman, and Bruce Berman taught me so much and provided all of the inspiration and perspective to push through the difficult moments of writing. I am eternally grateful that this project gave me the opportunity to meet so many remarkable human beings that have continued to serve the needs of their communities and work in the spirit of liberation. Any shortcomings of this study should certainly not be attributed to them. v I am no different than anyone else who has undertaken the task of writing a dissertation in that I have needed the strength and encouragement of family members and friends. To my brothers and sisters, thank you for all the love, support, and good times over the years. I would also like to acknowledge my tia Lucy in Las Cruces, my uncle Hector, tia Maria and the whole Gamboa tribe, Victor and Josie, Roberto and Esperanza, the Bonilla family, the familia in Ciudad Juárez, Dennis Aguirre and Lupe Rubio, Violeta Mena-Guerra and David Guerra, Dan Marquez, Dennis Robbins, Shaun Lewis and Francesca Alonso, Hector González and Isela Estrada, Carlos Marentes and mi gente from Paso del Sur, and Kenny Chávez and all the homies in Albuquerque that helped a young cat from Chicago get back on his feet. Finally, my parents Esther and Ezequiel deserve the upmost affection for their unwavering commitment to my personal, political, and intellectual development. They have kept me rooted during periods of confusion, and have taught me how to treat people with humility, to defend workers, to fight with dignity, and to speak with sincerity. You will always be my model of revolutionary struggle. Finally, anyone who knows me understands that a great peace entered my life when I met Karla Enriquez almost ten years ago. Every step of the way Karla has stood with me, calmed my nerves, kept me balanced, and given me strength and confidence. She immediately understood the importance of this project, helped me to sharpen my ideas, and has fought for its completion. This project is as much the result of her labor as mine. I cannot express enough love and admiration for you. Thank you again to everyone. Your contributions are deeply appreciated. vi Abstract The Original Rainbow Coalition was a revolutionary alliance established in Chicago in early 1969 by the Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party, the Young Lords Organization, and the Young Patriots. The alliance connected one of the largest Black Panther chapters in the country with its headquarters in the heart of North Lawndale, to militant organizations in other outcast communities of the city. In Uptown, the Young Patriots were rooted in almost a decade of grassroots efforts that aimed to organize poor people in a community that featured a large population of southern whites who migrated to Chicago. And in Lincoln Park, the Young Lords had evolved from a street organization involved in the ethnic conflicts of the neighborhood to a political organization that defended against the blatant removal of the working-class Puerto Rican residents from the area. Witnessing harsh realities of poverty, police terror, and displacement, the Young Patriots and Young Lords were the first to embrace the Panther’s politics of working-class solidarity and community service. In contrast to scholars that examine radical coalitions of the late sixties through ethnic histories of community formation, or through the lens of the black freedom struggle during the long civil rights era, this dissertation centers the history of racialized governmentality in Chicago to explain the formation and political significance of the Original Rainbow Coalition. Tracing the evolution of state racism in Chicago from the period of Indian Removal to the War on Poverty era, it demonstrates that a sophisticated strategy of racialized governmentality developed in Chicago following the Great Depression. Due to profound histories of “inter-racial” solidarity at the point of production during the 1930s, this study reveals that a neo-liberal political milieu was consolidated in Chicago in the following decades, and that state capitalism increasingly thrived upon the racialization of poverty, the incitement of racial consciousness, and the preservation of segregated spaces of poverty and despair in the city. Utilizing a comparative and transnational framework to evaluate racial politics in Chicago during the post-Great Depression era, this dissertation argues that the oppositional consciousness that mobilized vii the Original Rainbow Coalition derived from the historically specific material conditions maintained by a neo-liberal state in Chicago.
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