Youth-Led Movements in History

Youth have played a critical role throughout history as agents of change in reshaping the world. A comment we heard from nearly all of our 2021 Fellows is how inspired they felt learning about social justice movements through our program that they have never learned about through their schools.

There is a deep history of organizing and movement-building that has often been untold. In concert with our first YOI Report, we’ve launched an ongoing series highlighting youth-led movements in history to connect to the present and empower young people via social media.

Follow us @yoi_ny to see more on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook! Click on each image to access the entire set of infographics.

The Young Lords: "The Black Panther Party's Puerto Rican Counterpart" Below are 3 black and white images of Denise Oliver-Velez, Juan Gonzalez, and Jose "Cha Cha" Jimenez, leaders of the Young Lords.

Title in big letters: "Old Enough to Fight, Old Enough to Vote" Below: "How students & youth activists won the right to vote!" At the bottom of the graphic, there is a black+white image of youth with a banner "Support the 18 Yr Old Vote"

The Youth Vote Impact in NY. Graphic of light, medium, dark brown hands raised, with text above them

The "Asian American" Movement. DID YOU KNOW? Driven by student activists inspired by Black Liberation and antiwar movements, diverse communities began to consciously unite as "Asian Americans." Image below of Asian protestors linking arms

East LA Chicano Student Blowouts. Photo of student protesters holding signs that read "School not Prison" and "We are not 'Dirty Mexicans'"

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (1960-1970). Image of a group of Black youth SNCC members smiling. Below, it reads, "DID YOU KNOW? Before John Lewis became a Congressman, he led a group of young people who risked their lives to end segregat