Youth Organizations United

Y.O.U. is a national coalition of youth

groups which was formed to provide a

forum to discuss ideas, programs,

resources and experience.

Warren Gilmore, President of Y.O.U. says:

"No matter how glamorous and hip it looked in West Side Story, that's no kind of life to dig on. We look at ourselves now and what have we got? Yet, right this minute, on a street corner or in an alley, a pusher is slipping a kid - 14, 15 years old - some bread to deliver dope. The pusher's wearing $40 shoes and a well-fed smile. The kid's impressed and hungry. He's studying to be a pusher too. That's making it big man. There's got to be something better for these young cats." Gilmore is a member of Chicago's Vice Lords, now Conservative Vice Lords, Inc. Bobby Gore, another pf the Lords' leaders, describes how they became conservative:

"As a gang, we ruled the streets of Lawndale. Cars were stocked with shotguns; young men were mauled in street battles and many were arrested and sent to jail. One evening when we were sitting around, one of the young fellows said he wanted to take about 50 fellows later that night to make a fall. We asked him why and who he wanted to fall on. Had anyone misused him? His reply was that we, the older lords, had made a name and they wanted to keep it alive. He also mentioned that we hadn't made a fall in so many months. The young dudes wanted to be like us - take up where we left off. Their intentions were to hurt anyone or everyone who walked the streets that night.

"We sat up all night; told them how we saw people die, how guys got caught up, how the people and police would hate their guts, and how they may very well be the ones who got killed.

"You would be surprised at the words these young men said. They said, well, we got to have something to do. We can't get jobs, we're too old to go back to school, and we're too big to play games. What else is there to do?

"We the leaders, then called a meeting of younger fellows. We told them we knew how they felt because this same feeling was how we got into trouble. We told them we didn't want them to get hurt or to hurt anyone and we would try to find something for them to do. Most of them wanted jobs; so wished they could get back in school; others didn't care what they got - they were just tired of the same old routine. With the burden of these kids on our backs, we had to turn conservative."

Gang leaders in other cities were feeling the same kind of pressure and the responsibility of being the last hope of their young brothers.

Life magazine ran an uplifting article about Carlos "Chino" Garcia, a gang leader on New York's Lower East Side. Years of ghetto life had taught him that many outside individuals and agencies were honestly concerned and were coming to the slums to help, but he recognized how difficult it was for the little kids to transfer their allegiance from the gang leaders to strangers who might indeed offer them a better life. Garcia brought together leaders from other gangs in the city and together they organized their members into a group called The Real Great Society. They began cleaning up their neighborhoods, fighting the rats, and offering jobs and hope to youngsters who wanted to emulate them. Even distrustful city officials began applauding their effectiveness. Then Time magazine ran a story about San Francisco's Rebels in Action, who under the leadership of Jesse James, had become Mission Rebels in Action, and James and Garcia heard about each other for the first time. They learned that gangs all over the country were trying to redirect the energies of youth in inner city communities from burning to building. They had no money, no advisors. Few believed their motives - least of all the big city cops who knew first-hand how tough these young men were and could be at the drop of a hat.

Nevertheless, in the fall of 1967, Garcia called a meeting of eight gang leaders from various parts of the country and they resolved to form a national communications network to be called Youth Organizations United, which would pool the experiences of youth groups across the nation, and seek financing to enroll as many such groups as possible.

Having no resources with which to form a recruiting team, Y.O.U. decided on a "Traveler" system, whereby individual members of the initial eight gangs would travel to various cities, by whatever means available, and talk to active street gangs. Gilmore, an early "Traveler", describes how it was done:

"You go in cold to the worst section in the town. Where there's a ghetto, there's a gang. Hang around the poolroom, the liquor store, the playground, the street corners. Get to know the gangs and their leaders. You're from the same kind of set. You are a gang leader. You speak the language. You're on the set. When you get around to talking about Y.O.U., you find 80 per cent of the time they're hungry for it. There's action in it. Dignity. Self respect. A Chance to feel important without ending up in jail. A chance to change your surroundings for real -- not through the drug scene."

With 60 groups enrolled as members, a meeting was held on May 19, 1968, in East St. Louis, and a National Proposal was written, embodying the hopes of the founders and the resolution to find the means to make these hopes a reality.

Today there is a great deal of talk about "radical ideas of young people; their new attitudes, their new sense of values, their search for more meaningful lives -- and their questioning of the "old" ways represented by the rich and the super-rich. But the problem is not that young people are ahead of their time, only that most people are far, too far, behind the time.

Y.O.U. is greatful to its friends and to the federal government for the vote of confidence in funding us as a demonstration project for one year. We feel a sense of responsibility to make the program work -- not just for us, but for those who have expressed confidence in us.

However, in one year we will only have begun the job. In one year we should be pretty well organized. Only then can we get our programs into full swing. We need your help. We need members, friends and supporters. Write your Congressman and tell him you think Y.O.U. is necessary. Drop by one of our group headquarters and rap. Tell your friends about us. We're not just talking to kids in the ghetto, but to anyone who will help us and accept our help. When we were getting together, we said if someone didn't do something to help kids on the street have a better life, some kind of social destruction was inevitable. Something was bound to happen -- not because the poor are violent, but because poverty is violent. We got a lot of press out of that phrase, "This is not a threat, it's fact." It still is.

Warren Gilmore

President

Youth Organizations United