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It Is Not Enough to Survive: The Young Patriots Story
Formed in the late 1960s, the Young Patriots Organization was a Chicago-based radical group made up of young white migrants from Appalachia and the South who helped found Black Panther activist Fred Hampton’s Rainbow Coalition. The YPO grew from a local street gang into a powerful political and social force in the city’s Uptown neighborhood, where it fought against police brutality, racism, economic exploitation, and displacement through community organizing, the establishment of survival programs, and working-class cultural organizations.
In this first stand-alone history of the YPO, Jesse Montgomery presents the group as one of the New Left’s most enigmatic anti-racist organizations—one inspired by the moral and political power of the civil rights movement and the street corner socialism of the Black Panthers but also one that embraced regressive Southern identifiers, such as Confederate flags, that belied its liberatory message. Though the YPO’s existence was short-lived, its story helps us to reimagine radical unity in the face of dislocation, political oppression, and the brutal incentives of racial capitalism. As Montgomery argues, its work to cross racial and class lines and build coalitions for the greater good is a symbol of the America that could still be.
In this first stand-alone history of the YPO, Jesse Montgomery presents the group as one of the New Left’s most enigmatic anti-racist organizations—one inspired by the moral and political power of the civil rights movement and the street corner socialism of the Black Panthers but also one that embraced regressive Southern identifiers, such as Confederate flags, that belied its liberatory message. Though the YPO’s existence was short-lived, its story helps us to reimagine radical unity in the face of dislocation, political oppression, and the brutal incentives of racial capitalism. As Montgomery argues, its work to cross racial and class lines and build coalitions for the greater good is a symbol of the America that could still be.
- GenresHistory
296 pages, Paperback
Published May 26, 2026
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June 16, 2026
Fascinating account of the Young Patriots origins and operations in the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago.
The Young Patriots grew out of (and displaced) earlier organizations operated by the Students for a Democratic Society, both before and after the SDS’s turn towards a focus on opposition to the Vietnam War (initially as part of its ERAP initiative, later under the name “JOIN” (Jobs Or Income Now). Parallel to these groups were the Good Fellows, which began as a traditional street gang of poor whites, but ultimately took over what had been JOIN, and became a founding member of the Rainbow Coalition with the Black Panthers, Young Lords, and others.
Underlying all of this was the massive migration of poor white people out of the South. While most of the historical writing on this migration has focused on the mass movement of Black people out of the South, in fact the majority of these migrants were white. In Chicago, these migrants settled in Uptown, much to the distress of the middle class and monied interests.
The battle for the soul of Uptown was at the heart of all of these organizations, and continues today!
Full disclosure: the Uptown People’s Law Center (where I worked for most of my adult life) is briefly mentioned as carrying on the model of Survival programs in Uptown pioneered by the Young Patriots. Ironically (and completely unknown to us), UPLC ended up operating out of the very suite of three offices from which the Young Patriots operated its most successful survival program: its free health clinic!
The book concludes by noting renewed interest in the Young Patriots after the election of Trump in 2016, as people were searching for ideas on how and why working class white people supported him, and how they might be persuaded to retune to the left!
The Young Patriots grew out of (and displaced) earlier organizations operated by the Students for a Democratic Society, both before and after the SDS’s turn towards a focus on opposition to the Vietnam War (initially as part of its ERAP initiative, later under the name “JOIN” (Jobs Or Income Now). Parallel to these groups were the Good Fellows, which began as a traditional street gang of poor whites, but ultimately took over what had been JOIN, and became a founding member of the Rainbow Coalition with the Black Panthers, Young Lords, and others.
Underlying all of this was the massive migration of poor white people out of the South. While most of the historical writing on this migration has focused on the mass movement of Black people out of the South, in fact the majority of these migrants were white. In Chicago, these migrants settled in Uptown, much to the distress of the middle class and monied interests.
The battle for the soul of Uptown was at the heart of all of these organizations, and continues today!
Full disclosure: the Uptown People’s Law Center (where I worked for most of my adult life) is briefly mentioned as carrying on the model of Survival programs in Uptown pioneered by the Young Patriots. Ironically (and completely unknown to us), UPLC ended up operating out of the very suite of three offices from which the Young Patriots operated its most successful survival program: its free health clinic!
The book concludes by noting renewed interest in the Young Patriots after the election of Trump in 2016, as people were searching for ideas on how and why working class white people supported him, and how they might be persuaded to retune to the left!
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review