Real Great Society Explained
The Real Great Society (RGS) was a Puerto Rican youth collective created by activists AngeloGonzalez and Carlos ‘Chino’ García on New York City's Lower East Side in 1964.[1] Its name was a reference to then-President Lyndon B Johnson’s Great Society. Its goal was to help residents of the poverty-stricken neighborhoods of New York City attain bottom-up self-sufficiency.[2] In June 1967, RGS members created the University of the Streets, which one member described as an organization that would have "young people from the neighborhood develop a curriculum which is relevant to them, their lives, their experience."[3] The school, housed in a building on the corner of Seventh Street and Avenue A, lasted for over 30 years.[4] Chino Garcia and several other members of the Real Great Society went on to form CHARAS/El Bohio, considered a successor organization to RGS in 1979.[5]
References
- Schrader. Timo. 2018. Education as a Human Right: The Real Great Society and a Pedagogy of Activism. Journal for the Study of Radicalism. 12. 1. 123–157. jstor.
- Book: Bagchee, Nandini. Counter Institution: Activist Estates of the Lower East Side. Fordham University Press. 2018. 9780823279265.
- News: Kihss. Peter. February 27, 1968. Ex-Gang Leaders Obtain U.S. Funds. New York Times. February 7, 2020.
- Book: Resistance : a radical political and social history of the Lower East Side. 2007. Seven Stories Press. Clayton Patterson, Joe Flood, Alan Moore. 978-1-58322-745-9. Seven stories press 1st. New York. 23–25. 76794738.
- Book: Resistance : a radical political and social history of the Lower East Side. 2007. Seven Stories Press. Clayton Patterson, Joe Flood, Alan Moore. 978-1-58322-745-9. Seven stories press 1st. New York. 21–36. 76794738.
Further reading
