In late July 1969, the group staged their first action in an effort to force the City of New York to increase garbage pick-up in East Harlem.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, this Sunday, members of the Young Lords are planning to come together to mark the fortieth anniversary of the group’s founding.

One, the First Spanish Methodist Church is empty six days a week.

We got into negotiations with the city, of saying, “Why park it there?

It was taking ten or fifteen years.