The Rainbow and the Machine

Hy Thurman, Jesse Montgomery

Hy Thurman, author of Revolutionary Hillbilly and founding member of both the Young Patriots Organization (YPO) and Original Rainbow Coalition, interviewed by Jesse Montgomery, author of the recent 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, along with the Young Lords, 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 the summer of 1969, the Patriots traveled from Chicago to participate in the Black Panther Party’s United Front Against Fascism, a pan-ethnic, pan-tendency, gathering of New Left groups that were convened to defend the people against an increasingly tyrannical state. As a group of poor white revolutionaries, the YPO’s participation was especially notable. In this interview, we plan to discuss the history of the YPO, their work with the Panthers, and the lessons this story of anti-racist working class organizing holds for those fighting fascism today.