The New Haven Youth Movement
The New Haven Youth Movement
This chapter investigates the New Haven youth movement in the late 1980s. Fostered by a coalition of black college students and working-class youth, the New Haven youth movement coordinated an antiviolence/anticrime initiative designed to combat the burgeoning gun violence between rival street gangs, participated in a protest campaign for equitable public school funding, and mobilized black youth in support of grassroots electoral organizing campaigns. The movement underscored three characteristics of post-civil rights activism. First, it showed how young people can be catalysts for social change in urban municipalities plagued by decaying political machines and social stratification. Second, it demonstrated how young people can be valuable resources to persons who seek to challenge racial hierarchies and economic injustices in municipalities. Third, it identified the difficulties youth activists experience in sustaining resistance campaigns that challenge power structures, especially when allied with public officials and black leaders inclined toward institutional leveraging.
Keywords: New Haven youth movement, black college students, working-class youth, antiviolence, anticrime, post-civil rights activism, urban municipalities, institutional leveraging
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