On the night of May 4th, 1969, several Young Lords, including 22-year-old Manuel Ramos, was celebrating a birthday in Chicago's Bridgeport neighborhood on the city's south side.

- Manuel Ramos was a father, he was a brother, he was a friend.

As people described him, soft spoken, just a really good guy.

- There are differing narratives of what exactly happened.

- [Narrator] There was a confrontation outside the party, between Ramos and a white man.

(tense music) Witnesses said the man did not identify himself as off-duty Chicago Police Officer, James Lamb.

- Police officer Lamb opens fire.

(tense music) - [Narrator] Lamb shot Ramos in the face.

He was pronounced dead later that night.

(tense music) - It really is a painful story for a lot of people, because he was beloved and they had been friends for many years.

- [Narrator] The Young Lords were outraged and wanted justice, but Officer Lamb claimed he was acting in self-defense and was never charged.

- I think my first reaction was, "Let's do something about Manuel's death."

You know?

"They can't get away with this."

(tense music) - [Narrator] Instead of resorting to street justice, the Young Lords organized a rally to honor their fallen friend.

- All the membership came out, dressed in black with purple berets.

And I think that the image that was projected right there to the community, was unity.

- [Narrator] But it wasn't just the Young Lords that showed up.

Ramos' death at the hands of a white officer had caught the attention of the Black Panthers and other like-minded activist groups.

More than 2,000 Latinos, Blacks, and whites marched together to Ramos's wake.

- They brought people together from different gangs, elders in the community.

Black mothers, and Puerto Rican mothers, and Mexican mothers descended on that neighborhood and understood their common cause.

- [Narrator] This mass gathering of ordinary people of color in solidarity against police violence became a pivotal moment in civil rights history.

So important, it was memorialized in the 2021 Academy Award-winning movie, "Judas and the Black Messiah."

- [Actor] Well, guess what?

America's on fire right now.

- [Narrator] Depicting the Young Lords and the Black Panthers standing together.

In the wake of the tragedy, Cha Cha formed an unshakeable bond with Fred Hampton.

- Black Panther Party, a lot of people say we are violent.

We are a self-defense organization that believes that the people should be educated on what's going on.

- My dad and Fred Hampton were like brothers, and I think they really inspired each other because of their shared causes and their shared struggles.

- [Narrator] Hampton invited the Young Lords to form a multiracial alliance with the Black Panthers and the Young Patriots, a group of impoverished white Appalachians led by 20-year-old William Fesperman.

Together, they called themselves The Rainbow Coalition.

- Well, I think it speaks to the brilliance of Fred Hampton and Cha Cha Jiménez, that they saw the importance of coalition building.

And coming together around the murder of Manuel Ramos was also a way for the Black Panther Party to see the Young Lords as comrades, as people in the struggle with them.

If they were going to build this movement, they needed to work with each other.

That's the power of The Rainbow Coalition.

- [Narrator] This multiracial organization was a first of its kind, a remarkable feat considering the youth of its leadership.

- Most of them were teenagers and young men.

I think for all of them to be kicked out of their homes and see people close to you being murdered in front of you, my father, in his words, he said, "How could you not fight?"

- [Narrator] The Young Lords used every tactic in the organizer's playbook to grab attention and recruit activists.

Flyers, a newspaper, cultural festivals, protests, meeting disruption, and one particularly risky but effective activity, takeovers.

(melodious music) Presbyterian McCormick Theological Seminary was one of the oldest institutions in Lincoln Park.

It would become the epicenter of a battle that pitted the seminary's plans for development against the needs of the poor community, and would ultimately put the Young Lords on the map as a force of change to be reckoned with.

- According to a study that the seminarians themselves did, they found out that McCormick was really a slum landlord in Lincoln Park.

- [Narrator] On May 6th, 1969, just two days after Manny Ramos' death, the Young Lords staged a protest during the dedication ceremony for the seminary's new $2 million administration building.

- The United Presbyterian Church, USA, had mandated that its institutions direct and contribute 30% of their unrestricted funds to help poor communities.

So this group is demanding that McCormick Seminary pay it $601,000 for mixed income housing, for a Puerto Rican legal aid office, for a medical clinic, for resources for the Lincoln Park community.

- So it was quite a calling on the church, to act on who they say they are.

(tense music) - [Narrator] But the institution rejected every request.

(tense music) It was time for the Young Lords to take dramatic action.

- And we said, you know what?

We can take this building over.

(tense music) - They said, "We just go in and occupy until they decide whether or not they're gonna help us with housing."

And they did.

- It was the seminary students that provided Cha Cha Jiménez and the Young Lords with a layout of the building.

They gave them advice for when to execute the occupation, who would be in the building.

(tense music) - [Narrator] At midnight on May 15th, 1969, the Young Lords stormed the building and chained the doors.

(tense music) - They set up people across the building, at all of the doors, all of the openings, making sure they knew who was coming in and out.

They were there to send a message to McCormick Seminary.

(tense music) - [Narrator] The next morning, the Young Lords' unfurled a banner declaring the occupied site the Manuel Ramos Memorial Building.

Over the next few day and nights, more than 200 community members and activists showed up in support of the Young Lords.

But seminary leaders were not interested in negotiating.

- We will seek a court order compelling those occupying the stone building to remove themselves forthwith.

(tense music) - We heard that they were gonna attack and take us out of there by force, so we all moved into the library.

(tense music) - The seminarians said, you know, the library really holds a very valuable collection of antique biblical documents and books.

- [Narrator] The Young Lords barricaded themselves in the library, among priceless antiquities, and forced their hand.

- So we told 'em, "If you bring in the police, we don't know what's gonna happen in the library."

(tense music) - [Narrator] The tactic worked.

On day five, the seminary relented and agreed to give the Young Lords the $601,000 for low income housing in Lincoln Park, plus $75,000 for cultural programs, healthcare, and a legal aid office.

- This is not just the Young Lords saying, "Here's everything that's wrong with urban renewal."

It was the Young Lords and their coalition stepping up and saying, "Here are the things that are wrong, and these are our solutions."