Lifelong activist, organizer and educator Denise Oliver-Vélez has died at the age of 78. She was a central figure in the civil rights movements of the 1960s and 1970s and was the first woman elected to the Young Lords Central Committee, a radical Puerto Rican human rights group modeled on the Black Panther Party, which Oliver-Vélez was also a member of. She later became the first Black female program director in public radio and taught at SUNY New Paltz.
As a founding member of the Young Lords, Democracy Now!'s Juan González worked alongside Oliver-Vélez. “She helped develop many of [the Young Lords'] Serve the People programs and helped to shape and write some of the key literature we produced back then,” says González, adding that “Denise was never afraid to speak her mind, to challenge authority and to tell her comrades what they needed to hear — not what they wanted to hear — and she always did it with love and kindness.”
Iran Claims Eight People Killed as U.S. Bombards Civilian Infrastructure, Wildfires Cause Dense Smoke and Hazardous Air Quality in More Than 20 States, Trump Accuses China of Interfering in 2020 Election, Without Providing Evidence, Trump’s Teleprompter Operator Reportedly Earned Over $100K Betting on Presidential Speeches, Truth Social Plans to Sell Priority Access to Trump’s Posts, Iranian Official Claims Kushner and Witkoff Sought to Exploit Negotiations for Personal Gain, ICE Agent Who Fatally Shot Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero Identified as David Brouillette, Rights Groups Demand Probe of ICE Violently Attempting Arrest of Elderly Man in Nevada, So-Called Border Czar Tom Homan Warns ICE Critics That “Bloodshed” Will Continue, U.S. Tightens Visa Rules for Foreign Students, Journalists and Cultural Exchange Visitors, Denise Oliver-Vélez, Lifelong Activist, Organizer and Educator, Dies at Age 78
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