The Brown Berets are a revolutionary Mexican American group that formed in Los Angeles in 1966 during the Chicano Movement. They have been active community organizers ever since, struggling against racial profiling, inferior education/healthcare, and other issues faced in the barrios of America.Â
They have survived covert infiltrations by the FBI, LAPD, and ATF, being a target of COINTELPRO and other illegal government actions. They participated in Fred Hamptonâs Rainbow Coalition in Chicago along with the Black Panther Party and Young Lords Party.
Although they have been known to have discredited the feminist struggle as secondary to liberation from racism and poverty, they played a significant role in serving their communities, educating the people, setting up free clinics, and holding direct action protests against police brutality.
They were big supporters of the United Farm Workers movement, the Land Grants movement, and the Poor Peopleâs Campaign. They saw a resurgence in activity in the 90âs after the passage of Californiaâs Proposition 187, which restricted education, healthcare and social services for undocumented immigrants
hashbrownblessed to have had teachers in high school have us watch movies about the Brown Berets and the chicano movement to empower us.Â
