Youth Liberation of Ann Arbor was an organization based in

Ann Arbor, Michigan Ann Arbor is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Washtenaw County, Michigan, Washtenaw County. The 2020 United States census, 2020 census recorded its population to be 123,851. It is the principal city of the Ann Arbor ...

. It existed from 1970 to 1979, and is often cited in more recent academic literature as one of the leading forerunners of several

youth movement The following is a list of youth organizations. A youth organization is a type of organization with a focus upon providing activities and socialization for minors. In this list, most organizations are international unless noted otherwise. 0 ...

s in the United States, including the

youth rights movement The youth rights movement (also known as youth liberation) seeks to grant the rights to young people that are traditionally reserved for adults, due to having reached a specific age or sufficient maturity. This is closely akin to the notion ...

, youth voice movement, and the youth media movement.

History

The organization was founded by several Ann Arbor teenagers in December of 1970, when the first draft of the Youth Liberation platform was written. and served as a principal informational and organizational hub for a host of similar efforts around the country. Its central aims included student control of education, the free development of youth culture, and an end to discrimination against youth, with related emphases on

gay rights Rights affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people vary greatly by country or jurisdiction—encompassing everything from the legal recognition of same-sex marriage to the death penalty for homosexuality. Notably, , 3 ...

for young people,

environmentalism Environmentalism or environmental rights is a broad philosophy, ideology, and social movement regarding concerns for environmental protection and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seek ...

, and an end to the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

. Youth Liberation also allied with older radicals in Ann Arbor- and

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

-area organizations such as the

White Panther Party The White Panthers were an anti-racist political collective founded in November 1968 by Pun Plamondon, Leni Sinclair, and John Sinclair. It was started in response to an interview where Huey P. Newton, co-founder of the Black Panther Party, wa ...

and the Human Rights Party. In the Spring of 1971, its members successfully persuaded the Ann Arbor, Mich. city council to drop its curfew laws. During the 1971-1972 school year, student unions were started in many schools in the Ann Arbor area. In 1972, Youth Liberation's

Sonia Yaco Sonia Yaco was the 1972 Human Rights Party candidate for the Ann Arbor, Michigan, school board. When she ran for office at the age of fifteen, she was the youngest documented candidate ever for a publicly elected school board seat in the United ...

, a fifteen-year-old student, ran for the Ann Arbor School Board as a member of the local Human Rights Party. Regulations stipulated that only adults could run for school board, but Yaco's demands for a student voice in school governance earned her 1,300 votes as a write-in candidate, or eight percent of the total. Her campaign indirectly influenced the establishment of the experimental,

alternative Alternative or alternate may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * Alternative (''Kamen Rider''), a character in the Japanese TV series ''Kamen Rider Ryuki'' * ''The Alternative'' (film), a 1978 Australian television film * ''The Alternative ...

Community High School in Ann Arbor later that year.

Publications

The group's publications arm, the Youth Liberation Press, began in 1969 as a separate entity known as CHIPS (Chicago area High school Independent Press Service), the acronym later changed to stand for Cooperative High school Independent Press Service, founded by John Schaller based in

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. The news service was created to provide articles and graphics for high school papers (both official and underground) as well as to young people in general. After a short stint from 1970-1972 in

Houston, Texas Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

, where the press began publishing ''FPS'', a news magazine for youth, the press moved to Ann Arbor and merged with Youth Liberation of Ann Arbor. An early issue of FPS lists its contributors as Liz Bell, Keith Hefner, Chuck Ream, John Schaller, and Sonia Yaco.FPS, February 7, 1972, issue. In addition to ''FPS'' (later ''Magazine of Young People's Liberation''), the press put out several collections of essays in book and pamphlet format, including: *''How to Start a High School Underground Newspaper'' (Chicago, IL: High School Independent Press, 1969). *''Youth Liberation: News, Politics and Survival Information'' (Washington, NJ: Times Change Press, 1972). *''High School Women's Liberation'' (Ann Arbor, MI: Youth Liberation Press, 1976). *''A Youth Liberation Pamphlet'' (Ann Arbor, MI: Youth Liberation Press, 1977). *''Growing Up Gay'' (Boston, MA: Carrier Pigeon, 1978). *Keith Hefner, ''Children's Rights Handbook'' (Ann Arbor, MI: Youth Liberation Press, 1979). Currently all pamphlets and issues of FPS published from 1970 through 1978 are available on the websit
www.youthliberation.com
owned by Chuck Ream, one of the earliest contributors to the publication.

Manifesto

The group's manifesto was reprinted in ''The Children's Rights Movement: Overcoming the Oppression of Young People'', edited by Beatrice and Ronald Gross (Garden City, NY: Anchor Press/Doubleday, 1977), pp. 329–33. ''YOUTH LIBERATION PROGRAM LIST OF WANTS'' -- ''"We must liberate ourselves from the death trip of corporate America."'' :1. We want the power to determine our own destiny. :2. We want the immediate end of adult chauvinism. :3. We want full civil and human rights. :4. We want the right to form our education according to our needs. :5. We want the freedom to form into communal families. :6. We want the end of male chauvinism and sexism. :7. We want the opportunity to create an authentic culture with institutions of our own making. :8. We want sexual self-determination. We believe all people must have the unhindered right to be heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, or transsexual. :9. We want the end of class antagonism among young people. :10. We want the end of racism and colonialism in the United States and the world. :11. We want freedom for all unjustly imprisoned people. :12. We want the right to be economically independent of adults. :13. We want the right to live in harmony with nature. :14. We want to rehumanize existence. :15. We want to develop communication and solidarity with the young people of the world in our common struggle for freedom and peace.

References

External links

*Mike Mosher
"Youth Liberation of Ann Arbor: Young, Gifted and Media-Savvy"
''Bad Subjects'', no. 47 (January 2000). *Keith Hefner

originally published in ''Social-Policy'', vol. 19, no. 1 (Summer 1988), pp. 21–24. {{Youth empowerment Youth organizations based in Michigan Anti–Vietnam War groups Youth rights organizations based in the United States Youth organizations established in 1970 1979 disestablishments in the United States Youth-led media History of youth Organizations based in Ann Arbor, Michigan

History

Publications

Manifesto

See also

References

External links