The Lincoln Hospital Takeover
History Daily
History Daily
4.4 • 2.5K Ratings
🗓️ 14 July 2025
⏱️ 17 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
July 14, 1970. A group of Puerto Rican activists stage an occupation demanding better health care at the Lincoln Hospital in South Bronx, New York City.
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Transcript
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| 0:30.6 | Thank you. It's just after midday on June 17, 1970 in Manhattan, New York. 22-year-old Miguel Mickey Melendez maneuvers a large truck through the busy streets. |
| 0:35.6 | He's never driven something this big before. |
| 0:38.4 | The truck belongs to the New York City Health Department, |
| 0:41.0 | and Mickey has not been given permission to drive it, |
| 0:43.3 | but he's not worried about that right now. |
| 0:45.6 | Mickey is a member of the Young Lords Party, |
| 0:47.9 | a group of radical civil rights activists. |
| 0:50.6 | Mickey and his mostly Puerto Rican comrades |
| 0:52.9 | believe there is a tuberculosis epidemic underway in their community, |
| 0:56.6 | but no one's doing anything to stop it. |
| 0:59.0 | So today, Mickey and the Young Lords have hijacked the city health department's mobile X-ray truck |
| 1:04.1 | and brought it to their headquarters. |
| 1:06.6 | Mickey nears the corner of Madison Avenue and 111st Street. |
| 1:10.5 | Waiting for him there is a crowd of nearly 200 people. |
| 1:13.9 | They clap and cheer Mickey's arrival as he brings the vehicle to a jerking stop. |
| 1:18.9 | And with the truck safely parked, Mickey opens the driver's door and climbs out. |
| 1:23.7 | He smiles at some of the faces he recognizes in the crowd as he rams the vehicle. |
| 1:28.3 | Then he opens up the back of the truck to reveal an x-ray machine and two very confused technicians. |
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