Pod Insights American History Tellers History Daily: The Lincoln Hospital Takeover About this episode 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.
You can listen ad-free in the Wondery or Amazon Music app. Or for all that and more, go to IntoHistory.com
History Daily is a co-production of Airship and Noiser.
Go to HistoryDaily.com for more history, daily.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Transcript Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
0:09 Lindsay Graham? It's just after midday on June 17, 1970, in Manhattan, New York. Twenty-two-year-old Miguel "Mickey" Melendez maneuvers a large truck through the busy streets. He's never driven something this big before. The truck belongs to the New York City Health Department, and Mickey has not been given permission to drive it, but he's not worried about that right now. Mickey is a member of the Young Lords Party, a group of radical civil rights activists. Mickey and his mostly Puerto Rican comrades believe there is a tuberculosis epidemic underway in their community, but no one's doing anything to stop it. So today, Mickey and the Young Lords have hijacked the city health department's mobile X-ray truck and brought it to their headquarters. Mickey nears the corner of Madison Avenue and 111th Street.
0:54 Lindsay Graham? Waiting for him there is a crowd of nearly 200 people. They clap and cheer Mickey's arrival as he brings the vehicle to a jerking stop. And with the truck safely parked, Mickey opens the driver's door and climbs out. He smiles at some of the faces he recognizes in the crowd as he rams the vehicle. Then he opens up the back of the truck to reveal an X-ray machine and two very confused technicians. Mickey helps them out and introduces them to the crowd. Mickey asks for the technicians' help to X-ray every member of the public waiting here today. Sharing a look with his colleague, the first technician nods. An elderly woman from the neighborhood is the first to step forward, and Mickey invites
1:34 Lindsay Graham? her into the truck as the technicians switch on their machine to get to work. By the end of the day, Mickey Melendez will have overseen the examination of more patients than the X-ray technicians would normally see in a week, and the Young Lords stunt will reveal many undiagnosed cases of tuberculosis. It will also lead to a change in city policy, making the truck more accessible to the people who need it most. The hijacking is such a success that even the kidnapped X-ray technicians will praise it, and it will encourage the Young Lords to move forward with an even bigger plan: to take over an entire hospital on July 14, 1970.
2:17 Speaker 01 PrizePix packs are here. Rip digital packs and get real basketball, football, and Pokemon cards on PrizePix packs. Available now nationwide. Once you see your pool, you have a choice to sell back instantly for real cash or ship at home. Cash from your sale will immediately be added to your PrizePix balance. It's just another way to run your game. New users, download the PrizePix app today and use code WONDERY to get $25 instantly in bonus packs when you buy your first $5 pack. PrizePix, run your game. 18-plus eligible areas. Terms apply. Collect responsibly.
2:47 Speaker 02 Hey, I'm David Brown, the host of Business Wars from Audible Originals. Indian Motorcycle and Harley-Davidson once defined American riding until Indian collapsed. Decades later, against the odds, one company dared to bring the iconic brand back, and the rivalry has returned. Listen to Business Wars on Audible or wherever you get your podcasts.
3:10 Lindsay Graham? From Noiser and Airship, I'm Lindsay Graham, and this is History Daily.
3:31 Lindsay Graham? History is made every day. On this podcast, every day, we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world. Today is July 14, 1970, the Lincoln Hospital takeover.
3:47 Lindsay Graham? It's just after 5:00 a.m. on July 14, 1970, in the South Bronx, New York, a month after the Young Lords hijacked a mobile X-ray truck. 22-year-old Mickey Melendez is once again behind the wheel of a large vehicle, but today, he's on a new mission. This time, his truck isn't carrying X-ray technicians. Instead, it's crammed with members of the Young Lords, all dressed in white doctor's coats. The streets are still quiet when Mickey parks outside the Lincoln Hospital and climbs out. He throws open the back doors of the truck and starts handing out baseball bats and nunchucks to the men and women inside. While he arms his comrades, two more trucks, filled with other activists, pull up alongside Mickey. Soon, a small army, 100 strong, has gathered on the sidewalk.
4:31 Lindsay Graham? Their mission is to enter the Lincoln Hospital and seize control, using force if necessary. And when Mickey is certain everyone is ready, he gives the signal. The activists rush toward the building, putting their latest plan into action. The end of the 1960s was a turbulent time in the United States. Civil rights protests, the seemingly never-ending Vietnam War, and the assassinations of leading political figures left many feeling frightened, angry, and marginalized. This led to the emergence of a wide range of new radical political movements, and among them were the Young Lords. Founded in Chicago by Jose Jimenez, at first they were a gang mostly known for petty theft and street fighting, and it wasn't long before Jose was behind bars.
5:14 Lindsay Graham? But there, he was introduced to the work of revolutionary civil rights activists like Malcolm X and the Black Panthers, and he started to take an interest in politics. As a Puerto Rican, Jose has long felt that many people in the United States did not see him or his community as real American citizens. And while he was in prison, he decided that Puerto Ricans needed someone to fight for them. So once Jose was released in the summer of 1968, he pushed the Young Lords gang away from crime and into activism. But it wasn't just in Chicago that the Puerto Rican community felt mistreated. In New York, men and women like Mickey Melendez and his friends were also sick of being treated like second-class citizens. They were often the victims of police brutality, and the local hospital which treated them
5:58 Lindsay Graham? was in desperate need of funding. So in May of 1969, Jose Jimenez approved a New York chapter of the Young Lords. This new group quickly got to work with headline-making protests of its own. And after the success of the X-ray truck stunt, the Young Lords of New York hoped that their takeover of Lincoln Hospital will shine a spotlight on the poor conditions and under-investment at that facility. Though there are brandishing weapons, Mickey and the Young Lords meet no resistance from the security guards at the hospital's entrance. The facility's staff are predominantly Puerto Rican, and many have been tipped off about the planned takeover. So most of the security and staff just stand aside, others even help, holding open doors for the activists as they make their way into the building.
6:41 Lindsay Graham? Once inside, Mickey's first task is to make the hospital secure. To ensure police officers can't simply walk in and pull the young lords out, Mickey instructs his fellow activists to chain the doors shut. Any patients or medical personnel who need to come or go will still be able to. This is not a hostage situation, but Mickey wants control over every entry and exit point. Once the hospital is locked down, Mickey then enters the administrative office. For months, the young lords have been writing letters to the hospital about the poor treatment of its Puerto Rican patients, but they've all been ignored. But hospital administrators can't ignore Mickey now. He demands the administrative team leave the hospital at once because the young lords are in charge now. As the administrators file out of the building,
7:25 Lindsay Graham? two members of the young lords take to the hospital rooftop. There, they hoist a giant Puerto Rican flag to the top of a tall flagpole. Then, from second-floor windows, other activists unveil a huge banner that reads, "Welcome to the People's Hospital." After just 30 minutes, the young lords have successfully taken over the Lincoln Hospital. They have a list of demands and are ready to get to work, showing the world just how bad conditions are at the hospital and insisting change be made. But they don't know yet whether anyone will listen.
7:58 Lindsay Graham? By 1779, Benedict Arnold had sacrificed more for the revolution than almost any other man in America. One of George Washington's most effective commanders, he had nearly lost a leg in the Second Battle of Saratoga. But in return, Arnold believed he had been humiliated by Congress and cheated of his glory by lesser men, so he decided to make them pay. Hi, I'm Lindsay Graham, the host of the podcast American Scandal. We bring to life some of the biggest controversies in U.S. history: presidential lies, environmental disasters, corporate fraud. In our latest series, Benedict Arnold turns his back on his comrades in the Continental Army and secretly defects to the British. With the help of his wife, he plots to hand over the most important colonial fortress to the enemy
8:43 Lindsay Graham? and doom the revolution he once served. Follow American Scandal wherever you get your podcasts. Audible subscribers can binge all episodes of American Scandal early and ad-free right now. Join Audible in the Audible app or by subscribing on Apple Podcasts.
8:59 Speaker 03 Hi, I'm Kenya Paris.
9:01 Speaker 04 And I'm Malcolm Gladwell. We're back for season two of our Audible original podcast, The Unusual Suspects.
9:07 Speaker 03 We'll sit down with extraordinary guests from the worlds of art, film, literature, comedy, and wellness to hear from their unexpected stories of success.
9:14 Speaker 04 And who do we have this season? Well, we'll talk with Grammy-winning artist Anderson Paak, athlete Rich Roll, portrait artist Amy Sherald, Oscar-winning director Ron Howard, legendary writer David Sedaris, and many more. These conversations are more intimate than last season, wouldn't you say?
9:30 Speaker 03 I would. Listen to season one of The Unusual Suspects wherever you get your podcasts and sign up for a free trial Audible to listen to season two in the Audible app or by subscribing to Apple Podcasts.
9:58 Lindsay Graham? It's 9 a.m. on July 14, 1970, in the South Bronx, four hours after the young lords entered Lincoln Hospital. Miguel Micky Melendez paces down the hallways, getting a firsthand look at the state of the building. The walls are filthy, cockroaches scuttle across the floor, and patients sleep in chairs while they wait to be seen by the overwhelmed medical staff. Lincoln Hospital has been largely forgotten by City Hall and is so dilapidated that it was condemned by the council years ago, but it still remains standing all the same. With mortality rate three times the national average, this ramshackle hospital has such a bad reputation that its local nickname is "The Butcher Shop." But Micky isn't just here to spotlight the problems the hospital faces.
10:43 Lindsay Graham? He's come armed with solutions, too. Before today, Micky and the other young lords agreed on their priorities for this protest. Raising political awareness about the plight of Puerto Ricans is high on their agenda, but so is broader health care reform. The young lords want to make the Lincoln Hospital a community-first hub, dispensing vital medical care and health education. So in an unused room, Mickey supervises the creation of a new testing facility. He talks to a dozen nurses before dividing them into two teams. Assisted by the Young Lords, one team of nurses will test patients for tuberculosis, the other for lead poisoning, both common conditions in the poorer communities in the Bronx. Elsewhere, Mickey finds his comrades hastily arranging a makeshift classroom.
11:27 Lindsay Graham? It's here that Mickey himself is going to give a lecture on health education and politics to anyone in the hospital who wants to listen to what he has to say. But before he can take his place at the front of the class, the Young Lords tell him the New York Police Department is on the phone. They know all about the takeover, and they're not going to just sit back and do nothing. Taking the call in the administrator's office, Mickey pulls a notepad from his pocket with a list of the Young Lords' demands. He begins to read them, one by one. Among their requests are 24-hour childcare for staff and visitors, the assurance of no more cutbacks in the immediate future, and the promise of a brand-new hospital in the long term. As Mickey talks with the police, members of the press are allowed into the hospital to report on the takeover.
12:11 Lindsay Graham? They had been tipped off by the Young Lords. It's all part of the group's plan. Mickey and his comrades want to drum up support for their cause by showing the world just how bad the hospital is, so they let reporters film the blood-stained walls, the filthy floors, and the huge banners declaring the hospital "the property of the people." Then, at a makeshift press conference, various members of the Young Lords explain why they felt need to take this action, and why the takeover is crucial for their community. As the media relay the Young Lords' message to the people of New York, Mickey explains to the NYPD that he and his fellow activists will leave the building peacefully if their demands are met. But the police negotiators on the other end of the line don't have the power to grant any of the group's requests, so they arrange a call between Mickey and the New York City
12:55 Lindsay Graham? Mayor's assistant, Sid Davidoff. But despite being sympathetic to the Young Lords' call for action, Sid can only promise so much. He knows that if he gives in too easily, it could prompt similar protests throughout the city, and that would lead to chaos. But while negotiations with the Mayor's office continue, the NYPD decides that their officers will have to move into the hospital to end the standoff. It's not a solution that anyone wants. Although they came to Lincoln armed with clubs and nunchucks, the Young Lords always hoped their stunt would remain peaceful. And for their part, the police don't want to risk the safety of officers or patients by having to force their way into the hospital. But it seems there's no alternative. So over the next few hours,
13:38 Lindsay Graham? the police will gather their forces around Lincoln Hospital. And inside the building and on the street outside, fears will grow that the Young Lords takeover can end only one way: in violence.
13:52 Speaker 05 A trucker merges onto the I-10 in New Orleans. He checks his mirrors. The lane is clear. And then, boom, impact. A pickup truck, seemingly out of nowhere, scrapes down the side of his 18-wheeler, multiple passengers inside. One man flees the scene. And the driver of the pickup? He doesn't seem all that upset. It didn't feel like a regular accident, because it wasn't. Across the city, truckers are getting sideswiped, all on the same stretch of the same freeway. And behind many of the cases is one person: a Hollywood stunt woman turned personal injury lawyer, named Vanessa Moda. This podcast is a story about fake accidents that lead to real consequences and a scheme that ends in betrayal and murder.
14:37 Speaker 05 Listen to Over My Dead Body: Operation Sideswipe wherever you get your podcasts. Audible subscribers can binge all episodes early and ad-free right now. Join Audible in the Audible app or by subscribing on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
14:52 Speaker 06 Hey, I'm Cassie DePecce. The host of Against the Odds from Audible Originals. In each episode, we share thrilling true stories of survival, putting you in the shoes of the people who lived to tell the tale. In our latest series, we track the story of Hugh Glass, the real-life revenant that inspired the 2015 film starring Leonardo DiCaprio. In 1823, Glass was brutally mauled by a grizzly bear in present-day South Dakota and left for dead. His survival depended on trekking through 350 miles of wilderness alone with grave injuries. But he was driven by his thirst for revenge. Follow Against the Odds wherever you get your podcasts. Audible subscribers can binge all episodes of Against the Odds early and ad-free right now. Join Audible in the Audible app or by subscribing on Apple Podcasts.
15:47 Lindsay Graham? It's just after 5:00 PM on July 14, 1970, at Lincoln Hospital in the South Bronx, 12 hours after the Young Lords took over the building. One of the leaders of the group, Miguel Micky Melendez, throws on a white doctor's lab coat and tells the rest of the Young Lords to do the same. Looking out from a second-floor window, Micky sees the NYPD mobilizing on the street below. Micky knows that the Young Lords could stay and fight, forcing the police to drag them out. But the images of violence on the news won't help their cause. It'll only make it easier for the authorities to dismiss the Young Lords as violent thugs and ignore their important message. So Micky has come up with a different plan. Dressed in the doctor's disguises they wore to enter the building, the Young Lords take
16:32 Lindsay Graham? turns simply walking out of the building alongside the regular hospital staff. The unsuspecting cops on the street have no way of knowing they're watching the activists leave the scene. And by the time they stormed the hospital, almost all of the Young Lords have vanished. This peaceful surrender of Lincoln Hospital is thanks to negotiations between the mayor's office and the Young Lords. While most of the activists' demands have not been met, a deal has been struck which includes an off-the-record commitment to build a new hospital. They didn't get everything they wanted, but the Young Lords are satisfied. Despite the success of their protest, however, the group will fracture and split in the aftermath of this hospital takeover. Some members will accuse the FBI of infiltrating and disrupting the party.
17:16 Lindsay Graham? But even with the demise of the Young Lords, the activists will still leave behind a legacy. In March 1976, a new $200-million-dollar hospital will be opened to serve the local community, and the old, dilapidated Lincoln will finally be shut down, seven years after the Young Lords took it over to spotlight a failing health system on July 14, 1970. Next on History Daily, July 15, 1983, the revolutionary Nintendo Entertainment System console is released in Japan.
17:59 Lindsay Graham? From Noiser and Airship, this is History Daily. Hosted, edited, and executive produced by me, Lindsay Graham. Audio editing by Mohamed Shazid. Sound design by Gabriel Ghul. Supervising sound designer Matthew Filler. Music by Thrun. This episode is written and researched by Owen Paul Nichols. Edited by Joel Cowan. Managing producer Emily Burke. Executive producers are William Simpson for Airship and Pascal Hughes for Noiser.
18:27 Lindsay Graham? American History Tellers is only possible because of listeners like you, so thank you. And don't miss an episode. Be sure to follow American History Tellers on Audible or wherever you get your podcasts. Audible subscribers can binge new seasons of American History Tellers early and ad-free right now. Join Audible in the Audible app or by subscribing on Apple Podcasts. And to find out more about me, including my other podcasts, my live show, the history tours I'm arranging, and all sorts of other things, go to historyishuman.com. That's historyishuman.com.
19:01 Speaker 07 Dr. Seuss's Cat in the Hat and Fish are back for a whole lot of wonderfully whimsical fun. What happens when you switch bodies with your best friend? Discover a caveman frozen in ice? Or make an alien so angry he threatens to destroy the planet? Find out in season two of the Cat in the Hat podcast. The Cat and Fish are traveling the world in the great catastrophic Cacophony Cruiser, meeting genies, clown professors, cave trolls, and extraordinary characters along the way. With clever wordplay, imaginative rhymes, original songs, and stories celebrating curiosity, empathy, and creative problem solving, every adventure brings something new to discover.
19:43 Speaker 07 It's a world of wonderful words, big imaginations, and plenty of heart for the whole family. Listen to the Cat in the Hat podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Audible subscribers can binge all 20 episodes early and ad-free right now.
Previous Evolution on Trial | A Clash of Giants | 1 Next Evolution on Trial | Monkeytown | 2 Page updated November 1, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated