We look at the life and legacy of Dominican American historian, activist and prison abolitionist Dr. Johanna Fernández, who died on July 30 after a long battle with cancer. She was 55 years old. As a professor of history at Baruch College and the CUNY Graduate Center, Fernández was a leading scholar of the Young Lords, the radical 1960s civil rights organization founded in Chicago and New York and modeled on the Black Panthers. Fernández also created the Latinx Freedom Movement Archive and Exhibition Project, alongside historian Felipe Hinojosa. The exhibition is currently on view at The Shed in New York City, as well as in Chicago and Los Angeles. Iterations will also be presented in Houston and Washington, D.C.
Democracy Now! co-host Juan González, who was a founding member of the Young Lords before his career in journalism, remembers Fernández as “a consummate historian,” as well as a committed activist who devoted herself to advancing social justice. “She was an amazing person with enormous energy and spirit, and we are all better people for having known her,” he says.
