Child holding picket sign during the grape boycott, 1968
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Cesar Chavez, an American leader of nonviolent labor protests and head of the United Farm Workers Union, dedicated his life to the plight of American farm laborers. Born in Arizona in 1927, Chavez grew up as a migrant worker in California. After serving in World War II and working as a ranch hand, he became an organizer for the Community Services Organization, later becoming the executive director, then leaving the organization to found the National Farm Workers Association. Through the union, Chavez successfully lobbied and advocated for benefits for farm workers. Chavez, an ardent nonviolent labor leader who took cues from Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., led strikes, marches, boycotts, and hunger strikes on farm laborers’ behalves, securing crucial advances such as a minimum wage, improved conditions for farm workers, and legislation protecting agricultural workers’ rights to unionize, among other rights. Eventually, Chavez’s influence declined as the climate around labor matured, but he fought for labor protections until his death in 1993.
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