“ I was struck by his spirituality and his reserves of gentleness and tenderness and caring and love... the depth of caring was beyond belief.” —Ethel Kennedy, on meeting Cesar Chavez during his 1970 detainment CESAR CHAVEZ BEGAN COMMUNITY ORGANIZING AT only 25, but his early experiences living through the Great Depression as a migrant farmworker fueled his lifelong fight for civil rights. Chavez founded the first version of what became United Farm Workers with only 10 initial enrollees: himself and the members of his immediate family. This passionate, grassroots effort eventually became the first successful farmworkers union in American history, creating unprecedented bargaining power for the farmworkers of the Salinas Valley lettuce industry—a cash crop skyrocketing in value in the 1970s. The successful Salad Bowl Strike in 1970 eventually led to California’s landmark Agricultural Labor Relations Act of 1975, “guaranteeing farmworkers the right to organize, choose their own union representative and negotiate with their employers.” This law was the first, and is still the only, law of its kind in the United States. Cesar Chavez LABOR LEADER AND CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST HISTORIC PROFILE Above: Cesar Chavez being interviewed in 1979. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, U.S. News & World Report Magazine Collection, [LC-DIG-ppmsca-40914]
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