Cesar Chavez was a Mexican American labor leader who fought for workers' rights and civil rights for farm workers.
He was born on March 31, 1927, near Yuma, Arizona.
Cesar's father was a farm worker and the family moved a lot. Cesar and his brother attended 37 different schools.
Cesar's father had an accident and couldn't work, so Cesar dropped out of school after graduating from 8th grade and went to work in the fields.
In 1944, he was arrested for breaking a "whites only" rule in a movie theater.
He joined the Navy and fought in World War II.
Cesar Chavez became a labor leader and co-founded the United Farm Workers with Dolores Huerta.
The UFW fought for higher wages for grape-pickers. It led a strike that started in 1966 and lasted for five years.
The organization also led a protest march from Delano to Sacramento, the state capital of California.
The UFW asked Americans to help the strikers by not buying table grapes.
Robert Kennedy supported Cesar Chavez, and shortly after a Senate Subcommitte investigation, strikers won a major labor victory.
The success of the UFW led to other strikes and even more successes.
Cesar and Huerta worked to prevent farm owners from using new migrants as anti-strike breakers. They felt that such a practice would undermine the success of the farm workers' unions.
In later years, he turned his attention to the dangers of pesticides used in farming.
Cesar Chavez died on April 23, 1993, in Arizona.
1. Who was Cesar Chavez?
2. When was he born?
3. What organization did he co-found with Dolores Huerta?
4. What farm product did he ask Americans to not buy?
5. Why did the grape-pickers go on strike?