10.4: Statement of Cesar E. Chavez before the U.S. Senate (1969)

A Guided Journey through Key Documents, 1865-present
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10.4 Statement of Cesar E. Chavez before the U.S. Senate (1969)
160Historical Context
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Abstract

Cesar Chavez, with the assistance of Dolores Huerta, became the most famous Latino civil rights activist in America in the 1960s. He focused on organizing farm workers, mainly in western states, where the vast majority lived. He was the cofounder and director of the United Farm Workers Union, which was apliated with the AFL-CIO (American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations). Historically it had been very dipcult to organize farm workers, since they were excluded from New Deal-era labor laws such as the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). The NLRA, also known as the Wagner Act, explicitly granted working people in other industries federal protection in organizing unions.

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