César Chávez: Plan de Delano

In early September 1965 the Filipino-dominated Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC) called for a general strike after its members were denied a pay raise after relocating nearly 300 miles north to pick table grapes. The growers informed the AWOC that they would not negotiate as their labor was easily replaceable. The AWOC workers chose to strike, and the growers used a tried-and-true tactic of hiring Mexican laborers to cross strike lines to replace the AWOC members. AWOC leaders sought out César Chávez, the leader of the Mexican-dominated National Farm Workers Association (NFWA). Although Chávez was uncertain if his NFWA could support the strike, he opened the issue to debate by the NFWA members. Eight days after the strike started, the AWOC picket lines were joined by their NFWA counterparts. The next day, on March 17, 1966, Chávez began a 300-mile walk from Delano, California, north to Sacramento to inspire political and popular pressure on the growers. News of the strike spread, and by late fall, farm workers across the state of California had gone on strike.