How Did Cesar Chavez Influence The Civil Rights Movement

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Martin Luther King Jr. and Cesar Chavez were both people whose roles greatly influenced history to the way everybody is able to see it today where African Americans and Hispanics have more rights then they did in the 1960s. Martin Luther King fought nonviolently for the civil rights movement and change the way African Americans lived to a better way of living. Cesar Chavez also fought nonviolently for the civil rights movement but with Hispanics and Chavez worked to change the way farm workers were treated. Martin Luther King was a civil rights activist who joined the movement in 1957 and eventually became the leader of the civil rights movement. Martin Luther King was able to use nonviolence by using his ability of persuasive speaking to influence …show more content…

Born in Yuma, Arizona and to immigrant parents, Chavez moved to California with his family in 1939. For the next ten years Chavez and his family constantly moved up and down California working in the fields. During this period Chavez encountered the conditions that he would dedicate his life to changing: harsh migrant camps, corrupt labor contractors, inadequate wages for backbreaking work and bitter racism. Chavez ended up being the best known Latino American civil rights activist and eventually became strongly promoted by the American labor movement. Chavez co founded the National Farm Workers Association in 1962 with Dolores Huerta being the other co founder. Chavez’s union joined with the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee in its first strike against grape growers in California, and the two organizations later merged to become the United Farm Workers. Using aggressive but nonviolent methods, Chavez drew attention for his causes via boycotts, marches and him actually fasting for 25 days. Despite conflicts mainly with growers and legal barriers, Chavez was able to secure raises and improve conditions for farm workers not only in California but also Texas, Arizona and Florida due to his movement becoming more and more popular throughout the