On March 12, as part of its programming leading up to Cesar Chavez Day on March 31, the San Antonio-based Mexican American Civil Rights Institute hosted a virtual talk by Lauren Araiza, associate professor of history and Black studies.
Araiza’s presentation was based on her book, To March for Others: The Black Freedom Struggle and the United Farm Workers, about the multiracial coalitions formed between the United Farm Workers (UFW) and five Black civil rights organizations to protest the exploitation of Mexican American farmworkers in California in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In her presentation, she used the example of the UFW’s international boycott of California grapes from 1968 to 1970 to explore the varying levels and reasons for support of the boycott by the NAACP, National Urban League, Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and the Black Panther Party.
