Celebrate Cesar Chavez Day with free sample lessons from the Cesar Chavez Summer Learning Program.
Please fill out the form to access your free lessons.
If you want to learn more about the Cesar Chavez Summer Curriculum for your school or district, please get in touch with edu.partnerships@chavezfoundation.org for more information.
In celebration of Black History Month, we are highlighting Cesar Chavez and the farm worker movement’s deep roots and successful collaborations with the Black Panther Party and African American activism in Oakland.
Before starting to build what became the United Farm Workers in 1962, Cesar helped organize and lead the Community Service Organization, California’s largest and most effective Latino civil rights group in the 1950s and early ‘60s. The first CSO chapter Cesar organized on his own was in West Oakland around 1953.
Founded in Oakland in 1966, The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense was ideologically rooted in Black Power, self-determination, and the right to defend oneself against oppressive systems. It quickly gained the trust and respect of Black community members thanks to its Community Survival Programs such as free breakfasts, health clinics, food banks, health clinics, and more.
Greeting young African American children in Oakland (from left) Cesar Chavez, Bobby Seale, and Chavez aide Richard Ybarra.
In its early years, the UFW organized farm workers by providing them with services such as a credit union, death benefit insurance, a service station where migrants could buy cheap gas and fix their cars, and service centers to help them with myriad problems. Cesar and his colleagues believed workers weren’t just workers. While only a union could remedy abuses in the fields, workers faced other crippling dilemmas when they returned to their communities. So, it would take more than a union to overcome those dilemmas; it would take a movement.
Black Panther founders and early leaders Bobby Seale and Huey Newton emphasized dismantling systemic injustice. By focusing on the laws, bureaucratic structures, and economic incentives that maintain white supremacy and capitalism, they strove to dismantle them from the roots.
Meantime, from the UFW’s inception, Cesar Chavez inspired farm workers to challenge and overcome a farm labor system in this country that treats them as if they are not important human beings—as if they are beasts of burden—through self-organization and collective action.
Those visions perfectly positioned the Panthers and the UFW to share a commonality of missions and led them to support each other’s struggles.
Walking precincts in West Oakland in the mid-1970s (from left) U.S. Rep. Ron Dellums, Alameda County Supervisor John George, Cesar Chavez, and Assemblymember Tom Bates.
The Panthers joined the UFW’s international boycott of California table grapes in the late 1960s by picketing major supermarkets in Oakland. They supported farm worker boycotts of grapes, lettuce, and Gallo wine in the early-to-mid ’70s. The party refused donations to its free breakfast program from boycotted stores and organized carpools to shuttle shoppers to other markets.
Cesar and the UFW campaigned to send Ron Dellums to Congress in 1970, the first African American ever elected from Oakland. Cesar and the farm workers worked with the Panthers in Bobby Seale’s unsuccessful 1973 run for Oakland mayor, and in 1977, they helped elect Lionel Wilson, the first African American mayor of Oakland. Cesar walked precincts in West Oakland alongside African American elected officials.
Throughout their decades-long connection, each organization supported the other. The inspiration from their model of multi-racial solidarity is perhaps more relevant in this time of increasing polarization and ideological entrenchment. Their alliance is a reminder that authentic coalition building is possible when we connect through a larger shared vision for systemic change.
Would you like to know more about Cesar Chavez’s legacy? Please visit the National Chavez Center, an organization that is committed to promoting and conserving the memory of Cesar Chavez through his words and images, and the place where he lived during the last quarter century of his life – the César E. Chávez National Monument.
At the end of 2023, the Cesar Chavez Foundation (CCF) Board of Directors announced Paul Chavez’s retirement and my appointment as CCF’s President and CEO. During his 30 years with the Chavez Foundation and more than 50 years with the farm worker movement, Paul has ensured that the legacy and values of his father continue inspiring people to make a difference in their lives and communities. I am humbled and honored to follow in his footsteps as we move forward into this next chapter.
Over the past several years, Paul and I have worked together crafting a vision for CCF. I made a personal commitment to continue the work of impacting lives through the guidance of Cesar’s values. My intention as the new President and CEO is to steer CCF into the future and facilitate growth so more needs are addressed as we work to improve the quality of life for Latinos and working people. While we will continue focusing on growth in the Southwest, we are placing special emphasis on growing our presence in Texas, and looking forward to working with partners as we advance our mission of inspiring and transforming communities.
CCF has experienced tremendous growth and has never been stronger. We have a Board of Directors committed to the ideals that started the National Farm Workers Service Center 60 years ago, and a management team and staff dedicated to implementing the daily work. What started as an organization to address the fundamental needs of working families, CCF has grown and transformed into a successful collection of social enterprises supporting millions of Latinos and other working families with nearly 400 employees across five Southwestern states. As we prepare to cross the billion-dollar mark of investment in underserved communities through CCF social enterprises, the organization is poised to achieve new heights.
Thank you for your continued support. I am grateful to be on this journey with you.
Manuel H. Bernal, President and CEO Cesar Chavez Foundation