To March for Others: The Black Freedom Struggle and the United Farm Workers

by Lauren Araiza

In 1966, members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, an African American civil rights group with Southern roots, joined Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers union on its 250-mile march from Delano to Sacramento, California, to protest the exploitation of agricultural workers. SNCC was not the only black organization to support the later on, the NAACP, the National Urban League, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and the Black Panther Party backed UFW strikes and boycotts against California agribusiness throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s. To March for Others explores the reasons why black activists, who were committed to their own fight for equality during this period, crossed racial, socioeconomic, geographic, and ideological divides to align themselves with a union of predominantly Mexican American farm workers in rural California. Lauren Araiza considers the history, ideology, and political engagement of these five civil rights organizations, representing a broad spectrum of African American activism, and compares their attitudes and approaches to multiracial coalitions. Through their various relationships with the UFW, Araiza examines the dynamics of race, class, labor, and politics in twentieth-century freedom movements. The lessons in this eloquent and provocative study apply to a broader understanding of political and ethnic coalition building in the contemporary United States.

Genres: History, Race, Nonfiction

240 pages, Hardcover

First published November 7, 2013

Reviews

[Allee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting in-depth look at multiracial alliances for social justice through an examination of how the UFW allied with the BPP, SNCC, SCLC, NAACP, and NUL in the 60s and 70s. It seems like the major lesson to be learned is that no matter how simpatico or in alignment the organizations are, it really all comes down to individuals who serve as bridges between organizations because they fiercely believe in it. Once those individuals leave, the alliance often withers and dies (at least in the cases looked at here).
Not a pleasure to read though, the writing reminded me of essays I wrote in college (which were fine and functional, but were choppy and not subtle and lacked great flow).

[Matt Garcia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good treatment of the relationship between the Black Civil Rights/Black Power organizations and the UFW. A few flaws with her description of how and why the farm workers movement turned out the way it did, but otherwise, a very useful, insightful study.

[Mills College Library]

323.1196 A659 2014