Cesar Chavez Biography

Cesar Chavez was a union organizer and social activist of the 1960s. The son of migrant laborers, Chavez founded the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA) and later the United Farm Workers (UFW). He led a five-year nonviolent boycott against California grape growers, protesting poor working conditions and the use of pesticides harmful to farm workers. The boycott became a cause celebre and was finally successful in winning new rights for workers. In 1994 Chavez was posthumously awarded the nation's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.