Cesar Chavez

Activist

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.

Other Medal of Freedom recipients include Rosa Parks, Jesse Owens and James Rouse.