Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta co-founded the National Farm Workers Association (later the United Farm Workers) in 1962, organizing predominantly Mexican-American and Filipino-American agricultural laborers in California. The 1965–1970 Delano grape strike and the national grape boycott it produced are landmark events in US labor history; Chavez’s hunger strikes and commitment to nonviolence drew explicit comparison to Gandhi and King. Chavez Day (March 31) is a state holiday in California, Colorado, and Texas; he was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1994.

Why it’s been targeted

On March 23, 2026, the Texas Education Agency issued a Commissioner’s letter ordering all Texas public schools to “suspend instruction and activities related to Cesar Chavez” — eliminating or modifying lessons, assemblies, and Cesar Chavez Day events scheduled for March 31. The TEA cited recent New York Times reporting on sexual-abuse allegations as cover; the Texas State Board of Education is set to remove Chavez from the TEKS in its June 2026 vote. The UFW has called it an effort to “erase Cesar Chavez and all Hispanics from school textbooks.”