César Chávez, UFW, and the Grape Boycott Here’s some food for thought: In the late 1960s, thanks to César Chávez (1927-1993) and the United Farm Workers (UFW), deciding whether or not to buy grapes was a political act. Chávez was born in Arizona and migrated to California with his family… who worked the fields from Brawley to Oxnard, Atascadero, Gonzales, King City, Salinas, McFarland, Delano, Wasco, Selma, Kingsburg, and Mendota. The quiet man who lived in a barrio called Sal Si... [Read more...]
Lolita Lebrón And Others Attack Congress “No other woman in the Hemisphere has been in prison on such charges for so long a period [as Lolita Lebrón]; a fact which Communist critics of your human rights policy are fond of pointing out.” — National Security Advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski, in a secret memo to President Jimmy Carter in 1979 When early American revolutionaries chanted, “Give me liberty or give me death” and complained of having but one life to give for... [Read more...]
Lizzie Jennings Gets on the Bus On July 16, 1854, Elizabeth “Lizzie” Jennings (1830-1901), a 24-year-old schoolteacher setting out to fulfill her duties as organist at the First Colored Congregational Church on Sixth Street and Second Avenue, fatefully waited for the bus on the corner of Pearl and Chatham. Getting around 1854 New York City often involved paying a fare to board a large horse-drawn carriage, the forerunner to today’s behemoth motorized buses. For black New Yorkers... [Read more...]
Lowell Mill Girls Get Organized “In vain do I try to soar in fancy and imagination above the dull reality around me but beyond the factory roof I cannot rise.” — Anonymous Lowell Mill worker, 1826 Lowell, Massachusetts was named after the wealthy Lowell family. They owned numerous textile mills, which attracted the unmarried daughters of New England farmers. These young girls worked in the mills and lived in supervised dormitories. On average, a Lowell Mill Girl worked for three... [Read more...]
