Cesar Chavez Message
On March 25, the university is taking the day to honor the legendary farm labor organizer and civil rights activist Cesar Chavez.
One of California’s greatest labor leaders, Chavez and the United Farm Workers empowered agricultural workers who for decades had been exploited by growers and ignored by labor laws.
Chavez died at age 66 in 1993, but reminders of his enduring influence are all around us -- at Sacramento’s Capitol, destination of the 1966 march for justice from Delano, and in the farm fields of Yolo County, where wage, health and safety protections can be traced to Chavez’s powerful but nonviolent protests.
At King Hall, we hold strong to Chavez’s legacy by working to safeguard the legal rights of farm workers, immigrants and the rural poor. Our students assist agricultural workers through clinics and externships. Many UC Davis Law alumni have devoted their careers to furthering the hard-won rights championed by UFW leaders Chavez and Dolores Huerta and by the late Justice and UC Davis Law Professor Cruz Reynoso, who led California Rural Legal Assistance at the height of the farm labor movement.
Just as Cesar Chavez’s fight for justice is part of the fabric of California, it also is ingrained in UC Davis Law’s mission.