March to Sacramento (last day)

Luis Valenzuela, Roberto Román, and Aristeo Oropeza are standing in front of state capitol, Sacramento, 1966. Photo by John Kouns.

On Easter Day, April 10, 1966, the marchers arrived at Sacramento, where 8,000 supporters welcomed the “dignitaries,” the 57 originales—men and women who had made the entire three-week, 280-mile-long pilgrimage from Delano. California Governor Pat Brown refused to meet with the marchers and instead spent the weekend in Palm Springs.

César Chávez speaking to a crowd in front of state capitol, Sacramento, 1966. Photo by John Kouns.

“We are no longer interested in listening to the excuses the Governor has given in defense of the growers, to his apologies to them for not paying us decent wages or why the growers cannot dignify the workers as individuals with the right to place the price on their own labor through collective bargaining,” said Dolores Huerta, vice president of the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA) and the principal speaker at the rally, according to the New York Times.

Macario Garcia, Paul Esparza, and Tomas Escalante sitting in front of the State Capitol, Sacramento, 1966

Left to right: Macario Garcia, Paul Esparza, and Tomas Escalante. All three men were part of the 57 originales, men and women who walked the entire distance from Delano to Sacramento. At the rally, the NFWA speakers were Epifanio Camacho, Dolores Huerta, Augustín Lira, and César Chávez, with Gilbert Padilla introducing them. A strong coalition was on display, with Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish leaders pledging their support to the NFWA. Officials belonging to competing unions, Bill Kircher and Louis Goldblatt (ILWU), Jack Goldberger (Teamsters), and Paul Schrade (UAW), addressed the crowd. The speeches were interrupted by the supporters in the audience chanting the NFWA anthem song, De Colores.

By then, however, the marchers had already achieved historical outcomes for the farmworkers. On April 3rd, César Chávez and Rev. Chris Hartmire from the California Migrant Ministry had temporarily left the march to drive from Stockton to Beverly Hills where they signed a recognition agreement of the NFWA and the promise that contract negotiations would start within the next 30 days. A few days later, Di Giorgio Corporation, the biggest grower in Delano with over 1,500 workers at peak times, agreed to recognize a union and to begin collective bargaining, although the corporation’s announcement came with several unacceptable preconditions for the union. It marked also the first time that a grower had given support for union elections under federal law.

Bystanders holding the banner of the Cursillos de Cristiandad at the State Capitol, Sacramento, 1966. Photo by John Kouns.

The Schenley contract, which was signed on June 21, 1966, became the first union contract in California farm labor history. It provided a 35-cent hourly wage increase with piece rates been adjusted to the new basic wage of $1.75 and a union hiring hall. At that time, California’s $3.7-billion agricultural industry employed some 500,000 workers. The average income of seasonal farm workers was estimated at about $2,500.

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