Empowered Minds: Civil Rights and the Labor Movement

Dr. Lauren Araiza discusses her research on the book, To March for Others: The Black Freedom Struggle and the United Farm Workers. In 1966, African American students from the South joined Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers union on its 250-mile march from Delano to Sacramento, California, to protest the exploitation of agricultural workers. Considering history, ideology, and political engagement, Araiza explores the reasons why black activists—who were committed to their own fight for equality—crossed racial, socioeconomic, geographic, and ideological divides to align themselves with a union of predominantly Mexican American farm workers in rural California. Dr. Araiza joined the faculty at Denison in 2007. She teaches courses in African American history and the U.S. since 1865. She also offers seminars on the Civil Rights Movement, the intellectual history of Black Power, the American West, and comparative social movements. She received her PhD from the University of California, Berkeley.