In the early 1960s, many minority groups rebelled against conservative America. One of these organizations was the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA), a group of migrant farm workers that sought contracts with their employers that would include higher wages and more favorable working conditions. Cesar Chavez, a Mexican-American migrant farm worker and leader of the NFWA, followed the path of Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the two people most influential on his life, and emphasized the use of nonviolence throughout the movement. Chavez's protests and boycotts, including the famous Delano grape strike, gained national attention and affected American consumers everyday lives by attempting to persuade them not to buy certain products at local markets. By successfully leading a series of nonviolent boycotts and strikes that resulted in higher pay and better working conditions, Cesar Chavez emerged as the leader of the Mexican-American Working Rights Movement.
             Early in his childhood, it seemed as though Chavez would live the difficult life of searching for job opportunities as a migrant farm worker. He was born on March 31, 1927 on a farm near Yuma, Arizona. The Chavez family was struck extremely hard by the Great Depression of 1929, and like so many other Americans at the time, they lost their farm and business and possessed little money. After his family had a brief stay at Cesar's grandfather's house, Cesar's father took them to California in search of work. They were no different than the 300,000 other Americans who had lost their land to depression and were now condemned to the life of the migrant worker.
             As a migrant farm worker, Cesar's childhood was disrupted and limited to activities that would help the family's survival. Because the job involved constant movement from farm to farm, Cesar was in and out of schools until eighth grade, when he withdrew permanently. The ...