Civics Lessons from the Delano Grape Strike and Boycott

Sixty years ago this month, agricultural workers in Delano, California began a strike against prominent local table grape growers who had long been exploiting their labor. Organized via an unprecedented alliance between Filipino and Mexican labor unions—and led by figures including Larry Itliong, Philip Vera Cruz, Dolores Huerta, and César Chávez—the strike would last for five long years of marches, nonviolent resistance, and a national grape boycott that received significant national attention. It finally ended in a major victory for the labor movement in July 1970, when workers reached a groundbreaking collective bargaining agreement that included pay increases, benefits, and safer working conditions. 

The narrative of the Delano grape strike is one of coalition and unity, of advocating for dignity and empowerment, of reaching across differences to create community and achieve goals that nobody thought possible. With our recently-published C3-aligned Sowing Change Inquiry: The Delano Grape Strike and Boycott, students can explore the history of these events to learn what it takes to build solidarity in a movement for change. 

While many histories of social change focus on the role of charismatic leaders, this inquiry emphasizes how regular people collaborated to make the agricultural labor movement a success. This framing uses time-tested Facing History pedagogy to help students see the potential of civic participation, underscoring how being engaged in democracy can make a difference in the world—and research shows that 93% of students said Facing History helped them understand it is important to get involved in improving their communities. With connections to broader themes of social change and labor rights, this unit for grades 9-12 was designed to be taught across ten 50-minute class periods with structured lesson plans, supporting materials and handouts, and detailed activities to facilitate student reflection and social-emotional learning. Additionally, all texts from the inquiry have been translated into Spanish for multilingual learners.

Of course, the story doesn’t begin on the first day of the strike. The inquiry begins by recounting the history of agricultural labor in California starting in the 1860s, from the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 through the Bracero Program that brought four million Mexican workers to the United States. Only by establishing the untenable conditions that farm workers experienced—low pay, discrimination, and harsh treatment—can students truly grasp the circumstances that led migrant farm workers to advocate for themselves in the 1960s.

From there, students explore the question of what actually motivated the workers in Delano to go on strike in 1965. This includes watching a clip from the documentary Delano Manongs to explore the role of Filipino farm workers from the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC) in initiating the strike, as well as the decision of the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA) to strike in solidarity. Students continue by reading a primary source produced by the NFWA and think critically about the purpose of the strike and the future that workers imagined for themselves.

Although growers actively tried to drive wedges between the different ethnic groups who worked the fields to create distrust and animosity, Mexican and Filipino farm workers used specific strategies to build community, reinforce unity, and develop a sense of solidarity. This included the creation of anthemic folk music and inspiring visual art, symbolic practices like the “unity clap,” and the use of communal space like the Filipino Community Hall, where workers shared meals, built community, and organized across cultural lines to sustain the strike. Actions like this were vital to the continued strength of the United Farm Workers (UFW), the new union formed in 1966 from an allied merger between the largely Mexican NFWA and the predominantly Filipino farmworkers of the AWOC.

No wider movement for change is possible without support from a larger segment of the population. And while the struggle of the Delano grape strikers was extremely local, they were still able to gain widespread support for their cause. Through the Sowing Change Inquiry, students have the opportunity to explore how the specific tactics used by the farm workers movement brought the struggle from the California grape fields into the national consciousness. From gaining the support of influential leaders like Senator Robert F. Kennedy to allying with religious groups, civil rights organizations, student activists, and labor unions in other industries, the UFW built a diverse and broad coalition full of unique partnerships and support. Well-publicized peaceful marches helped shift public sentiment in favor of the workers, and then a widespread California grape consumer boycott increased the financial pressure on growers to come to the bargaining table. After significant drops in grape shipments—up to 43% in some cities—26 Delano-area growers finally agreed to negotiate and sign union contracts.

Finally, students examine the perspectives of Filipino farm workers who experienced marginalization within the movement alongside the choices of Marshall Ganz—a Jewish college student who became an ally—to understand both the challenges of building solidarity and the motivations that lead individuals to take action on issues beyond their own direct experience. By drawing connections to their own experiences or world events, students can consider how solidarity is built across lines of difference to create more inclusive and effective movements for change. 

We're deeply proud of this new inquiry, its thoughtful and layered examination of a watershed event in the labor rights movement, and the ways it helps students explore the civic choices and actions of groups and individuals striving for dignity and justice. Learning about the agricultural labor movement teaches students that you don’t have to be wealthy or powerful to make a civic impact. No matter your affluence, race, class, or legal status, you have the ability to come together to advance justice and strengthen our democracy, tangibly improving lives and building a more equitable world. 

Sowing Change: The Delano Grape Strike and Boycott will be featured in our upcoming Civic Education Curriculum Collection. This modular and interdisciplinary set of units, inquiries, and lesson planning materials will help you prepare your students to become civically engaged participants, shaping the future of democracy. Sign up now to get access to the whole collection as soon as it’s available.