To March for Others: The Black Freedom Struggle and the United Farm Workers

Acknowledgments

A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S This book celebrates the spirit of cooperation and solidarity between the Black Freedom Struggle and the United Farm Workers. Just as the UFW would not have succeeded without the assistance of its allies, I could not have written this book without the help of a truly diverse coalition of supporters. To all of them, I owe my deepest appreciation. The initial research for this project was funded by the University of California at Berkeley. At Berkeley I benefited from the guidance and support of an array of talented scholars. Waldo Martin has been an enthusiastic advocate of my work and has encouraged me every step of the way. Leon Litwack has demonstrated that one can be both an engaging writer and an excellent teacher. David Montejano in the Ethnic Studies Department asked me challenging questions that have improved the quality of this project. I would also like to thank Carlos Muñoz, Ula Taylor, and the late James Kettner. My colleague Kevin Adams has served as my academic guru, patiently and cheerfully advising me on all things scholarly. At Denison University, the completion of the research and writing of this project was funded by the Professional Development Fund and the Bartlett Family Fellowship. I would like to thank Trey Proctor and Megan Threlkeld in the History Department for taking time away from their own important scholarship to critique some of my early drafts. I also appreciate the support of the Black Studies Program. Toni King has been an especially cherished colleague, always ready with sound advice, words of encouragement, and effusive praise. This work has benefited from the input of talented scholars in a variety of fields. Ernesto Chavez, Diane Hotten-Somers, and Hasan Kwame Jeffries provided helpful feedback and asked thought-provoking questions of earlier drafts. Portions of Chapters 3 and 5 were previously published as “‘In Common Struggle Against a Common Oppression’: The United Farm Workers and the Black Panther Party, 1968–1973,” Journal of African American History 94, 2 (Spring 2009). The material in these chapters was greatly improved by the critiques of V. P. Franklin and the anonymous reviewers of the JAAH, as well as the participants in the Workshop in Comparative and Transnational History at the University of California, San Diego in June 2008: Luis Alvarez , Jason Ferreira, Chrissonna Grant, Gaye Theresa Johnson, George Lipsitz , Pancho McFarland, Catherine Ramirez, Abigail Rosas, George Sanchez, and Daniel Widener. Parts of Chapters 1 and 2 were previously published in “Complicating the Beloved Community: The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the National Farm Workers Association,” in The Struggle in Black and Brown: African American and Mexican American Relations During the Civil Rights Era, ed. Brian Behnken (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2011). The feedback of the editors and readers helped to improve this material. Political scientists Eric Boehme and Matt Jarvis provided valuable insight on municipal and mayoral politics. Tenisha Armstrong, associate director of the Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute at Stanford University, provided helpful information on King’s unpublished speeches. Finally, I owe a special debt of gratitude to my compañeros Brian Behnken and Gordon Mantler for reading multiple drafts, sharing insights and materials, and engaging in lengthy discussions and debates. This book would not have been possible without the tireless work of dedicated activists. I would like to thank all the activists who allowed me to interview them: George Ballis, Wendy Goepel Brooks, Terry Cannon, Hardy Frye, Marshall Ganz, Gene Guererro, Elbert “Big Man” Howard, Bill Jennings, Elizabeth Sutherland Martínez, Vilma Martinez, Eliseo Medina, Mike Miller, Gilbert Padilla, Bobby Seale, María Varela, Baldemar Velásquez, and Richard Ybarra. They not only were generous with their time, but also openly shared their experiences with me. Each one of them gave me important information I could not have found elsewhere. I am especially grateful to María Varela, who welcomed me into her home and allowed me to pore through her extensive personal collection from her tenure in SNCC. I am in debt to Marshall Ganz for his doctoral dissertation and book on the UFW; the day-by-day calendar of UFW activities he compiled for the dissertation was indispensable to my first two chapters. The assistance of numerous archivists was essential to the success of this project. I am particularly grateful to the staff of the Archives of Labor and 222 Acknowledgments Urban Affairs at the Walter...