MIXED UP IN THE MAKING: MARTIN LUTHER KING JR., CESAR CHAVEZ, AND THE IMAGES OF THEIR MOVEMENTS A Dissertation presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School University of Missouri-Columbia In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy by ANDREA SHAN JOHNSON Dr. Robert Weems, Jr., Dissertation Supervisor MAY 2006 © Copyright by Andrea Shan Johnson 2006 All Rights Reserved The undersigned, appointed by the Dean of the Graduate School, have examined the dissertation entitled MIXED UP IN THE MAKING: MARTIN LUTHER KING JR., CESAR CHAVEZ AND THE IMAGES OF THEIR MOVEMENTS Presented by Andrea Shan Johnson A candidate for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of History And hereby certify that in their opinion it is worthy of acceptance. __________________________________________________________ Professor Robert Weems, Jr. __________________________________________________________ Professor Catherine Rymph __________________________________________________________ Professor Jeffery Pasley __________________________________________________________ Professor Abdullahi Ibrahim ___________________________________________________________ Professor Peggy Placier ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I owe thanks to many people for helping me in the completion of this dissertation. Thanks go first to my advisor, Dr. Robert Weems, Jr. of the History Department of the University of Missouri- Columbia, for his advice and guidance. I also owe thanks to the rest of my committee, Dr. Catherine Rymph, Dr. Jeff Pasley, Dr. Abdullahi Ibrahim, and Dr. Peggy Placier. Similarly, I am grateful for my Master’s thesis committee at Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis, Dr. Annie Gilbert Coleman, Dr. Nancy Robertson, and Dr. Michael Snodgrass, who suggested that I might undertake this project. I would also like to thank the staff at several institutions where I completed research. These include the staff at Beale Memorial Library in Bakersfield, California, at the Henry Madden Special Collections Department of Fresno State University, at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center in Atlanta, Georgia, and the staff at the Walter Reuther Library in Detroit Michigan. Thanks also go to Alicia Ortiz who shared with me some of her personal collection of union material. I also own thanks to the History Department at the University of Missouri-Columbia who provided me with a summer research fellowship in 2005. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ………………………………………………………………ii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS …………………………………………………………….v ABSTRACT …………………………………………………………………………….vii Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION ……………………………………………………………………1 2. TURNING THE OTHER CHEEK: KING, CHAVEZ, AND THE IMAGES AND USES OF NONVIOLENCE …………………………………………………….22 Reflections of Gandhi: Nonviolence as a Philosophy Nonviolence as a Practical Tactic: The Value of Nonviolence in a Cold War World Chavez: Borrowing the Prestige of a King Students 3. THE GOD OF REVOLUTION: RELIGIOUS IMAGERY……………..…………137 Religious Background Critics Organizational Involvement Usefulness of Religion Multi-Faith Strategies 4. FOLLOWING THOSE WHO HAVE GONE BEFORE: PATRIOTISM AND ETHNIC PRIDE ……………………………………………………..…………….247 Government Action Tactics Race Heroes iii 5. SUFFERING FOR OTHERS: IMAGES OF GENDER ……………..…….………333 Men in the Movements Women in the Movements Children and Families in the Movements 6. CONCLUSION ……………………………………..……………………………...446 BIBLIOGRAPHY ……………………………………………………………………...461 VITA …………………………………………………………………………………...494 iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS BBP Bob Barber Papers. Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan BTP William Taylor Collection. Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan DCP David Cohen Papers. Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan FBI Files of the Federal Bureau of Investigation FRP Fred Ross Papers. Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan IDP Irwin DeShetler Papers. Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan MGP Marc Grossman Papers. Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan MLK Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr., 1929-1968, The King Center, Atlanta, Georgia. MLK Speeches Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr., 1929-1968, Speeches Collection, The King Center, Atlanta, Georgia. NFWA National Farm Workers Association. Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan NFWM National Farm Worker Ministry Collection. Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan. RHC Ronald Haughton Papers. Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan v SCLC Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) Records, 1954- 1970. The King Center, Atlanta, Georgia SJVF San Joaquin Valley Farm Labor Collection, 1947-1974, Special Collections Library, Henry Madden Library, California State University, Fresno, Fresno, California SMTH Sydney Smith Papers, Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan SNCC Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) Records, 1959-1972. The King Center, Atlanta, Georgia. TGNC Table Grape Growers Negotiating Committee, 1965-1987, Special Collections Library, Henry Madden Library, California State University, Fresno, Fresno, California UFW/UFWOC United Farm Workers Organizing Committee. Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan UFWA United Farm Workers Administration Department Files. Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan UFWC United Farm Workers Central Files. Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan UFWI United Farm Workers Information and Research Department Files. Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan UFWP United Farm Workers Office of the President Files, Part I, Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan UMG United Farm Workers: Marshall Ganz Files. Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan VSP Reverend Victor P. Salandini Papers. Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan WKP William Kircher Papers. Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan vi ABSTRACT Although his movement was a labor movement which targeted only a small portion of Mexican Americans, Cesar Chavez has often been compared to Martin Luther King, Jr., and has been portrayed as a civil rights leader on the same level. This dissertation explores the images in four areas (nonviolence, religion, patriotism or ethnic pride, and gender) that both men created to promote and sustain their movements, and explains how and why Chavez often copied or slightly altered King’s tactics for the California farm labor union. It is because of these images that many in the public came to see Chavez as King’s Mexican heir. vii 1. INTRODUCTION In March of 1965, Rabbi Jacob Pressman flew from Burbank, California, to Montgomery, Alabama, to participate in the last day of the March from Selma. With him were 15 other rabbis and some Christian clergymen. At the Alabama airport, they met with other clergy and were briefed. Pressman and three others decided to find the local synagogue and stash their luggage there. From the synagogue, they continued to a gathering point at a hospital and then marched to the capital. After the march, they were supposed to board busses to the airport. Unfortunately, they could not find the meeting point for the busses. National Guardsmen and policemen would or could not help by giving them directions. They began to hear rumors that the federalized National Guard would be de-federalized in ten minutes and turn into the enemy. Panicking, they hired an African American taxi driver to take them back to the synagogue for their luggage and then hurried on to the airport. One of the party ended up in a cab which was forced into oncoming traffic and narrowly avoided a collision. At the airport, the rabbis boarded a plane back to California, escaping the South. One of Pressman’s fellow rabbis later commented to him that “You know, it is easier to read history than to be mixed up in the making of it.”1 The rabbi’s words were more significant than even he meant them to be. For he and the hundreds of other clergy who appeared in Alabama that day were indeed part of 1 Jacob Pressman, March on Montgomery, 27 March 1965, MLK, Box 21, Folder 12. 1 the making of history. It was their presence on the line that helped give Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights movement legitimacy. This use of clergy was merely one of the ways that King and the organization under his direction, created images of the movement which were to serve in its promotion to both African Americans and the general public. They were literally making history. King was not alone in using such images. Only months after the march from Selma to Montgomery, a Mexican American hero would begin to rise to prominence. This man, Cesar Chavez, would find it expedient to create and use for the farm labor movement many of the same kinds of images and tactics that King had for the civil rights movement. Both men would create images of their movements as nonviolent, religiously oriented, and as patriotic or ethnic causes. Both men would also shape images of gender in their movement in order to promote and sustain the cause.