ADOPTED - MARCH 10, 2009

Agenda Item No. 5

Introduced by the County Services Committee of the:

INGHAM COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

RESOLUTION DECLARING MARCH 31, 2009 AS “CESAR E. CHAVEZ DAY” 

IN INGHAM COUNTY

RESOLUTION #09-047

WHEREAS, the late Cesar E. Chavez developed and lived by a unique blend of values, philosophy and styles; and

WHEREAS, throughout his youth and into his adulthood, Cesar migrated across the southwest laboring in the fields and vineyards where he was exposed to the hardships and injustices of farm worker life; and

WHEREAS, his life as a community organizer began in 1952 when he joined the Community Service Organization (CSO), a prominent Latino civil rights group, in the late 1950s and early 1960s, he served as the national director; and

WHEREAS, his dream was to create an organization to protect and serve farm workers, whose poverty and disenfranchisement he had shared, in 1962, Cesar resigned from the CSO, and founded what is now known as the United Farm Workers of America; and

WHEREAS, for more than three decades Cesar led the first successful farm workers union in American history serving hundreds of thousands of farm workers; and

WHEREAS, he led successful strikes and boycotts that resulted in the first industry-wide labor contracts and the efforts of his union brought about the passage of the groundbreaking 1975 California Agricultural Labor Relations Act to protect farm workers; and

WHEREAS, on April 23, 1993, Cesar Chavez, a true American hero, died of natural causes in San Luis, Arizona shortly before he was scheduled to appear in Lansing.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Ingham County Board of Commissioners hereby honors the memory of Cesar E. Chavez, an extraordinary Mexican-American, Labor Leader and role model, and declares March 31, 2009 as “Cesar E. Chavez Day” in Ingham County.

COUNTY SERVICES:  Yeas:  Celentino, Koenig, Holman, Copedge, Grebner, Vickers

        Nays:  None           Absent:  None        Approved 3/3/09