Mixed up in the making: Martin Luther King Jr., Cesar Chavez, and the images of their movements

Abstract

Although his movement was a labor movement that 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 uses archival research to explore 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. This research explains the connections between the two movements and shows how minority groups often influenced each other's causes.