The three American activists, Cesar Chavez, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X, are all widely known to Americans today well beyond their influence on the occasional street name or bank holiday. These are activists who were highly influential and charismatic, able to cultivate followers and establish social movement to realize their ideological agendas.
Perhaps not as widely known as Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X, Cesar Chavez was essential in not only the negotiation of hundreds of labor contracts but a landmark case in California which made farmworkers the only ones in the nation protected by union activity (Smithsonian para. 5). Out of his policies and promotion of boycotts, he gave farmworkers a sense of dignity and the right to fair wages. However, today, his success in the 70’s that capitalized the improvement of workers’ lives to a limitation on the now-bottomless labor pool is overshadowed by the availability of “low-wage, marginalized, and exploited workers from Mexico and Central America” (The Atlantic para 24). Although many of his victories in the ‘70s were short-lived, Chavez has still remained a symbol for American farmworkers. He has continued to serve as inspiration for American politics as seen with Obama’s …show more content…
preached nonviolence to achieve his civil rights agenda, Malcolm X gave a voice to the rage of millions of black Americans. Malcolm X emerged as an alternative voice to Dr. King and grew the Nation of Islam from 400 members to 4,000 from his time in prison to 1952, a testament to the success of his charisma and gift as an orator (Biography para. 10). Although not largely successful in cementing public policy change while publicly denounced by Dr. King, Malcolm X was influential as a leading voice of the radical wing of the Civil Rights Movement. Because of his aversion to nonviolent revolution, I believe that his legacy is not as realized in American politics to the same extent as Martin Luther King
Perhaps not as widely known as Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X, Cesar Chavez was essential in not only the negotiation of hundreds of labor contracts but a landmark case in California which made farmworkers the only ones in the nation protected by union activity (Smithsonian para. 5). Out of his policies and promotion of boycotts, he gave farmworkers a sense of dignity and the right to fair wages. However, today, his success in the 70’s that capitalized the improvement of workers’ lives to a limitation on the now-bottomless labor pool is overshadowed by the availability of “low-wage, marginalized, and exploited workers from Mexico and Central America” (The Atlantic para 24). Although many of his victories in the ‘70s were short-lived, Chavez has still remained a symbol for American farmworkers. He has continued to serve as inspiration for American politics as seen with Obama’s …show more content…
preached nonviolence to achieve his civil rights agenda, Malcolm X gave a voice to the rage of millions of black Americans. Malcolm X emerged as an alternative voice to Dr. King and grew the Nation of Islam from 400 members to 4,000 from his time in prison to 1952, a testament to the success of his charisma and gift as an orator (Biography para. 10). Although not largely successful in cementing public policy change while publicly denounced by Dr. King, Malcolm X was influential as a leading voice of the radical wing of the Civil Rights Movement. Because of his aversion to nonviolent revolution, I believe that his legacy is not as realized in American politics to the same extent as Martin Luther King