Latinos and Native Americans Seek Equality

During the 1960’s the number of Americans of Latin American descent increased from 3 million to 9 million César Chávez and Dolores Huerta founded an organization that eventually became The United Farm Workers Organizing Committee founded to promote the interests of farm workers, especially in California Used protests, strikes, and boycotts to fight the poor conditions and pay that farm workers faced Brown Power movements spread across the US Sought recognition of Latin American culture Fought for bilingual and multicultural education programs in schools Latinos also gained more political power Hispanic Americans were elected to Congress and the Senate in the 1960’s The League of United Latin American Citizens, which was founded to fight segregation and discrimination, receives government support for some programs under LBJ

For much of the 20th century, Native Americans were the poorest and least politically powerful group in the United States In the 1960’s, they had the highest unemployment rate and highest infant mortality rate of any group The American Indian Movement was formed to protect the rights of Native Americans Organized the “Trail of Broken Treaties” march in Washington DC to protest US government treaty violations Seized the town of Wounded Knee, South Dakota and took hostages to protest federal programs concerning Native Americans Since the 1960’s, Native Americans gained greater control over their own affairs and their children’s education and got some of the land back that was taken from them