United Farm Workers Protest Marshal Armband

[California]: United Farm Workers, 1970. Black paint and red marker inscription reading "Marshal" on cloth band. 4 ½ x 21 ½ in. Very good, with light discoloration proportionate to age.

A rare United Farm Workers (UFW) armband for a union marshal at a UFW protest - the on-the-ground point person for the Union, helping direct the protest or strike, and mediate any potential conflicts.

Founded in 1962 by César Chávez and Dolores Huerta, the UFW organizes for the rights of agricultural workers, especially migrant farmworkers who face extreme working conditions, low wages, and exposure to dangerous pesticides. Beginning in the mid-1960s with the Delano grape strike, the union effectively brought national attention to the exploitation of farmworkers, helping to secure basic labor rights that other workers had long enjoyed.

From 1965 to 1970, the United Farm Workers went on the Delano Grape Strike, involving a nationwide boycott of table grapes, and a historic 340-mile march from Delano to Sacramento in 1966, to pressure growers to negotiate with the union and draw attention to the union's struggles. In the 1970s, the UFW also organized successful lettuce and wine boycotts, winning landmark legislation for farmworkers in California.

A unique artifact of street-level early UFW organizing.