Cesar Chavez

by Jeff C. Young

In his youth, Cesar Chavez traveled the American west, performing the back breaking labor of a migrant farm worker. As an adult, he became an activist, working tirelessly to unionize California's farm workers and bring justice to the disenfranchised.In a matter of years, he not only rose from being a grassroots organizer to become one of the nation's most prominent labor activists, he also changed the face of labor in America, and helped poor farm workers get the civil rights that had been denied to them for so long. This new biography of Chavez follows the iconic activist from his youth during the Great Depression to his battles with California's grape growers during the 1960's and 70's to his posthumous receiving of the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1994, and touches on his contact with some of the 20th's centuries most prominent political figures, including Robert F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, and Ronald Reagan.With numerous full color pictures, and quotes from Chavez himself and the people who stood on the picket lines with him, this inspiring story is vividly brought to life for a new generation of readers.

160 pages, Library Binding

First published April 15, 2007

About the author

Jeff C. Young was born in Orangeburg, South Carolina but he spent his formative years in Lebanon, Indiana. Since graduating from Ball State University in 1971, Young has worked as an editor, journalist, free lance writer and librarian. When he was between writing, editing or librarian jobs, Young delivered pizzas in four different decades. In 1997, he became a published author with the debut of his book, The Fathers of American Presidents. Since then, he has written over 40 nonfiction books for young readers in the fields of biography, sports, politics/government, military history, American history and transportation. In 2007, Young's book, Bleeding Kansas and the Violent Clash Over Slavery In The Heartland, won the prestigious Spur Award from the Western Writers of America for Best Juvenile Nonfiction Book. Young currently works as the Director of the Learning Resource Center at Meridan College in Sarasota, Florida. He plans to continue his writing as long as he has the mental acuity and physical energy to write and as long as his publishers keep giving him assignments.