Newspaper clippings for Melon Strike (1975)

Dublin Core

Title

Newspaper clippings for Melon Strike (1975)

Description

The United Farm Workers and Texas Farm Workers unions protested annual melon harvests through a series of strikes of local growers including El Texano Ranch, Griffin & Brand, and Southwestern Fruit & Vegetable Company.

However, on May 26, 1975, a confrontation between union organizers and El Texano Ranch, in Hidalgo, Reynosa, Mexico erupted into violence as ranch supervisor C.L. Miller shot 11 protestors for intentionally damaging his melon fields.

In the subsequent days, organizers continued to protest and local law enforcement were called in on behalf of the growers, who sought to drive the interloping union members off their land. These events galvanized protestors and farmworkers throughout the 1975 melon season and spread across Texas to farms in the Trans-Pecos and Panhandle.

Date

1975 Summer

Files

C.L. Miller released on bond after shooting
United Farm Workers protest melon harvest
Marchers enter McAllen
UFW Organizer Antonio Orendain addresses marchers
Union protestors arrested for trespassing near Pecos
UFW protestors and strikers turned away by local law enforcement
Hidalgo farmer: Union bringing 'disaster'
Union organizer says S. Texas 'only beginning'
Texas UFW going it alone


Citation

“Newspaper clippings for Melon Strike (1975),” UTRGV Digital Exhibits, accessed November 13, 2024, https://omeka.utrgv.edu/items/show/1697.

Geolocation