Nebraskans from Omaha to Lincoln to cities and towns across the state are making plans and readying placards to join the next installment of the No Kings protests on Saturday.

Assembly is a freedom enshrined in the Bill of Rights. For those who took to the streets by the thousands in the 1960s, massive marches and demonstrations were common, gatherings that protested an unpopular war, the absence for Black Americans of their full complement of civil rights and, eventually, the nation’s disregard for its environment culminating in the first Earth Day, April 22, 1970.

Among other causes that stirred Americans to get off their couches was the farm labor movement, which insisted that farm workers have the dignity, respect and fair wages that all laborers in the U.S. deserve, leading to boycotts, strikes and ongoing protests. According to the Library of Congress, the Delano Grape Boycott lasted from 1966 to 1970 with about 17 million consumers participating in support of Mexican-American and Filipino-American farmworkers.

Given that history, shock and revulsion followed a report in the New York Times last week that movement icon, Cesar Chavez, had sexually assaulted a number of women and young girls over the years, including Delores Huerta, with whom he and Gilbert Padilla confounded the United Farm Workers (UFW) in 1965.

However unsettling news for those who marched and who skipped grapes for four years, its sorry and sordid details should do nothing to diminish what marchers, boycotters and civil rights supporters believed in at the core of the movement: The dignity of and respect for every farm laborer and the right for each to have an opportunity to make a living safely.

True, Chavez was a charismatic leader and the face of the UFW. His influence helped bring growers to the bargaining table and changed the lives of thousands who toiled in America’s fields. The movement, however, was more than a single person. It was an idea, a principle, a promise to fulfill.

Plans are already underway to cancel Cesar Chavez Day celebrations on March 31. Some are also talking about renaming schools, parks, streets and buildings bearing his name.

Such a reaction is common and nameplates have indeed changed, but what should not be erased from our history and aggregate culture are the fundamentals on which the labor movement was founded. Those include the very American ideals of respect for individuals and the dignity of their work whether that be planting the seed, harvesting the fruit, transporting it to market or selling it to us in grocery aisles, at roadside stands or even online. Nor should the respect begin and end in the supply chain that begins with the farm laborer.

We also honor the work of the scientist who improved the seeds, the inventor who improved the machines and mechanics of the culling and gleaning, the logistics experts who keep everything moving and on time and even the men and women in starched white collars and expensive ties who count beans and move money in the right places for it all to work.

In short — and even in light of the dreadful news from the past — the UFW stands on the principle that it’s not simply that all workers deserve respect. It’s that all humans do. News of one of its leaders’ now disreputable past, a man many considered a hero, should do nothing to change, condition or mitigate the farm labor movement’s gains and reputation.

For Huerta, Chavez’s partner in creating and leading the farm workers movement, the past had been a considerable weight. “I carried this secret for as long as I did because building the movement and securing farmworker rights was my life’s work. I have never identified myself as a victim, but I now understand that I am a survivor.”

Nor, to date, has anyone among the movement tried to soften the hard truth, including the current leadership at the UFW or those from all those marches and protests and demonstrations many years ago.

Thousands will take to the streets again on Saturday with signs that call out a president or a cabinet secretary or a senator or a governor or some other government leader. The posters will give us pause, make some laugh or perhaps for some force a grimace.

But any protest or movement should consider what those who marched or boycotted grapes or elected different leaders to improve the lives of farm workers should remember now. The movement was about more than one person.

It was — and is — about dignity and respect.

This story was published by Nebraska Examiner, an editorially independent newsroom providing a hard-hitting, daily flow of news. Read the original article: https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2026/03/23/opinion-movements-principles-undiminished-after-shocking-news/

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