And yes, that’s my VW bug behind me.Ĭésar Chávez and Dolores Huerta hold honored places in the pantheon of souls who have deeply impacted my life in its developmental processes. A picture of my involvement hit the local newspaper. When I returned to the UC Davis School of Law for my second year, I got on the picket line myself. Picking off a farmworker was high on their point system.Ī UFW flag from that processional hangs in my office at home. Locals were known to gun their engines when farmworkers were crossing against the lights.

I took photos of the goons and kept crossroads clear of marchers when the streetlights turned red. They gathered in groups on street corners along the parade route, rattling chains on the ground and pounding baseball bats into their fists. The competing Teamsters Union had hired goons to threaten and commit physical assaults against UFW picketers. Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta were among the 7,000 who attended Daifullah’s funeral. My first day on the job involved being a UFW legal monitor for a funeral march for Daifullah on August 17 on the streets of Lamont. We sought to prove it was 1a but hoped at least for 1b. The question at the inquest was whether Diafullah had died (1) at the hands of another - and, if so, (a) by a criminal means or (b) by some other cause, or (2) as a result of an accident. I worked for General Counsel Jerry Cohen and was assigned to investigate and track down witnesses to the Daifullah killing to testify at the coroner’s inquest.

My first job in the law was as a volunteer for the United FarmWorkers’ legal staff. It was the summer between my first and second years of law school. He died of a broken neck and traumatic brain injuries. In the confrontation, Daifullah was clubbed by a deputy with his service flashlight/baton and then dragged with his head hitting the curb. He was part of a picket line at the Smokehouse Café in Lamont, California, when Kern County sheriff’s deputies arrived to disperse the picketers. On August 15, 1973, Nagi Daifullah, a Yemeni migrant farmworker and a strike captain for the United Farm Workers union was killed at the age of 24.

Jerry cohen ufw