50th Anniversary Celebration to commemorate Worker Strike, 9-5
San Antonio Schedule for Monday. Labor Day, Sept. 5th. 9:30 a.m. gather for the 10 am Mass at San Fernando Cathedral. 11 a.m.- March from Cathedral to Milam Park. Noon -Rally and Program at the Kiosk. Milam Park.
50 years ago in 1966, farm workers in Starr County led a strike against the melon growers because they were being paid 40 cents an hour. At the end of the melon season, they started a 400 mile march to the state capitol in Austin. They came through San Antonio and were joined by hundreds of people as they arrived.
At San Fernando Cathedral, Archbishop Lucey held a mass and supported their cause. On the road to Austin, Governor John Connally met them near New Braunfels and told them not to continue because he would not be in Austin, and he would not consider passing a Texas Minimum Wage law of $1.25 an hour.
When they arrived in Austin on Labor Day in 1966, 10,000 people joined them and walked the last 4 miles with them. This strike and march by farm workers was the beginning of the Chicano movement in Texas.
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