US civil rights leader Dolores Huerta di£s at 96
US civil rights leader Dolores Huerta dies at 96
US civil rights leader and farm workers’ rights activist, Dolores Huerta has died at the age of 96, her family has announced.
Huerta, who campaigned alongside fellow labour leader Cesar Chavez for farm workers’ rights during the 1960s and 1970s, co-founded the United Farm Workers (UFW), a union that fought for better working conditions and improved rights for agricultural labourers.
She remained active in social justice campaigns through the Dolores Huerta Foundation, focusing on issues including immigration, voting rights and community empowerment.
As reported by the BBC, confirming her death on Wednesday, family spokesman, Erik Olvera, described the loss as a difficult moment for the family and appealed for privacy as they mourned.
“As you can imagine, this is an incredibly difficult time for us, and we ask for privacy as we grieve this incredible loss to our family,” Olvera said.
Huerta’s death comes months after she made public allegations of sexual abuse against Chavez, who died in 1993.
Earlier this year, Huerta said Chavez had “manipulated and pressured” her into having sex and had forced her on another occasion during the 1960s.
The allegations followed an investigation published by The New York Times, which detailed claims by Huerta and two other women that Chavez groomed and sexually abused girls involved in the farm workers’ movement.
Huerta said the two encounters resulted in pregnancies, which she kept secret, arranging for the children to be raised by other families.
Chavez’s family responded to the allegations in a statement, saying they were “devastated” by the reports and praising the women’s “courage to come forward”.
Huerta’s decades-long activism helped make her one of the most prominent figures in the American farm workers’ rights movement. Alongside Chavez, she advocated for improved wages, safer working conditions and greater protections for agricultural workers, many of whom faced exploitation and discrimination.
Beyond labour organising, Huerta continued to campaign for social and political change, using her foundation to address immigration concerns, voting rights and other issues affecting underserved communities.
Her work left a lasting mark on the labour movement and civil rights activism in the United States, where she became widely recognised for her efforts to improve the lives of farm workers and their families.
