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Black text on white background with red, black and white UFW flag. 

The Delano Grape Strike was a labor strike in California that began in September of 1965, and lasted for more than five years. Several organizations joined forces to create the United Farm Workers and demand wages equivalent to the federal minimum wage. One of the organizations was the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee, which was formed in 1959 by the AFL-CIO, the umbrella federation for American unions. The black Aztec eagle was designed in 1962 by the brother and cousin of labor rights leader Cesar Chavez. It is still used as a symbol by the United Farm Workers. UFW lore says that Chavez picked black to represent the darkness of the farmworker’s plight and the white to mean hope, all set against a red that signified the sacrifice expected from union workers.