DOLORES HUERTA

“Dolores Huerta: Revolution in the Fields,” a traveling Smithsonian exhibition about the Latina civil rights icon and her leading role in the farm workers’ movement, opens this week at the Brownsville Museum of Fine Art.

WASHINGTON – With a COVID-19 hitting 10% of Texas Democrats who fled to halt work in the state House, the runaways spent Monday morning in a semi-virtual pep rally on voting rights – fending off questions about the outbreak.

Educators and civil rights leaders in California called on the State Board of Education Thursday, March 18, 2021, to approve the nation's first statewide model ethnic studies curriculum for high school students. California Department of Education officials say this would be the first statewide ethnic studies model curriculum in the nation. Other states have taken different approaches to teaching ethnic studies. Oregon is developing ethnic studies standards for its social studies curriculum, while Connecticut high schools will be required to offer courses in Black and Latino studies by the fall of 2022. I can guarantee you that,” said California Secretary of State Shirley Weber, a former lawmaker and academic who created an ethnic studies program at San Diego State University in the 1970s.

FILE - In this Nov. 9, 2020, file photo, demonstrators with the New York Immigration Coalition rally asking President-elect Joe Biden to prioritize immigration reform in New York. The multimillion-dollar #WeAreHome campaign was launched Monday by national groups including United We Dream and the United Farm Workers Foundation. The five groups chairing the campaign are paying for the effort with their own fundraising,“We need an early breakthrough on immigration,” said Praeli. The November survey of more than 110,000 voters showed 9 in 10 Biden voters and about half of Trump voters favored creating a way for people to legalize their status. Veteran civil rights activist Dolores Huerta, an activist and co-founder of the United Farm Workers who now runs her own foundation, said the immigration reform push will benefit from the dramatic stories of children being separated from their parents under the Trump administration.

Longtime political analyst Henry Flores said he thought the bust behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office appeared familiar. Flores said the bust of Cesar Chavez was among President Joe Biden’s cherished family photos as he signed more than a dozen executive orders on Thursday. Flores said he asked himself what kind of message was the newly-inaugurated President trying to send. We welcome you in.”Biden has made Latino issues a top priority to start off his new administration, Flores said. If not, Flores said Republicans could pay a price for not supporting Biden’s Latino agenda.

While stars mostly eschewed Trump's inauguration four years ago, the A-list was back for Biden. Brooks was careful to call his decision to perform on Wednesday non-political, and in the spirit of unity. He had performed during the inaugural celebration for Obama in 2009, but turned down a chance to perform for Trump in 2017, citing a scheduling conflict. Alone with his guitar, The Boss sang his “Land of Hope and Dreams” in front of the Lincoln Memorial. The celebrity component only increased over time, and one of the starriest inaugurations was that of John F. Kennedy in 1961.

(AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)Like so much this past year, the inaugural celebration will be like no other: pared down, distanced, much of it virtual. But for actor Christopher Jackson — the original George Washington in Broadway's “Hamilton" — performing in a virtual “ball” is a way of participating in an essential rite of American democracy. Miranda will contribute a classical recitation, joining musicians like Bruce Springsteen, Katy Perry, John Legend, Demi Lovato, Foo Fighters, Justin Timberlake and Bon Jovi. The inaugural committee has made sure to blend this high-powered list with ordinary Americans and inspiring stories. And the “AAPI Inaugural Ball: Breaking Barriers” celebrated the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities with planned participants including actors Kal Penn, John Cho, Kumail Nanjiani and Chloe Bennet.

For Democrats to win control of the Senate, Georgia’s Black communities, as well as the state's smaller Hispanic and Asian communities, likely need to vote in the Jan. 5 runoff election by history-making margins. An Associated Press VoteCast survey of Georgia voters in November found that 22% of white voters chose Warnock and 28% chose Ossoff, compared to the 90% of Black voters who chose Ossoff and 73% who chose Warnock. Democrats also have an opportunity to capture the 15% of Black voters who chose Matt Lieberman, another Democratic candidate who competed against Warnock in last month’s race. There are signs that turnout in Georgia could indeed be high in the runoffs. “Do you have a plan to vote in the runoff election?” another canvasser, Graco Hernandez Valenezuela, asked Tyrone Vereen, a 62-year-old Black retired police officer who answered the door.

Gavin Newsom speaks at a COVID-19 testing facility in Valencia, Calif. As California Gov. Gavin Newsom's shoulders as he considers his pick to serve out the rest of Vice President-elect Kamala Harris' Senate term through 2022. The South saw its highest number of Black Senate candidates ever this year, but none won races outright. Labor icon Dolores Huerta and California Latinas for Reproductive Justice want Newsom to appoint a Black woman. De Leon won the endorsement of the California Democratic Party and prominent labor unions, in part because of his support for immigrant rights and aggressive policies to curb climate change.

In this image from video, former Georgia House Democratic leader Stacey Abrams, center, and others, speak during the second night of the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2020. (Democratic National Convention via AP)Sustaining energy through four days of a political convention is never easy. On the second night of the Democratic National Convention, party leaders tried to blend its past with its future. Here are key takeaways from night two. But the 2020 Democratic convention is notable for the consistency of dire warnings about the other partys leader.

California Congresswoman Bass has emerged a leading contender to be Democrats' vice presidential candidate. Allies say her reputation as a bridge-builder would make her a strong partner to presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. Enter Karen Bass, who became Assembly speaker that May, the first Black woman to hold the role. The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee appeared with Bass for the first time at a fundraiser on Thursday. With Karen Bass' comments about Fidel Castro, it will be served up on a silver platter."

Activists and towns in the U.S. are left wondering what to do with empty spaces that once honored historic figures tied to racism as statues and monuments fell in June 2020. They also are debating how to remember civil rights figures and events in areas where they have been forgotten. Some advocates say monuments to the late U.S. Rep. Barbara Jordan or Mexican American civil rights leader Dolores Huerta should replace the fallen statues. Rob W. Lee, a senior pastor of Unifour Church in Newton, North Carolina, and a descendant of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, who now speaks out against Confederate monuments. Lee said he sees the toppling of Confederate statues with Black Lives Matter graffiti as a move to reclaim Black lives from white supremacy.

But remembering his Uncle Ciprian Contreras' heroics as a U.S. Marine at Iwo Jima in 1945, makes him look at America's Independence Day differently. Im angry that my elders had to go to segregated, dilapidated Mexican American schools and most died barely literate. Im angry my father still avoids the sun, so he doesnt get too dark like he was warned as a kid. Im angry I went to juvenile detention when I was 16 and was repeatedly asked by police what my gang affiliation was. Weve learned about Ralph Lazo, a Mexican American teenager who volunteered to go to a Japanese American Internment camp in solidarity with an injustice he saw.

Renowned labor rights activist Dolores Huerta urged audience members on Tuesday morning to tell their neighbors how important the upcoming 2020 census is. Erica Gonzalez, chairwoman of the chamber of commerce, asked Huerta questions in a half-hour interview at the Pearl Stable. Gonzalez said having Huerta speak Tuesday corresponded well with initiatives the chamber plans to roll out later this year. Im going to go out there and Im going to organize around the census and getting out the vote and changing the laws that need changing in the state of Texas, Huerta said. What do we say, se puede o no se puede?S se puede! the audience roared back.

Labor of Love: Activist Dolores Huerta still fighting for change Dolores Huerta has been speaking up for social justice and workers' rights for 50 years. Michelle Miller reports.