It was a showdown between one of the most powerful politicians in the country, and the sheriff of Kern County. Today on KVPR’s Central Valley Roots, when U.S. Seantor Robert F. Kennedy clashed with Leroy Galyen on the national stage.
It was March 16th 1966, and the auditorium of Delano High School was packed for a U.S. Senate subcommittee hearing. The prior September, the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee, led by Larry Itliong and the National Farm Workers Association, led by Cesar Chavez, had launched the Delano Grape Strike. They were seeking a raise in wages.
The hearing began around 11:15 a.m., with testimony from the mayor of Delano, as well as the leader of the AFL-CIO, and grape grower Martin Zaninovich. But when Kern County Sheriff Leroy Galyen took to the microphone, things began to grow heated. Galyen testified that he had in fact arrested 44 individuals on the picket line. Galyen said his deputies acted preemptively, as there were rumors there might be violence.
Senator Kennedy pounced on the admission. “This is the most interesting concept,” Kennedy told Galyen and the camera. “How can you go arrest somebody if they haven’t violated the law,” he asked. Galyen replied “they’re ready to violate the law.” He went on to defend his department, saying “you won’t find police brutality here, you’ll have nobody saying that we beat someone, this is not Selma, Alabama.”
As the hearing neared a break for lunch Kennedy shot back. “Could I suggest that in the interim period that the Sheriff and the District Attorney read the Constitution of the United States?” The exchange got national attention and cemented RFK’s connection with the farm labor movement.
The next day, Chavez and around 100 farm workers began a march north to Sacramento. By the time they reached the capitol 280 miles away, the union had secured its first grower contract.
