MikeDunnAuthorToday in Labor History April 26, 1966: Rodolfo "Corky" Gonzales started the Chicano activist group Crusade for Justice in Denver, Colorado. Gonzales was a poet, activist and boxer. The Crusade for Justice fought for social, political, and economic justice for Chicanos. His early activism included volunteering with the Democratic Party to register Chicano voters. However, he soon became disillusioned, concluding that Chicanos could not rely on the "gringo establishment" for education, economic stability, or social acceptance. He cofounded a new party called the Congreso de Aztlán, which had short-lived success in Texas. In 1971 he founded a private school for Chicano children, named Tlatelolco, after the square in Mexico City where the military slaughter hundreds of university students in 1968. Gonzales was also an organizer of the Poor Peoples Campaign and the March on Washington.
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