John Bickley

He led the famous grape boycott.

I remember that when I was a child.

He helped organize unions for people picking crops and is considered by some an icon of Latino civil rights.

Now, toward the end of his life and after his death, Democrats moved to solidify his legacy as an American hero.

There are schools, there are streets named after him.

Particularly in the Southwest and in California, you will see a number of states like Nevada, Arizona, Utah celebrate Cesar Chavez Day.

And when he was a senator in 2008, Barack Obama actually moved to make it a federal holiday, but that never actually gained traction.

But that's precisely why, Georgia, these allegations are so explosive.

They've really struck at the heart of what his legacy was.

Now, were there rumors about this before or is this truly new information?

Well, you know, what I can tell you, Georgia, is that I grew up in the San Joaquin Valley, and I made a few calls to some old farm executives that my family knows.

And what I've been told is that it was at least known that Cesar Chavez's personal morals were malleable, let's say.

But I think if you speak to younger people in the labor union movement—

They're not aware of it.

They're saying this is news to them.

In fact, we spoke to attorney, author, and abuse survivor Jodi Neal, who has worked in civil rights organizing herself, and she told us these allegations were completely unknown to her.

What are the specific allegations here?

Yeah, Georgia, I don't think that this story would be the bombshell that it is if it did not include Dolores Huerta.

She was Chavez's longtime partner in the movement who founded the United Farm Workers with him.

Well, she's 96 now, and she told The Times that she never disclosed her story before because she didn't want to hurt the movement.