This weekend, the United Farm Workers is holding its fiftieth anniversary. In 1962, Cesar and Helen Chavez and Dolores Huerta began their struggle to improve the life of farm workers.
Last week, on Cinco Mayo, the United States Navy christened and launched the USNS Cesar Chavez, continuing the Navy’s rich tradition of naming supply ships after pioneers, explorers and visionaries by honoring the man who worked tirelessly to promote fair working conditions for all Americans.
(READ the story in Huffington Post)
Is there a visionary you’d like to thank? This is very cool. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Miles Davis for his unrelenting pursuit of new forms especially when it comes to bebop and cool jazz which have brought me a great deal of joy!
Love it, Seth!!
Here are the other visionaries with USNS supply ships named after them:
The names of the other 12 Lewis & Clark cargo ships are:
The USMS Medgar Evers named after the slain African-American civil rights activist from Mississippi involved in efforts to overturn segregation at the University of Mississippi.
The USNS William McLean, named for a Navy physicist, who developed the Sidewinder missile.
The USNS Washington Chambers named in honor of a pioneer in naval aviation.
The USNS Charles Drew named after a physician who researched blood transfusions and blood banks that saved thousands of lives in World War II.
The USNS Matthew Perry, who led way to opening Japan to trade with the West.
The USNS Wally Shirra named for one of the first astronauts and the only one to fly in all three pioneering space programs – Mercury, Gemini and Apollo.
The USNS Carl Brashear named after the first African American to become a U.S. Navy Master Diver despite having lost a leg in bomber crash.
The USS Amelia Earhart, after the historic female aviator.
The USNS Robert E. Peary named for the Arctic explorer.
USNS Richard E. Byrd named after a polar explorer.
The USNS Alan Sheppard named for the first American in space
The USS Sacagawea, named after the Shoshone who acted as guide and interpreter the Lewis & Clark expedition.