Community Service Organization facts for kids
| Abbreviation | CSO |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1947 |
| Founder | Fred Ross Sr.; Edward Roybal; Antonio Ríos |
| Type | Grassroots civil rights organization |
| Purpose | Empower Mexican American and Latino communities through voter registration, citizenship education, community organizing, and civil rights advocacy |
| Headquarters | Boyle Heights, Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
|
Area served
|
Mexican American communities in California (later expanded) |
The Community Service Organization (CSO) was a very important group in California. It started in 1947 and worked for the civil rights of Latino people. It is well-known for helping to train famous leaders like Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta.
Contents
What Was the Community Service Organization?
The Community Service Organization (CSO) was a group that worked for civil rights. It began in 1947 in Los Angeles. The founders were Fred Ross, Antonio Rios, and Edward Roybal. They got help from the Industrial Areas Foundation.
Helping Mexican American Communities
The CSO wanted to help Mexican American communities. They fought against unfair treatment in housing, jobs, and schools. They also encouraged people to vote and offered classes to help them become citizens. The CSO became one of the most important civil rights groups for Latinos in California.
Fighting for Fairness and Rights
When the CSO started, Mexican Americans often faced unfair treatment. They also found it hard to vote. Fred Ross and Ed Roybal led the group. They focused on getting people to register to vote. They also worked to build strong communities and train new leaders.
A Big Win in Los Angeles
A major success happened in 1949. The CSO ran a big campaign in Latino neighborhoods in Los Angeles. They encouraged many people to vote. Because of this effort, Edward Roybal was elected to the Los Angeles City Council. He was the first Mexican American to join the council in the 1900s. This win was a huge step for Latino political power. It also helped Roybal later become the first Latino congressman since 1879.
A Diverse Group of Supporters
Even though the CSO is often seen as only a Mexican American group, it was diverse from the start. It included people from different backgrounds. Many Mexican American activists joined, along with soldiers returning from World War II. The CSO also got support from other communities in Los Angeles. These included African Americans, Japanese Americans, and Jewish Americans.
By the early 1950s, the CSO had grown across California. They opened branches in San Jose, Oakland, and the San Joaquin Valley. The group trained thousands of activists. These activists held meetings in homes, helped people register to vote, fought against police unfairness, and pushed for civil rights changes.
How Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta Got Involved
One of the CSO's most important actions was finding and training future leaders. These included Cesar Chavez, who later became a famous labor leader.
Cesar Chavez's Journey with the CSO
In 1952, Fred Ross met Cesar Chavez. Chavez was a young farmworker in San Jose. Ross convinced him to join the CSO. Chavez quickly became a very dedicated organizer. He traveled all over California. He helped Mexican Americans register to vote, dealt with immigration issues, and spoke up for workers' rights.
While with the CSO, Chavez learned many important organizing skills. He went door-to-door, built groups of people working together, and brought Latino workers together. His work with the CSO helped him prepare for his later efforts to help farmworkers.
Dolores Huerta Joins the Fight
In 1955, the CSO asked Dolores Huerta to lead their chapter in Stockton. Huerta was a former teacher and activist. She became a strong voice for farmworkers. She worked to get them better rights and pushed for state help for farmworkers who were unable to work. It was through the CSO that Chavez and Huerta first met. They formed a partnership that was very important for the United Farm Workers (UFW) movement.
What Services Did the CSO Provide?
Besides political work, the CSO also offered important services to Latino communities. The group worked to:
- Improve school chances for Mexican American students.
- Help immigrants with legal support and teach them about becoming citizens.
- Provide help finding jobs and getting affordable healthcare.
- Campaign against police unfairness and racial injustice.
The CSO believed in helping people help themselves. They encouraged community members to become leaders in their own neighborhoods.
Why Cesar Chavez Left the CSO
In the late 1950s, Chavez was organizing CSO groups in Oxnard, California. Farmworkers there faced very unfair working conditions. This was partly because of the Bracero Program. This program brought low-wage workers from Mexico, which sometimes meant local Mexican American workers lost their jobs. Chavez started organizing protests against this program.
Chavez believed farmworkers needed their own union. He suggested that the CSO create a special group just for labor organizing. However, the CSO leaders said no. They wanted the organization to keep focusing on community services, not on forming unions. In 1962, Chavez left the CSO. He wanted to create a union for farmworkers, which led to the start of the United Farm Workers (UFW).
Dolores Huerta and other CSO members later joined Chavez. They helped build the farm labor movement. The CSO, however, continued its original work of helping people get involved in their communities and gain power.
The Lasting Impact of the CSO
The CSO played a key role in the Chicano civil rights movement. It also helped Latino people gain more political power. The group trained future leaders like Chavez, Huerta, and many other activists. These leaders went on to change labor rights and Latino political representation.
While the CSO became less well-known after the 1960s, its ways of working and its successes influenced many later movements. These movements fought for Latino civil rights, immigrant protections, and fair labor. The organization remains an important part of U.S. history. It shows how much power community action has to create social change.
The Community Service Organization, now called Centro CSO, is still active today. This group is based in Boyle Heights. It has protested against police unfairness and the privatization of education. It has also worked for the environmental cleanup of Exide and for the rights of undocumented people.
The historical records of the Community Service Organization are kept at Stanford University and at California State University, Northridge.
