Chicano Leader Ruben Salazar Shot and Killed at Protest Rally
Los Angeles Times journalist Ruben Salazar was shot and killed on this day by Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department deputies at a National Chicano Moratorium Against the Vietnam War protest rally.
The Moratorium rally was broken up by LASD deputies who used tear gas, and Salazar was shot and killed in the resulting chaos. No one was ever prosecuted for the killing, and his death remains an important symbol of discrimination against Latinos in Southern California.
In 1971 Salazar was posthumously awarded the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award.
Other major Chicago events include a Mexican-American student protest in Los Angeles on May 13, 1967, and Chicano Youth Liberation Conference on March 27, 1969.
Watch a documentary on Salazar: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziQ93k9n9qE
Read his writings: Ruben Salazar and Mario T. Garcia, Border Correspondent: Selected Writings, 1955–1970 (1995)
Learn more at the Ruben Salazar Project
Read: Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, Our America: A Hispanic History of the United States (2014)
Learn more at a timeline of Chicano history, 1962–1974: http://chicanomoratorium.org/html/history_timeline.html