The year was 1968, and activist Cesar Chavez was 25 days into his hunger strike. Chavez, who was the president of the United Farm Workers (UFW), had joined a strike in the grape-growing region of Delano, California, three years earlier in solidarity with Filipino American farm workers, and the movement was starting to get some serious national attention. Enter Senator Robert F. Kennedy.

Chavez, who believed in principles of nonviolence and was a great admirer of Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., was determined to bring attention to the cause of the mostly immigrant farm workers in California’s Central Valley, and knew that the most crucial step would be to receive support from high-ranking politicians. Luckily enough, he had some pretty important people in his corner, most notably Robert Kennedy, who had met Chavez two years earlier and expressed sympathy for his cause. Dolores Huerta, the co-founder of UWF and a friend of Chavez’, remembered: “Robert didn’t come to us and tell us what was good for us. He came to us and asked us two questions. All he said was, ‘What do you want? And how can I help?’ That’s why we loved him.”

So when Chavez announced in February 1968 that he was fasting to refocus the movement to nonviolence and stop frustrated strikers from using violence, Kennedy reiterated his support from two years earlier and flew to Delano in March. Chavez had gone without food for nearly a month, dropping 35 pounds and endangering his health. At the airport, Kennedy was immediately swarmed by reporters.

“[Chavez] has been on a hunger strike and is committed to nonviolence, and I think that’s terribly important,” Kennedy said after being asked why he’d come to the Central Valley. “I think that the workers need support and need a recognition of their rights, which they haven’t had.” He went on to call Chavez “one of the most heroic figures of our time.” With Kennedy by his side, Chavez broke his fast on March 10. He was too weak to speak, but a statement was read on his behalf, which included the following: “It is how we use our lives that determines what kind of men we are… I am convinced that the truest act of courage, the strongest act of manliness, is to sacrifice ourselves for others in a totally nonviolent struggle for justice.”

- https://timeline.com/cesar-chavez-robert-kennedy-vonviolent-justice-california-789f6354682a