The Melon Strike Went From Starr County to the Supreme Court

On June 1, 1966, about 700 Starr County farmworkers walked out during the melon harvest. Organizers called for a $1.25 hourly wage and recognition as a bargaining group. Eugene Nelson of the National Farm Workers Association helped local workers organize the strike.

A week later, Nelson stood at Roma's international bridge and asked laborers arriving from Mexico to support the walkout. The Starr County sheriff held him for four hours, questioned him about the strike, and released him without charges. On July 5, workers and supporters left Rio Grande City on a march to Austin. Governor John Connally met the marchers in New Braunfels in August and opposed their requests.

The conflict also moved through federal court. In 1974, the Supreme Court's Allee v. Medrano ruling kept an injunction against a persistent pattern of police misconduct. The Court removed the lower court's ruling on five Texas laws and sent that part back for more proceedings. The pay campaign did not win its goal, but Starr County's melon fields had become part of a statewide march and a national civil-rights case.