During the summer of 1970 Brown Berets from the University of Washington led a voter registration drive in the Yakima Valley, and helped push the United States Supreme Court to hear the case against Yakima Valley registrars who refused to permit Spanish speaking Mexican-Americans to vote. The Brown Berets organized pickets, welfare protests, and interrupted community meetings to promote bills establishing a minimum wage for farm workers and to unionize migrant workers. One of the leaders of the Brown Berets, Angela Lilia Grajeda, said, "We thought we were Americans until the Anglos said, 'You are Mexicans.' But if you are not Anglo you are not up to the standard. White supremacy makes us a minority race."

In this image Jesus Lemos, a UW student from Granger, Washington, discusses his activism as a Brown Beret and MEChA (Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán) member.

Caption information source: "The Chicano Movement in Washington State, 1967-2006: Part 2: Chicano Cultural Awakening," by Oscar Rosales Castañeda, The Seattle Civil Rights & Labor History Project, University of Washington.
Caption information source: "Viva La Causa! Our State's Silent Minority Is Quiet No More," by Hilda Bryant, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, May 24, 1970, pages 118-119.
Caption information also derived from captions written by Post-Intelligencer staff and attached to the back of the photograph.