Day Three Update
Farmworker Freedom March
Lakeland, Florida
photos by JJ Tiziou, Omar De La Riva and Fritz Myer
Day One Update
Day Two Update


Day Three began as did Days One and Two -- with a To Do list a mile long.

Shortly after dawn the marchers began readying supplies for the action later that day...


... and prepping the slavery museum for its final day in the spotlight (at least for a while), because within just a few hours hundreds of people would be seeing the museum for the first time, and after a month and a half on the road, it needed a bit of sprucing up.

But Day Three would ultimately be very different than the first two days of the march, both in ways planned -- the day began with two hours dedicated to a museum tour and several round-table discussions on various aspects of the Campaign for Fair Food -- and ways unplanned... After two days of nearly perfect weather, the marchers awoke to rain and a forecast of more rain throughout the day.

Once the day's activities got underway, the Modern-Day Slavery Museum was a huge hit. Hundreds of those gathered at St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Lakeland that morning for the final day of the march had never seen the museum before, and the two-hour space provided time for people to absorb the museum's many exhibits. The impact was palpable.

Among the museum visitors was one Nathaniel Perry (above), a lifelong farmworker and Florida native who took the bus back home from where he lives today in Arkansas to join the march late in Day One. Here, Nate watches -- for the first time -- the 60 Minutes story that is one of the Modern-Day Slavery Museum exhibits. Nate helped make the story possible nearly 20 years ago by risking his own safety to go undercover with the 60 Minutes cameraman to work in Wardell Williams' orange harvesting crew in order to expose the system of indentured servitude on the Wachula, Florida labor camp.

Later that morning, Nate gave an interview to Nick de Pencier of Mercury Films, a Canadian production company, on the persistence of forced labor in Florida's fields.

Meanwhile, others gathered in discussion groups to strategize around local efforts in the Campaign for Fair Food and plans for building on the momentum from the Farmworker Freedom March in the months ahead.

Finally, the time had arrived for the march itself, but not before making some adjustments in our usual plans and preparations to account for the steady rain that began in the morning and continued as time to start the march approached. Here the sound truck gets a new roof...

... this young lady gets a hand from her mom to keep herself dry...

... and even our dear old friend from the Publix film crew got an umbrella to protect himself from the rain.

But CIW members didn't march two days and twenty miles to Lakeland to let a little rain turn them back, and when the clock struck one, workers from Immokalee led the call for Fair Food at the picket outside the Publix store on Florida Avenue.

And they were joined there by well over a thousand Fair Food allies from all walks of life, many of whom brought their own signs and art to add to the march's growing collection and amplify still further the message of "Freedom from forced labor, poverty, and abuse".

There were enough dissatisfied customers...

... and dissatisfied farmworkers....

... that when the picket ended and the march took to the streets, the crowd stretched over several city blocks...

... led by Immokalee's own Max Perez who, though he lives now in California, traveled across the country for the march and helped drive the sound truck.

The rain came down hard at times during the two-mile final stretch, but that didn't dampen marchers' spirits...

.... because you never had to look far to remember why you were marching in the first place.

The marchers' spirits were also lifted by some very special guests that joined us for Day Three: Emmy-nominated actress and activist Gloria Reuben (first from left) of television's "ER" and long-time CIW ally Kerry Kennedy (third from left) who was joined for the first time at a CIW action by her two daughters! They braved the rain and marched every step of the way with CIW members at the head of the march.

The signs and art made it through the rain intact...

... borne with pride...

... and love...

... until, finally, the marchers made the last turn of a three-day, 23-mile march through the heart of Florida...

... aided, as ever, by the tireless security team...

... and the equally indefatigable animation crew from the back of the sound truck...

... all the way onto the grounds of St. Joseph's Catholic Church and into the massive closing rally!

Among the many speakers to address the rally were the youth from Immokalee who marched with their parents all three days. They shared the personal challenges that face the children of farmworkers, and though at times these young leaders faltered in delivering their heartfelt thoughts...

... they were always lifted right back up by the crowd, which offered all the encouragement any young public speaker could ever hope for!

One speaker who needed no encouragement was Professor Carol Anderson of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. She began her speech: "Hello - my name is Carol Anderson, and my great grandfather was a slave."

Professor Anderson is one of the country's foremost academic authorities in the field of human rights, and in her speech she placed the Publix campaign and the CIW's slavery museum in an historical context that stretched from chattel slavery to the holocaust. She warned of the dangers of institutional indifference to suffering and abuse, concluding "There can be no plausible deniability for long-term, documented human rights violations."


Also among the speakers on the unique -- and remarkably moving -- roster for the rally were Roosevelt McCrary (middle) and Jewel Goodman (right, with microphone), two workers from north Florida that first came into contact with the campaign through the slavery museum during its stop in St. Augustine. They recounted their experiences on the Ron Evans labor camp in East Palatka (for more on the Evans operation, see "A brief history of inhumanity"), adding to the rich oral history gathered, and inspired, by the slavery museum.

Mr. Goodman told the marchers that "no matter who you are, no matter where you come from, if you went to work for Ron Evans, you'd be in a bad way." He went on to describe how he was forced to return to work for Evans after escaping, saying, "When I got away they chased me down, grabbed me and threw me in a van like a dog, and beat me."


Then the CIW's own Doña Carmen Esquivel read aloud an entry she had made to her journal over the course of the march. Like Mr. McCrary and Mr. Goodman before her, Doña Carmen brought many a marcher to tears with her words. She wrote, in part, that the marchers were seeking:

"... justicia por el dolor en el presente y el pasado que sufrieron generaciones anteriores a nosotros. Porque es el lamento de todos aquellos que han sido victimas de esclavitud o abuso de parte de los empleadores que nos ha dado voz y fuerza para caminar todas las horas que cada uno de ustedes junto a nosotros de la coalicion caminamos bajo el candente sol, todos con la misma esperanza de recibir justicia de Publix para los trabajadores de Immokalee, Florida."

"... (seeking) justice for the pain in the present and the past that generations before us have suffered. Because it is the cry of all those who have been victims of slavery or abuse at the hands of their employers that has given us voice and strength to walk all the hours under the burning sun that every one of you walked together with us of the Coalition, all with the same hope of winning justice from Publix for the workers from Immokalee."


As the rally neared its end, the emotional pitch shifted. The intense sharing of personal histories and reflections gave way to music, which got the marchers off their seats and onto their feet again.

But more than that, the musical lineup reflected the incredible diversity, and unity, of the marchers themselves. Above, a gospel chorus from Lakeland performed a moving rendition of "Amazing Grace"...

... which was followed by an ensemble of bomberos, who performed a style of folk music from Puerto Rico that has roots in the slave trade that connected the cultural traditions of West Africa and the Caribbean.

And last but certainly not least came Al Smith, an R&B and blues performer from New York City, who closed the concert -- and weekend -- with a short set of sweet jams and an infectious energy...


... that brought everyone off their feet, from our MCs, longtime ally Ken Brown (whom some may remember from the unforgettable McDonald's campaign victory celebration at the Chicago House of Blues) and Melody Gonzalez, who needs no introduction, ...


... to the dozens of children that joined the march...


... to Oscar Otzoy, a CIW member who spent the better part of the past two months in Lakeland organizing for the march, and who was in fact lifted off his feet in honor of his birthday which happened to fall on Day Three of Farmworker Freedom March.

The unity and soaring spirits that lifted Oscar, and the rest of us, at the end of the rally bode well for the future of the Publix campaign, and as marchers made their way out of the pavillion and back towards their homes and communities, plans were already taking shape for the next steps.


But first, in the words of the old Haitian proverb, "Apre dans, tanbou toujou lou" ("After the dance, the drum is always heavy"), or in this case, after the huge rally, the bathroom was really dirty.

And so farmworkers from Immokalee and their allies set about the task at hand, assured that even the most seemingly insurmountable obstacles can in fact be conquered through partnership, humor, and determination.