Community Service Organization

The Community Service Organization (founded 1947) was an important California Latino civil rights organization, most famous for training Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta.

Founding and Early Success

The Community Service Organization (CSO) was a grassroots civil rights group founded in 1947 in Los Angeles by community organizer Fred Ross, Antonio Rios, and political leader Edward Roybal. With financial support from Saul Alinsky’s Industrial Areas Foundation, the CSO sought to empower Mexican American communities by fighting discrimination in housing, employment, and education, promoting political engagement, and offering citizenship classes and self-help programs. It became one of the most influential civil rights organizations for Latinos in California during the mid-20th century.

The CSO emerged at a time when Mexican Americans faced widespread discrimination and disenfranchisement in the United States. Under the leadership of Fred Ross and Ed Roybal, the organization prioritized voter registration, grassroots activism, and leadership development.

A major early success came in 1949 when the CSO launched an ambitious get-out-the-vote campaign in Los Angeles’ Latino neighborhoods. The effort resulted in Roybal’s election to the Los Angeles City Council, making him the first Mexican American elected to the council in the 20th century. Roybal’s victory was a turning point for Latino political representation and laid the foundation for his later election to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he became the first Latino congressman since 1879.

Although often portrayed as a solely Mexican-American activist group in Chicano scholarship, the CSO was interracial from its inception and remained diverse through the 1950s. It gained grassroots support from both seasoned Mexican-American activists and a new generation of veterans returning from World War II. Additionally, the CSO received significant backing from other Los Angeles communities, including African-Americans, Japanese-Americans,and Jewish-Americans.

By the early 1950s, the CSO had expanded across California, establishing branches in San Jose, Oakland, and the San Joaquin Valley. The organization trained thousands of activists who held house meetings, conducted voter-registration drives, fought against police brutality, and advocated for civil rights reforms.

Cesar Chavez and Expansion of the CSO

One of the CSO’s most significant contributions was recruiting and training future labor leader Cesar Chavez. In 1952, Fred Ross met Cesar Chavez, a young farmworker in San Jose, and persuaded him to join the organization. Chavez quickly became one of its most dedicated organizers, traveling throughout California to register Mexican Americans to vote, assist them with immigration issues, and advocate for workers’ rights.

During his time with the CSO, Chavez developed his organizing skills, engaging in door-to-door outreach, building community coalitions, and mobilizing Latino workers. His work laid the groundwork for his later activism in the farm labor movement.

In 1955, the CSO recruited Dolores Huerta, a former teacher and activist, to run its Stockton chapter. Huerta became an effective advocate, lobbying for farmworker rights and pushing for state disability assistance for agricultural laborers. It was through the CSO that Chavez and Huerta first met, forging a partnership that would later be instrumental in the United Farm Workers (UFW) movement.

Advocacy and Social Services

Beyond political activism, the CSO provided critical social services to Latino communities. The organization:

* Worked to improve educational opportunities for Mexican American students.
* Assisted immigrants with legal support and offered citizenship education.
* Provided job placement assistance and access to affordable healthcare.
* Campaigned against police misconduct and racial injustice.

The CSO's grassroots model emphasized self-reliance, encouraging community members to become leaders and activists in their own neighborhoods.

Conflict and the Departure of Cesar Chavez

In the late 1950s, Chavez was organizing CSO chapters in Oxnard, California, where farmworkers faced exploitative labor conditions due to the Bracero Program. Many local Mexican American workers were displaced by low-wage bracero laborers, and Chavez began organizing protests against the program.

Recognizing the need for a farmworkers' union, Chavez proposed that the CSO establish a dedicated labor division. However, the CSO Board of Directors rejected the idea, insisting that the organization remain focused on social services rather than labor organizing. In 1962, Chavez resigned from the CSO to pursue his vision of a union for farmworkers, which led to the formation of the United Farm Workers (UFW).

Dolores Huerta and other CSO members later joined Chavez in building the farm labor movement. The CSO, however, continued its original mission of civic engagement and community empowerment.

Legacy

The CSO played a crucial role in the Chicano civil rights movement and Latino political empowerment. It trained future leaders, including Chavez, Huerta, and other activists who would go on to transform labor rights and Latino political representation.

While the CSO itself declined in prominence after the 1960s, its methods, strategies, and successes influenced later movements advocating for Latino civil rights, immigrant protections, and labor justice. The organization remains a significant chapter in U.S. history, demonstrating the power of grassroots activism in advancing social change.

Community Service Organization, now known a
Centro CSO
remains active. The group, which is based in Boyle Heights, has protested police killings of Chicanos, privatization of education, promoted the environmental cleanup of Exide, and for the rights of the undocumented.

The archives of the Community Service Organization are held at Stanford University as well as at California State University, Northridge in the Library's Special Collections and Archives.

References

Further reading

* Garza, Humberto. ''Organizing the Chicano Movement: The Story of CSO''. San Jose, CA: Sun House Pub, 2009.

External links

CSO ProjectDocumentary: ''Organize! The Lessons of the Community Service Organization''

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History of Mexican Americans
Mexican-American culture in California
Civil rights organizations in the United States
Organizations established in 1947
1947 establishments in California
Cesar Chavez
Dolores Huerta