During the 1960s, Asian Americans sought justice against discrimination and negative treatment in the United States through social activism. Through protests, Asian Americans worked together with people from different racial and ethnic groups towards a common purpose.

An important example of Asian American activism and coalition building was Filipinos’ leadership and participation in the farmworkers’ movement. Larry Itliong, a central leader of the farmworkers movement, was a Filipino farmworker who had been organizing laborers for years throughout the west coast. In the summer of 1965 in Delano, California, he saw a great opportunity to form a coalition with Mexican American farmworkers to strike for better working conditions. He initiated this coalition with Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta, leaders of the Mexican American farmworkers union. Together, they created the United Farm Workers Union and led a grape boycott that spread nationwide.