Chavez name, once an honor, now carries a stain that officials want to scrub

Within hours of explosive sexual abuse allegations against the revered labor leader César Chavez, officials at a California university took swift action: First, a black cloth over a campus statue of Chavez, later followed by a plywood box hiding it from public view. Soon, officials said, it will be taken down.

The statue at California State University, Fresno, is just one of scores of monuments, city streets and elementary schools that honor Chavez ‘s name and his labor movement legacy across the nation. The Associated Press identified more than 130 locations or objects in at least 19 states named after Chavez, including libraries, streets, community centers and public parks.

Suddenly the name has become more of a stain. Some of the institutions and local governments overseeing sites across the country bearing the Chavez name have already started the process of erasing it. Besides buildings and street signs, they also want to take steps to rename César Chavez Day, a federally proclaimed holiday that falls on his March 31 birthday.

The allegations that Chavez sexually abused girls and women, including fellow movement leader Dolores Huerta, “call for our full attention and moral reckoning by removing his statute from our campus,” said Saúl Jiménez-Sandoval, president of the California State University, Fresno. It’s not clear how long that will take.

It’s also not clear what will happen to the César E. Chavez National Monument in Keene, California, which includes the office where some of the reported abuse took place.

In Phoenix, city council members said they will meet next week to vote on whether to rename the holiday as well as any buildings and streets that bear Chavez’s name.

The New York Times first reported Wednesday that it found credible evidence that Chavez groomed and sexually abused young girls who worked in the movement. One of his victims, in fact, partly felt compelled to come forward after a proposal to name a street near her home after Chavez.

Huerta, who was a labor legend in her own right and co-founded in 1962 with Chavez the National Farm Workers Association — which became the United Farm Workers of America — revealed to the newspaper that she was a victim of abuse by him in her 30s.

Some are calling for Chavez’s namesake places to be renamed for Huerta instead.

Among the locations and objects bearing his name is a U.S. Navy cargo ship commemorating Chavez’s service during World War II and a national monument established in 2012 by then-President Barack Obama on a 187-acre site where Chavez once lived and worked.

Most of the locations are in California but they includes sites in at least 19 states, from New York and Maryland to Oklahoma, the Great Lakes Region and Washington state.

More than half are schools with most of them located in California. In Pueblo, Colorado, Chavez shares the name of a school with Huerta.

Altering a national monument, such as changing a name, needs an act of Congress or action by the president.