It has been 46 years since the largest anti-Vietnam march by Mexican-Americans was held in Los Angeles, Calif. where tens of thousands protested against sending Chicanos straight to their death. Aug. 29 marks the anniversary of the demonstration, one of the biggest events in the Chicano Movement of the 1970s.

The march against the Vietnam war, also known as the Chicano Moratorium, had up to 30,000 participants, making it the largest march from a minority group during the Civil Rights movement.

In the late 1960s, Chicanos started to fight against the Vietnam war when they saw that Chicanos were dying two times more than their white combat partners, BBC News reported. The movement spread across the U.S., resulting in the big march in L.A. on Aug. 29, 1970. Guards met the demonstrators with brute force, killing three people in the march.

Latino Civil Rights in 2016

Today, Latinos in America continue to fight for equal rights. One of the biggest challenges with injustices in the world is proper education. In helping with the fight for Latino rights in America, more than 50 colleges and universities offer degrees and courses in Hispanic-American, Puerto-Rican, and Mexican-American/Chicano Studies.

Citizens watched in 2016, Latin American Politicians like Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, launch a campaign for U.S. presidency, Latina Olympian Monica Puig score the first gold medal in women’s tennis for Puerto Rico and Latinos becoming the fastest growing population in America.

Remembering the Chicano Movement

The Chicano movement heightened in the U.S. when Mexican-Americans were being drafted into the Vietnam war at unusual high rates. Kids could only escape the draft if they finished high school and attended college, but like most minorities at the time, Chicanos dropped out of school because of its harsh conditions and poor encouragement to even go to college.

While watching the president’s “war on poverty” result in less funding for pre-school programs, poor planning for job training and less aide for inner-city neighborhoods, Chicanos stepped up in the fight against the injustices of the 1970s.

One of the demonstrators killed in the Moratorium march was a Chicano journalist, Ruben Salazar. He was the news director of the only Spanish-language TV station in L.A. at the time of the demonstration, and a veteran reporter who spent several years at the Los Angeles Times.

Three people were killed, dozens were injured, and many were arrested on Aug. 30, 1970.

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