The movie Salt of the Earth opened on this date in 1954. The classic film centers on a long and difficult strike led by Mexican-American and Anglo zinc miners in New Mexico. Real miners perform in the film, in which the miners’ wives—as they did in real life—take to the picket lines after the strikers are enjoined. Activist and linguist Noam Chomsky later praised Salt of the Earth, saying:
"The real work is being done by people who are not known, that's always been true in every popular movement in history...”
"The real work is being done by people who are not known, that's always been true in every popular movement in history...”