Let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire!

Arnie Alpert to be Presented 2010 Martin Luther King Award

 Long-time civil rights activist, Arnie Alpert, will become the 24^th recipient of the annual Martin Luther King Award presented by the Martin Luther King Coalition. Arnie is Program Coordinator of the American Friends Service Committee-NH (AFSC-NH), a Quaker organization devoted to social justice, peace, and nonviolent change,

 For the past 23 years, the Martin Luther King Coalition has presented the prestigious Martin Luther King Award to a New Hampshire resident who carries on work for social justice in the spirit of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Alpert was selected for the award because of the breadth of the causes to which he devotes his considerable efforts. He is active in movements for economic justice and affordable housing, civil and worker rights, peace and disarmament, abolition of the death penalty, and an end to racism and homophobia.  

 As Communications Coordinator for the Martin Luther King Day Committee from 1988 to 1999, Arnie played a central role in the campaign for a state holiday honoring Dr. King.  The holiday was enacted in 1999 and first observed officially in 2000. 

 Arnie attended the Coalition’s first Martin Luther King Day Celebration in 1983. The following year he began what would become over 2 decades of service on the Coalition’s Steering Committee. Although, as of 3 years ago, he chose to allow other AFSC representatives to experience this depth of involvement, he remains the Coalition’s Official Contact for AFSC-NH.

He was named “Citizen of the Year” by the New Hampshire Women’s Lobby in 1997, and received the NH AFL-CIO’s annual Social Justice Award in 1999.  In 2004 he received the Thomas Merton-Dorothy Day Award from River College’s Peace and Justice Institute.  NH Public Radio included him in its “25 for 25” series in 2007, which profiled people who have made a difference in the state. 

Since the early 1990s, Arnie has traveled in Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Haiti to learn about the impact of globalization on peoples’ jobs and access to basic services.  He writes, leads workshops, and speaks frequently on issues related to workers’ rights, globalization, water, and trade policy. Arnie participated in protests and other activities during the 1999 World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle, the 2003 WTO meeting in Cancun, and the 2005 WTO meeting in Hong Kong.  He was an AFSC delegate to the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre in 2005.

He was a member of the AFSC Global Economics Working Party, which produced “Putting Dignity and Rights at the Heart of the Global Economy,” a report issued in 2004.  Arnie currently serves as Vice Chair of the New Hampshire Citizens Trade Policy Commission, a body created by the legislature in 2007. 

Arnie is an active member of his union, UNITE-HERE Local 66L, which represents industrial laundry workers and social change activists in the northeast.  He served for several years on the Steering Committee of the Campaign for Labor Rights, a national anti-sweatshop organization.  Arnie has also served on the Board of Directors of the NH Community Loan Fund, and the Steering Committee of NH Peace Action.  He is currently on the Steering Committee of the NH Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty and the Steering Committee of the Clamshell Legacy and Anti-nuclear Mobilization Project.

Arnie’s articles have been published in Peacework, the Concord Monitor, the New Hampshire Union Leader, the New Hampshire Business Review, Friends Journal, Dollars & Sense, and The Progressive, amongst other publications. He is the author of the entry on New Hampshire for the encyclopedia, Civil Rights in the United States.

Arnie resides with life partner, 2006 Martin Luther King Award Recipient, Judy Elliott, in Canterbury.

 The Martin Luther King Award will be presented to Arnie at the 29^th Annual Martin Luther King Day Community Celebration on Monday, January 18, 2010. The Celebration will be held at Saint George Greek Orthodox Cathedral, 650 Hanover Street, Manchester, from 2 – 5pm.

The Martin Luther King Coalition unites diverse New Hampshire organizations to celebrate Martin Luther King Day, to sponsor educational and cultural programs on the life and work of the Dr. King, and to encourage New Hampshire residents to reflect upon Dr. King’s relevance to contemporary efforts for racial and economic justice, peace and nonviolent social change. The Coalition is non-profit and non-partisan. The Coalition sponsors educational programs, maintains a Martin Luther King Speakers Bureau, and holds an annual Martin Luther King Day Community Celebration where the Martin Luther King Award and the Lionel Washington Johnson Youth Awards are presented.

Direct questions or comments about this Website to WebMaster  VanessaLWJ@HendrixHouse.com with questions or comments.
Last modified: 03/06/10