WHAT: Rocker will be honored with the Chairman’s Award by the Asian American Hotel Owners Association [AAHOA] for his “assistance and cooperation to help AAHOA members in five states regarding the BP oil spill and human rights.” This award is AAHOA’s highest and most coveted prize and Art Rocker is the first African American human and civil rights activist ever bestowed with this honor.
AAHOA ranks as one of the fastest-growing organizations in the hospitality industry and is widely recognized as “THE VOICE” for hotel owners in the United States. The vast majority of AAHOA members are Indian Americans, who come from Gujarat, India. AAHOA members own more than 20,000 hotels in the United States, which is more than 40 percent of all of the hotel properties in this country. Their members create and support more than 500,000 jobs.
The AAHOA Annual Convention is one of the largest events in the hospitality industry and is attended by more hotel owners than any other.
WHERE: The Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, Ga. -- the 2012 AAHOA Annual Convention and Trade Show
WHEN: Saturday, May 5, 2012. Media interview availability – 5pm to 6:30pm
WHY: Rocker states, "It was imperative to reach these underserved and underrepresented claimants in the Gulf Coast region who deserved billions of dollars due to the legitimate economic losses they have endured." He has gone to jail over 3 times in demonstrations concerning the Indian American BP oil spill claimants.
Rocker has been responsible for millions of dollars to be paid to the underserved and underrepresented in civil rights violations. "He is a tireless worker for human rights,” opines renowned comedic and human rights activist Dick Gregory. “In the event that Art Rocker did not stand up for these people, they would have never been paid."
Dr. Bernard LaFayette, Jr., the SCLC Board Chair and former confidant of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., puts it more succinctly: Rocker," he says ...is the foremost; number one human rights activist in the country."
