Michael S. Hooper

His Quest for Haitian Democracy and Freedom

On December 10, 2000, the National Coalition for Haitian Rights (NCHR) will pay tribute to slain Haitian journalist Jean L. Dominique and honor his widow, Michele Montas, who along with her dedicated staff of reporters soldiers on. Ms. Montas will receive the Michael S. Hooper Award for Human Rights.

To understand the rationale for this award and the significance of naming it for Mr. Hooper, it is important first to understand the nature of his work for and contributions to the fight for Haitian democracy and freedom. 

Michael Stone Hooper’s first contact with Haiti was as a staff attorney at the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights in 1980. There his knowledge of development theory and French allowed him to undertake the first of a long series of human rights investigations in Haiti, a country for which he began developing a life-long commitment and passion. At the Lawyers Committee, he worked as Director of Research and as Director of the Haiti Project, where he actively used his legal expertise to defend Haitian refugees’ rights to due process and to coordinate the activities of concerned groups of lawyers, the national voluntary resettlement agencies and Haitian community groups.

In 1982, he was called upon to become the NCHR’s Executive Director. The inclusion of the Cuban-Haitian Adjustment Act in the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA) was largely due to his tireless efforts and his excellent organizing skills. Mr. Hooper provided countless testimony in Congress and published numerous articles and reports on the human rights situation in Haiti, which he visited constantly, sometimes at great risk to his life.

He came to be trusted by the Haitian people and a wide range of friends and colleagues, ranging from activists in the Haitian Church to the struggling human rights associations. In the fall of 1987, Mike and NCHR’s Associate Director at the time, Jocelyn (Johnny) McCalla, initiated with Americas Watch an Election Watch Project in Haiti to monitor the tense human rights environment preceding the first national elections in more than 30 years. These elections were aborted when the military, in alliance with Duvalier loyalists, forced their cancellation through a bloodbath. In the aftermath of the massacre and the efforts of the democratic civilian opposition to reorganize itself, Mr. Hooper came home to the US on what was to be a brief stay and was diagnosed as having a recurrence of a malignant melanoma that had been removed in 1982.

Mr. Hooper’s last months in 1988 were spent battling cancer, surrounded by loving friends, cared for by his wife, Rayna, and 4-year-old daughter, Mira. He understood to the hour of his death the importance of continuing the struggle for democracy and development in Haiti, and his clear message to all who loved and respected him was that they must continue to contribute as both Americans and Haitians to making the dream of Haitian freedom a reality.

The Michael S. Hooper Human Rights Award seeks to honor individuals that reflect the characteristics that Mr. Hooper so effortlessly lived -- passion, commitment, perseverance, selflessness. NCHR believes that we have found those equalities in the first recipient of this award.