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The Salem Award: Welcome


Salem Award for Human Rights and Social Justice

Coalition of Immokalee Workers

For its work in helping to end slavery

Lucas Benitez
Gerardo Reyes Chavez
Lucas Benitez Gerardo Reyes Chavez

The 17th Salem Award for Human Rights and Social Justice was presented in May 2009 to the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW)1 for its work to eliminate modern-day slavery in the agricultural industry.  CIW fights slavery by uncovering, investigating, and assisting in the federal prosecution of slavery rings preying on hundreds of farm workers.

The coalition, which began in 1993 with six migrant workers in Immokalee, Florida, now represents 4000 agricultural laborers and organizes thousands more.  The coalition fights for workers’ rights, fair wages, better working conditions, decent housing, and an end to indentured servitude.  Its anti-slavery campaign has helped to bring a number of successful court cases involving more than 1000 workers and more than a dozen employers in the past decade. 

The award was presented on Friday, May 8, 2009, at 7:30 p.m. at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts.  Mr. Lucas Benitez and Mr. Gerardo Reyes Chavez, both farmworkers and longtime labor organizers with the coalition, accepted the award on behalf of the organization and spoke about its work.


To Honor the Memory of:

Hanged, June 10, 1692
Bridget Bishop, Salem
Hanged, July 19, 1692
Sarah Good, Salem Village
Rebecca Nurse, Salem Village
Sussannah Martin, Amesbury
Elizabeth Howe, Ipswich
Sarah Wildes, Topsfield
Hanged, August 19, 1692
George Burroughs, Wells, Maine
John Proctor, Salem Village
John Willard, Salem Village
George Jacobs, Andover
Martha Carrier, Andover
Pressed, September 19, 1692
Giles Corey, Salem Farms
Hanged, September 22, 1692
Martha Corey, Salem Farms
Mary Easty, Topsfield
Alice Parker, Salem
Ann Pudeator, Salem
Margaret Scott, Rowley
Wilmot Redd, Marblehead
Samuel Wardwell, Andover
Mary Parker, Andover

1 External Link

  1. Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW)
    http://www.ciw-online.org/