Arthur L. Hardge (April 8, 1927 – October 29, 1983) was an American civil rights movement leader, a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, and a University of Rhode Island administrator.

After participating in a sit-in at a segregated restaurant located in the Tallahassee Municipal Airport, he and nine other clergymen were sentenced to sixty days on a Florida chain gang.

After a lengthy appeals process that reached the U.S. Supreme Court, the men served ten days in jail before a judge ordered their release in 1964.

He co-founded and chaired the state chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality and served as executive secretary of the Rhode Island Commission Against Discrimination from 1965 to 1968.

He helped to organize sit-ins, legal actions, and legislative pushes to advance fair housing, anti-poverty measures, and school desegregation in Rhode Island.

[1][2] In 1967, Hardge co-founded and chaired the state branch of the Opportunities Industrialization Center (OIC), whose mission is to provide job training and adult education to underprivileged community members.