—-By Frederick A. Hurst—-
The evening was pleasant and went smoothly. The crowd was relatively small as planned but the interaction was electric. If you missed it this year, it’s not your fault. We didn’t advertise the event to the general public.[metaslider id=7471]
I’m referring, of course, to the 2019 Emmett Till Award ceremony that was held on August 28th at the Hurst home. The Emmett Till Committee had been meeting once a month for the previous year to decide exactly how future Emmett Till awardees would be selected. By the time August 28th was just around the corner, we still had not determined whether or not to delay the award for a year while we completed our planning. But one of our distinguished committee members – I believe it was our chairperson Emurriel Holloway – raised the issue of continuity. Emurriel felt that skipping a year was not a good idea and we all eventually agreed even though we hadn’t selected a 2019 awardee. We also agreed that we would hold the event only if we could agree on an awardee that fit our new mission statement, which was not going to be easy.
Our mission statement is clear. The mission of the Emmett Till Committee is “To honor those individuals or groups who, without fear of consequences, demonstrate the courage to resist intimidation and to speak out and act against injustice.” It seems simple enough. But it wasn’t that easy. We struggled to decide on our 2019 awardee and finally one of the “geniuses” among us recommended that we give the 2019 award to the Springfield City Council as a governmental body and we were off to the races.
And did we have a great spur-of-the-moment event at the home of committee members Frederick and Marjorie Hurst. Eleven of the thirteen city councilors attended along with their invitees. Kateri Walsh, the dean of the city council, accepted the council award and each of the councilors was given a certificate of appreciation that was captioned: “THE BEST CITY COUNCIL EVER.”
And the explanation written below it was equally as celebratory. It read: “By its fearless legislative actions, the current Springfield City Council has demonstrated the courage to resist intimidation and to speak out in the best interests of the City and its people in a manner that has allowed government to work as it should.” Much of the same wording was carved into the award itself, a fine piece of clear crystal that was meant to last in the memories of the current city councilors and to influence future city councilors.
Some worried that the event was political, that it was designed to elevate councilors and denigrate the mayor with whom they often clashed on critical issues. Those concerns could not have been further from the truth, which our committee discussed before deciding to move forward, and which is why we invited the mayor to speak. He agreed but had to cancel at the last minute because of an illness in the family.
Others felt that it was designed to promote incumbents. It was not, which is why the award was given to the council as a body and not to a particular individual member. To those who felt that way, we can only say that Emmett Till was lynched on August 28, 1955, which is the date we chose to celebrate his courage, under the relentless attack and cruel murder by Southern White racists whose crime fueled the modern Civil Rights Movement. The award was given on the same date in the prior two years, the first to Colin Kaepernick and last year to the Caulton family in honor of their father, a Black Springfield police lieutenant who was wrongfully denied his promotion to captain. We didn’t choose the date for political reasons no more than Emmett Till chose it as the day for his death.
All of that said, after the formal speeches and presentations, we all celebrated with food and drink that lasted into the midnight hour and – I hate repeating myself – but it was “electric.” Folks had pure unadulterated fun. It was such a pleasure to watch people interact with a civility that is becoming uncommon in our current political environment. Those who missed it missed an opportunity.
I want to extend special thanks to Benjamin Craft and the wonderful folks at CHD, who co-sponsored the event with Af-Am Point of View, and all of the others who made the event a tremendous success, many of whom will be the subjects of my October extended coverage of an event that will continue to grow. ■
