—-By Frederick A. Hurst—-
We at Point of View were so pleased to present the second annual Emmett Till Award to “The Team on the Field” in honor of the late Springfield, Massachusetts police Lieutenant Robert L. Caulton who served honorably on the Springfield Police Department from 1964, at the height of the Civil Rights Movement, until he retired. Like so many Black police officers he was wrongfully denied a promotion to captain after he had accumulated years of complimentary experience and after he had passed the required Civil Service test.
When Lieutenant Caulton’s daughter, Helen Caulton Harris wrote an article in Point of View (“A Father’s Day Tribute,” June 2018) about the circumstances surrounding his failure to be promoted, the Emmett Till Committee voted to posthumously award him the Emmett Till Award by way of his surviving family, some of whom joined together to pay for an advertisement in Point of View thanking us for an article I wrote in the same issue (“I Almost Cried”) expressing my feelings about the family’s pain.
The advertisement was titled “The Team on the Field.” The Team on the Field included Helen R. Caulton Harris, Aisha E. Caulton, Robin E. Caulton, Christopher Caulton Seabrooks, Mark H. Caulton, Jared M. Caulton, Connie D. Caulton, Janee M. Caulton, Angela D. Mack and Gregory Davis Jr., each of whom contributed to the cost of the ad which we featured on our July front page as part of a follow-up article on Lieutenant Caulton. We subsequently informed the family that the Emmett Till Award Committee would be presenting the second annual Emmett Till Award to the family in honor of their father in a ceremony at the Point of View office on August 28, 2018–the date Emmett Till was murdered, the aftermath of which sparked an outrage in the country that became the catalyst for the modern Civil Rights movement.
It was a simple but powerful ceremony featuring Caulton family members, including several of the above-named and many others, some from out of town. Other guests included local politicians including the Mayor, the only Black Western Massachusetts State Representative Bud Williams, School Committee member Denise Hurst and Springfield’s Police Commissioner John Barbieri and many guests from the general public.
Our special guests were from the Center for Human Development (CHD), which was our first sponsor of the Emmett Till Award. They included President and CEO Jim Goodwin, Vice President of Community Engagement Benjamin Craft and Vice President Children and Families and POV columnist John Roberson. CHD not only provided financial support but they presented each member of “The Team on the Field” with a copy of “The Blood of Emmett Till” by Timothy B. Tyson, whose writing resulted in the re-opening of the case against Till’s killers who were originally acquitted by an all-White Sumner, Mississippi jury.
It was a brief ceremony followed by refreshments. The politicians and all other speakers, except Caulton family members, were restricted to two minutes, including Denise Hurst who presented awards from the School Committee and City Council since her husband, City Councilor Justin Hurst, was at a City Council meeting, Mayor Domenic Sarno, Commissioner John Barbieri, who knew and worked with Lieutenant Caulton, and Rep. Bud Williams, who presented an award from the Statehouse. Yes, we were able to hold Bud’s talk to under two minutes!
After being presented with the Award to “Captain” Caulton, three Caulton family members spoke. Helen, Mark and Robin were eloquent, poignant and informative. Mark probably spoke the longest and provided us with a nice history of his father’s service to the city and his determination to pass the Captain’s exam. That their family pain was genuine came through as did their genuine appreciation that many of us were supportive.
After the formal ceremony, the Caulton family shared a refreshments and reminisced with other guests. And as everyone finally left from what can only be called a wonderful event, the Emmett Till Committee began planning for its next meeting and for the selection of its next year’s honoree…and for a larger, more air conditioned venue.
