Award Recipients
It is our pleasure to honor the following individuals for their past and present outstanding
contribution to the mission of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People in our community.
Posthumous Award
Bernard Cohen, 1st President of the Brockton Area Branch NAACP
Fmr. Judge Bernard Cohen was educated at Brockton High
School, Boston University College of Business Administration, Princeton University and
Boston University School of Law. He opened his own law office in 1449 in Brockton,
starting as a general practitioner. Shortly thereafter he began to concentrate his
practice on Worker’s Compensation and Personal Injury Law.
Bernie was a member of the Massachusetts Bar, Federal Bar and the Bar of the
Supreme Court of the United States. He was a member of the Plymouth County Bar
Assoc., the Massachusetts Bar Association, the industrial Accident Board, the
Association of Trial Lawyers of American and the Boston Bar Association.
His parents, David and Pauline Cohen, were proprietors of a small grocery store at the
corner of North Main and Wyman Streets for many years.
In June of 1973 Bernie was appointed a Judge by Governor Francis X. Sargent.
His community activities include first President of the Brockton Branch pf the NAACP,
Chairman of the Brockton Redevelopment Authority, Chairman of the Citizen’s
Committee of Urban Renewal, Chairman of the Brockton Family Service Association
and a member of Stonehill College Century Club.
He was elected a delegate to many Massachusetts Democratic State Conventions and
to two National Democratic Conventions.
th
Bernie was a veteran of WW II and served overseas in the 104 Infantry Division in the
battles and campaigns of Northern France, the Rhineland and Central Europe.
Posthumous Award
Vernon Sport, Tuskegee Airman and past president of Brockton Area Branch NAACP
Vernon K. Sport was elected
President of the Brockton Area NAACP in 1965. He later served as President of the
New England Area Conference of NAACP branches, and he also served on the NAACP
Board of Directors. Vernon was an Affirmative Action Officer for the court system for
the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He was a founding board member of Self Help
Inc. in Brockton, the social service organization established in the “The War on Poverty”
to provide job training and placement for a new workforce. He was on the board of the
American Cancer Society and the American Heart Association. He was appointed by
the mayor as an official Representative of the City of Brockton to attend the funeral of
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968.
Vernon K. Sport was born in Lynn, MA on July 15, 1923. After graduation from high
school he enlisted in the Army Corps in November 0f 1942. He was appointed Captain
Squad Commander in the Aviation Cadet Corps of Moten Field, Tuskegee, Alabama,
later to be known as the Tuskegee Airmen and the “Red Tailed Angels”. He was most
proud of his Congressional Gold Medal awarded by the President in a ceremony at the
White House honoring the Tuskegee Airmen.
Upon his retirement from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Vernon moved to
Conyers, Georgia where he continued his work for justice and equality. He was a
member of the Atlanta Chapter Tuskegee Airmen, Inc. The mayor of Conyers
proclaimed February 15, 2008 as Vernon K. Sport Day. He was also recognized on that
day for coverage and valor by the United States Post Office.
Vernon was a Suffolk University graduate with a Bachelor's degree in Sociology and he
received a Master's Degree at Goddard College in Vermont. Vernon had always been a
man of great strength with abiding faith. He worked tirelessly to preserve those ideas
throughout his life.
Youth Award
Adrian Niles, NAACP ACT-SO Gold Medalist
Born with a knack for creating, Adrian Niles, 18, grew from
tinkering with Legos when he was 4.
As a freshman, his first invention was a beverage coaster that lit up when an item was
placed on top of it. He won first place and $500 for that invention.
With a desire to push himself further, he moved on to the Segway, the invention of
which, he said, he is most proud. He build from scratch his own version of the Segway,
a motor-powered two-wheeler. Adrian’s modified Segway, which he calls the “SelfBalancing People Mover,” shot the recent high school graduate to science-fair stardom.
Adrian became a participant in the NAACP ACT-SO Program. ACT-SO stands for AfroAcademic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics (ACT-SO) and is a yearlong
achievement program designed to recruit, stimulate, and encourage high academic and
cultural achievement among African-American high school students.
In May, his project - which includes safety features designed to help the elderly and
disabled move around more safely - helped win him a $7,500 Mathworks award and first
place at the 2014 Massachusetts State Science and Engineering Fair. He also won
the 2014 American Society of Safety Engineers Award and he took top honors in
engineering at the 2013 NAACP ACT-SO. Adrian also won the gold medal at the South
Shore Regional Science Fair in March.
His invention has garnered numerous awards and recognition from Mayor Bill Carpenter
and Brockton City Council to the Statehouse. His success even took him to White
House where his most notable audience member yet - was President Barack Obama.
From his success at the White House, he received an invitation from Will I Am, who said
to him “Let’s Build Something Big” to travel to Los Angeles to work in his studio “The
Future” for ten days this past August. In the studio, Adrian was able to 3DPrint his
project. For ten days he was able to design and create whatever he wanted. It was an
amazing opportunity to be in a space where he was able to be creative and learn from
designers in the Studio.
Over 600 youth from around the country participated in the ACT-SO program nationally
in Las Vegas this past July and Adrian brought home the gold for his invention.
Adrian graduated from Southeast Regional Vocational-Technical High School this past
June. He was an honor roll student throughout his entire four years. He is currently a
freshman at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth. His ultimate dream is to
build the fastest moving electric car, and we wish him every success.
Award Recipient
Robert Jones, Former Superintendent, Brockton Public Schools
Robert C. Jones was the first and only African-American to be named as superintendent
of Brockton Public Schools. He held that position for three years at the end of a long
career with the Brockton school system that began in 1960, when he began teaching at
North Junior High. In addition to teaching, Mr. Jones held a number of administrative
positions in the school department, including Assistant Principal, Coordinator of
Administrative Services, and Administrative Assistant for the entire system. During his
tenure as superintendent in Brockton, Mr. Jones put a school improvement plan into
effect that solved segregation problems that had plagued officials for a decade. By
locating new magnet schools in downtown areas, he helped qualify the city for state
funds to build three new schools: the Arnone, the Plouffe, and the Angelo.
Robert C. Jones was born in Mt. Vernon, NY, on August 27, 1931, and lived there for
two years before moving first to Boston and then, when he was ten years old, to
Brockton, where his father worked at Peter’s Lunch with Christo Tsaganis. At Brockton
High School, Bob was a track star and team captain, setting local and state records in
the high jump, long jump, and relay events. After seeing him perform at a New England
regional meet, the Tufts College track coach asked Bob to apply to Tufts, where Bob
would become class poet and vice president in his senior year. In 1952, Bob and two
other talented athletes from a Tufts team that had beaten Harvard and BU at regional
meets drove to Los Angeles in a 1940 Dodge convertible to try out for the United States
Olympic team. The car broke down on the way back, making it necessary for Bob to
hitchhike by himself back to Brockton. Bob’s record in the long jump at Tufts lasted for
twenty-three years.
The hurdles and pitfalls of track and field events were not the only barriers that Mr.
Jones had to overcome. When he applied for a teaching job in Brockton, he was told he
would first have to earn a master’s degree. Bob earned a master’s degree at
Bridgewater State College in 1960. Later he finished the coursework for an EdD at
Boston University and was elected to Pi Lambda Theta, the National Honor Society of
Educators and Professionals. During the seven years between graduating from Tufts
and gliding over the high bar seemingly set just for him by Brockton school officials, Bob
worked as a window washer in Boston and as a psychiatric nursing assistant at the
Brockton VA Hospital. In 1960, Mr. Jones was the only African-American teaching in
the Brockton Public School system.
Near the end of his career, Mr. Jones taught for several years as an adjunct instructor in
Harvard’s Graduate School of Education. His thirty-seven years of labor for the
Brockton Public Schools, including years of overseeing the physical plants of the
system and being the system’s chief administrator, left Brockton schools proudly
desegregated without the social problems that plagued countless school systems
elsewhere in the United States. To the discerning eye, both the work and the legacy of
Robert C. Jones are now and always will be evident throughout the City of Champions.
Award Recipient
Lucia Shannon, Brockton Public Library
Lucia is the Head of Adult Services for the Brockton
Public Library.
Born March 11, 1951 to Margaret and Charles Shannon, Lucia grew up in Rockland,
MA attending public schools and graduated from Rockland High school in 1969. Lucia
did her undergraduate study at Mt. Holyoke College. and Boston University. She
completed a Master degree in Library Science in 1974 from Simmons College Graduate
School of Library Science.
Lucia began her career at the Brockton Public Library as the first Reader’s Advisor.
Eight years later in 1982 she became Head of Adult Services. Ms. Shannon married
Hugh M. Crane in 1982. They had two wonderful children, Roxanne and Daniel, and a
son-in-law Ethan Warner. She has been a member of Altrusa International since 1991,
a service organization similar to Rotary, serving as secretary, then Vice President, and
President. More recently she joined School on Wheels as a tutor to homeless children.
In 2006 and 2013 she received outstanding awards from the Brockton Rotary Club.
When Lucia first took note of the library collection, she observed that information about
artists, authors and members of various ethnic communities were not well represented.
She began collecting pamphlets and articles to highlight the activities and
achievements of this larger population. She expanded the library collection to include
new immigrants and the broadening of literature by and for African Americans for whom
the last four decades represent a modern renaissance. Special collections of African
American fiction and African American non-fiction were created and enlarged.
Brockton needed a stage to present its new rich culture. Kwanza Network held
Women’s History Programs featuring women of color. National Book Award winner,
Edward Ball author of “Slaves in the Family” spoke to a packed house. Professor
Robert Hall led a discussion on “African Americans Making a Living in New England”.
Juneteenth celebrations were held at the library. Indaba Theater of New England
performed dramatic presentations. The play “Souls of Black Girls” came to the library.
There were displays of African Wrap dolls and Black Barbies. The library book group
headed by Lucia also selects authors from and around the globe. A corner of the library
is devoted to the city’s Underground Railroad History. Lucia has featured, collaborated
and promoted numerous artists of color by sponsoring them in art exhibits at the library
gallery.
A longtime patron of the library comments that “Lucia’s staff feels and looks like City
of Brockton, present day and future. The staff is White, Black, Cape Verdean, male,
female of professional and non-professional status. Lucia is alert and sensitive to
change in the City of Brockton. “
From 1974 to the present Lucia Shannon has been a student of Brockton. Her mentors
are many in number and diverse in background. For Lucia they have made everything
possible by sharing their knowledge and talent. Lucia recently was a guest on the
Brockton Area Branch, Cable Access Television Show “NAACP Forum”.
Today we celebrate Lucia Shannon for all her good work.