Greater Springfield NAACP Freedom Fund

Congratulations to all 2023 award winners recognized by the Greater Springfield Branch of the NAACP!

Bob and Roberta Bolduc Charitable Foundation

James F. Hennessey Award Dr, Shirley Jackson Whitaker Dr. Whitaker attended Clark Atlanta University completing a BS degree in Biology where she graduated with honors. After Clark, she attended Yale University School of MedicineDepartment of Public Health. She also attended Emory University School of Medicine, obtaining her medical degree in 1979. She completed her advanced medical training in Internal Medicine and Nephrology in Virginia, California, and Oregon.

After completing her fellowship, she and her husband moved to Massachusetts where she worked for 10 years at the Springfield Southwest Community Health Center (now The Caring Health Center). She designed a children's coloring book against drugs in four different languages (Vietnamese, Russian, Spanish, and English), a community health newsletter called Springer, and worked with the University of Massachusetts theater department to produce an imaginative drug prevention skit Monsters Among Us. Dr. Whitaker went into private Nephrology practice in 2006 but she has continued to work in the Springfield community. In 2010, she designed a hypertension prevention project serving the Mason Square Area called Hypertension Intervention and Prevention Program (H.I.P.P.). Until 2020 she served the community of Western Mass by giving health information on WTCC every Sunday morning. She started a Facebook live health program centered on the Covid pandemic to help guide the community during this time.

Dr. Whitaker took all of her experiences from her love of medicine, art, and people and created a program called, In Celebration of Black Women, which showcased the artistic talent and entrepreneurship of African-American women. In 1998 because of her concern about violence against women, she wrote the Declaration Against Violence to Women. This initiative was coordinated with violence prevention programs in Springfield.

To address her concerns about African-American children's academic standing in Amherst schools, she along with other parents in the community established a program called Academic Initiate for Maximum Success (AIMS) which increased the number of African-American students in the AP math programs to the highest time in the school’s history. From AIMS, students attended MIT, Tuft, Trinity, and several other institutions of higher learning.

Because of her interest and concerns about the over 4,000 African-Americans who were lynched, Dr. Whitaker produced the first-ever funeral service, Ashes to Ashes, on April 29-30, 2016 to celebrate and remember these lives. This service has been made into a film of the same name and was featured in The New Yorker magazine. Dr. Whitaker continues to practice Nephrology in western Massachusetts and works to make contributions in many areas in support of the community. She lives in Amherst, Mass with her husband

President’s Award Fred Allen Swan Fred Allen Swan Sr, was born in Belzoni MS. He was educated in Springfield Schools. He received his master’s degree from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst in 1977. Fred completed extensive post-graduate studies in counseling psychology, education, and organizational development.

Mr. Swan's proudest accomplishments are his seven children, twenty-three grandchildren, and eighteen great-grandchildren. The youngest of a family of fifteen, Fred's life has been centered on family, extended family, and building a shared vision for the quality of life and overall well-being of those most vulnerable in the community. Therefore Fred's second proudest accomplishments are those centered around the betterment of the community; and include organizations he founded: the Staff Training and Organizational Development Services at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, the Vocational Teacher Education Program for Minorities and Women at Westfield, (MA) University, the Community Service Police Cadet Program at the Springfield (MA) Urban League, the behavioral health and HIV services at Northern Education Service, and the Caring Health Center in Springfield, MA. Mr. Swan has demonstrated visionary organizational leadership for over fifty years. He has mentored many community leaders, teachers, professors, doctors, nurses, and civil servants.

As a volunteer, Fred has served numerous organizations, including the Research and Multicultural network of the American Society for Training and Development (now Society for Human Resource Management, (SHRM), Board member, Springfield Museum and Library Association, the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers, the National Association of Community Health Centers, and the Collegiate Committee for the Education of Minority and Black Students at the University of Massachusetts. A former adjunct faculty member at Cambridge College, Springfield College, Westfield State University, and Bay Path University, Fred has lectured widely on topics such as cultural competency in health care and education, culturally based behavioral health service delivery, African American History, leadership, and organizational development.

Lift Every Voice and Sing James Weldon Johnson Lift every voice and sing Till earth and heaven ring, Ring with the harmonies of Liberty; Let our rejoicing rise High as the listening skies, Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.

Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us, Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us, Facing the rising sun of our new day begun Let us march on till victory is won.

Stony the road we trod, Bitter the chastening rod, Felt in the days when hope unborn had died; Yet with a steady beat, Have not our weary feet Come to the place for which our fathers died We have come over a way that with tears have been watered, We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered, Out from the gloomy past, Till now we stand at last Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.

God of our weary years, God of our silent tears, Thou who has brought us thus far on the way;

Thou who has by Thy might Led us into the light, Keep us forever in the path, we pray.

Lest our feet stray from the places, Our God, where we met Thee; Lest, our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee; Shadowed beneath Thy hand, May we forever stand.

True to our God, True to our native land