An evening of inspiration: Riverhead schools’ 16th Annual Black History Month celebration

The Riverhead community celebrated Black History Month last night with the school district’s 16th Annual Black History Celebration at Riverhead High School. 

The evening featured music and dance, poetry, reflections on historic achievements, honors for two Riverhead educators and a moving keynote address by Suffolk County Sheriff Errol Toulon Jr. about overcoming adversity.

Toulon, 63, shared his remarkable life story: growing up in the south Bronx, landing a job as a bat boy for the New York Yankees in 1979, following in his father’s footsteps to become a New York City correction officer, surviving both Hodgkin’s lymphoma and pancreatic cancer, recovering from the trauma of his wife’s death and going on the become the first African American elected to a nonjudicial county-wide office in Suffolk County history.

“My parents showed my brother and I that anything was possible and encouraged us to be leaders,” Toulon said. “And one of the things that I learned very early in life is that it is your reaction to adversity, not the adversity itself, that determines how your life story will develop.”

Though he went on to earn an MBA and doctorate in education administration and took leadership courses at the Harvard Kennedy School, Toulon said he was a mediocre student in high school. After high school graduation, he attended community college and earned an associate’s degree. Inspired by his father’s dedication, Toulon became a correction officer. He spent 22 years as a uniformed officer at Riker’s Island. He rose to the position of deputy commissioner of operations, in charge of 10,000 officers and a $1.8 billion budget. He served as deputy commissioner for almost three years, he said.   “But I didn’t see eye to eye with the de Blasio administration. And it came to a point on January 7 of 2017 that I was asked to resign.”

Four years before he left the Department of Corrections, Toulon’s first wife Sue died by suicide, he told the audience. She had systemic lupus and was suffering physically and emotionally. 

He described his rising panic when at work one day, he couldn’t reach his wife at home by phone or text one day. and also started to suffer with some mental health issues.

“I threw on my jacket, and I raced home and searched the house, searched the master bedroom, prayed because every door was closed. As I opened the door, I called her name, she didn’t answer, and I opened up the master bath, and she had taken her own life,” he recalled. 

“Fast forward again to where I was when I was asked to resign. You know, I had two battles with cancer. I had heart surgery. I lost my first wife to suicide, and now I’m unemployed. My two boys are older. They’re out of the house. And I tell many people, I understand what it is to be unemployed, having difficulty making your bills, suffering with, I wouldn’t say, deep depression, but wondering how could this have happened to me?” 

He felt like he had hit bottom. “Trying to figure out every single day, I used to say to myself, just get up. Just get up. Just get up, no matter what it was, whether it was doing the dishes or sitting outside or cleaning the house, even job searching, I said, just get up and continue to do it,” he said.

In the fall of 2017, Toulon found himself running for Suffolk County sheriff. It was something he had not contemplated. He was asked to run by some political leaders, he said. Despite being a Suffolk County resident for 35 years at that point, he said he knew Suffolk had a sheriff, “but didn’t know what the sheriff’s office did.” By then he had remarried and he talked it over with his wife and they decided he should try.

“I figured that no one was going to want me to be the sheriff, but if someone heard me speak, if they saw my resume, if they liked the way I presented myself, I took a chance on that and hopefully someone would think that I would be worthy of being employed by them,” Toulon said.

On Election Day, he led by 1,300 votes —but there were 25,000 absentee ballots to be counted. And on Dec. 1, ”the same day that Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on that bus, I was declared the first African American sheriff in the history of Suffolk County.”

The crowd in the auditorium erupted in cheers and applause. 

His life’s experience reinforced the importance of trying to be a role model for others, Toulon said. 

“And while there are a lot of people like you who are cheering, there are a lot of people that are jeering and hoping I make a mistake or I slip up, so they can say ‘I told you so,’” he said. 

“There were many people that did not want me to be the sheriff, not because of my political affiliation, even though that was something that was mentioned, not because I came from New York City, even though that was mentioned, but because of the color of my skin,” Toulon said. One person told him directly, “We’re not ready to have a Black sheriff.”

Toulon sees himself in a “unique role of being able to help people without wanting anything in return but seeing a smile on someone’s face and knowing that I was able to make a difference in someone’s life,” he said. “It may be small, it may be big, but I have this great opportunity now to touch every person in Suffolk County and hopefully help them, especially those that are incarcerated,” Toulon said.

“I strive to inspire bright young men and women to become leaders, critical thinkers and agents of change,” he said.  “At the same time, I’m committed to reminding our residents that they can trust law enforcement and public service who work hard to make our county safer and a better place to live. God bless all of you.”

Longtime Riverhead teacher Georgette Lauzier was presented with the MLK Jr. Humanitarian Award by Riverhead Town Council Member Denise Merrifield. She remembered her mother watching the news of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination on April 4, 1968, the memory of tears streaming down her mother’s face still vivid. 

“I didn’t understand why it was happening but when it happened again on June 5th with the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, I began to understand that great men had been killed,” she said. 

She recalled violence and riots when court-ordered integration of Broward County schools in 1970-1971. “I could not understand how people could feel this way about other people,” Lauzier said. “Even as I look back now, I still don’t fully understand why America chooses to hold on to such deep, irrational, and fear based beliefs.  It was a defining time in my life.”

Lauzier recalled the King’s words:  “Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable… Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.”

Nearly six decades later, she said, “and those words continue to ring true.”

She implored the audience to listen to one another, to speak with each other “with generosity of intention and an inquisitive spirit.”

“America’s path to healing is not in Washington, D.C., it is not in the White House or the Capitol.  It is here in Riverhead, right here in Suffolk County, and right here in New York,” Lauzier said. “I teach our children, yours and mine, to explore our diversity in all its glory, to build relationships that promote understanding, respect, and a culture of care for one another.”

Marion Johnson, who taught in Riverhead schools for 55 years, was recognized posthumously with a lifetime achievement award, presented by Interim Superintendent Cheryl Pedisich. 

Johnson, who died in August at age 88, was remembered in a video presentation last night as a woman who “lived with purpose… talked with passion and … loved to follow her heart.” She was “a teacher…a warrior and a woman of grace” who “cherished family, friendship and the simple joys of life.”

“Her legacy lives on in the countless lives she touched, in the lessons she taught and in the love she shared so freely. Miss Johnson will never be Forgotten.”

The evening’s program also featured presentations by the Council for Unity, the PFC Garfield M. Langhorn essay contest winners and the Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, as well as performances by The Precious Pearls of the Butterfly Effect Project, the school district’s 4th grade choir, the Pulaski Street Combined Ensemble, First Baptist Church Liturgical Dancers, the middle school jazz band and the high school jazz ensemble, and refreshments by the high school culinary club. There were also art exhibits featuring Riverhead Middle School and Roanoke Elementary School students’ work.

Riverhead High School NJROTC presented the colors. Cheyanne Metzger performed the Star Spangled Banner. Mark McLaughlin performed “Lift Every Voice.” 

Alethia Ford served as the evening’s master of ceremonies. Jamal Boyce, the district’s DEI specialist, gave welcoming remarks to the packed house. 

RiverheadLOCAL photos by Emil Breitenbach Jr.