Honored to have such distinguished guests seated on the stage who will later be introduced by mr. Alan williams, president of the africanamerican historical and Cultural Society. Each year when we celebrate black History Month, we adopt the National Theme of the association for the study of African American life and history founded by the late dr. Quarter jean woodson. Father of black history week that later became black History Month. This year, the National Theme is, the crisis in black education. The executive summary found in your Program Addresses the theme. We will follow the order of the program. Now, rev. Dr. Amos c brown, civil rights leader and pastor of Historic Third Baptist Church will bring the invocation followed by mr. Eldridge anthony, who will lead uswho is the conductor of the Willie L Brown wilson choir leading us in singing with every voice and sing, the Negro National anthem. Please, stand. Thank you. Let us now pause and give acknowledgment to our maker. Oh, unmoved mover, the source of knowledge, wisdom, and understanding, we pause in spite of whatever tom we might utter to speak of you. To acknowledge that our people perish because of a lack of knowledge and critical thinking. But we thank you, god, that since those dark days of slavery sons and daughters of africa have always had a thirst for knowledge and wisdom. Those slave masters forbade us to even read or write, but god, we thank you for the ingenuity and the strong will of our forebears who dug pits out in the brush harbors and put a talk over them and studied how to learn and read. God, we thank you that [inaudible] chris all established the first school in boston massachusetts. We invoke the name of robert small who established the first compulsory Common School in these United States of america for blacks, and we pray that we will have a sense of stick to it of this and we wont anybody stop us from learning and thinking for ourselves. So we been taught by regiment a large amaze, if you cannot think for yourself, somebody else will do your thinking for you and whoever does you are thinking for you well be your master. And you, their slave. Thank you for this africanamerican historical and Cultural Society that is joined forces with our National Observance in honor that we might keep alive our faith in learning, keep alive our actions of making africanamerican history a day for every day and not just for one month in this nation. We pray this in our name in the father, and everybody says, amen. [ [music] [music and singing by the crowd] [applause] [music] [music and singing] [applause] lets give the Willie Brown School choir another round of applause. [applause] thank you. My name is [inaudible] president of the africanamerican Historical Cultural Society and i with my fellow Board Members [inaudible] executive director are both either join in welcoming you all to this 2017 annual black History Month kickoff program. We have a number of every [inaudible] with the challenge of making introductions and recognizing all the important people in the room and not offending anybody can so with everybody in the room, please stand up. [laughing] no, thats all right. There are some particularly important people we do wish to acknowledge. I just want to start off to my left, by introducing luis herrera and michael lambert. Louise is it [inaudible] assistant city librarian. [applause] we have also sheriff hennessey, Vicki Hennessy is with us. [applause] and a very special welcome to capt. Scott the chief of police. Give him a big round of applause. [applause] we have superintendent of schools, mr. Lee with us. [applause] we have and in randolph from the Community College board is alsohow randolph im sorry [applause] we also have [inaudible] mr. Collins is here with us. [applause] dj broker from southeast Community College facility is with us. [applause] former mayor willie brown, mayor willie brown is here with us. [applause] pastor a really us water. [applause] hamed Vander Department of public works is with us and a number of people we will come back and acknowledge that the Program Moves forward. [inaudible] as the chairman mentioned, the black History Program is priceless in black education. When we look at the term, [inaudible] has a couple of different meetings. One, of course at the time of an intense difficulty, trouble and danger. Another definition of crises is a time, a time when it is difficult or in an important decision must be made good so its inherent in a crisis and opportunity as well as well as a problem. When we look at the issue of opportunity, when we look at [inaudible]. The definition of a problem. There is the identifying a solution to the problem and the third piece of looking at a crisis, is then, taking action based on that solution that we arrive at. In order to take that action, you need three things. You need the resources to do it, you need to resolve to do it and you need the leadership to do it and we are very blessed today to have an incredibly strong and powerful leadership as represented here on this day us today that will lead us forward as we do with the implementation of action to deal with the crisis in education with that, i would like to ask supervisor am a president of the San Francisco board of supervisors when integrated and supervisor lilia cohen and the newly elected board of education [inaudible] to come forward and offer a brief comments. [applause] good afternoon everybody. I just also want to take this opportunity to acknowledge my colleagues who are here as well on the board of supervisors, my newest colleague sandy fewer. Who represents district 1. [applause] and aisha safai who represents district 11. Thank you both for being here today. Thank you to our assessor recorder carmen chu and our treasure was a cisneros. In our chief of protocol, charlie schultz. Thank you so much for joining us. [applause] you know, a couple of years ago one of the things that i made clear is that housing was definitely going to be at the top of one of my priorities. More importantly, as we talked about the outmigration of africanamericans, as we celebrate today, the kickoff of africanamerican History Month here in the city and county of San Francisco, i just want to take this opportunity to reflect on two very important things. Last year supervisor cohen and i went out chart for neighborhood preference leathers account why is that so important we typically with Affordable Housing and access to Affordable Housing, it is very difficult to make sure that people from the Africanamerican Community and particularly the people i grew up here in San Francisco have access to Affordable Housing when housing is built in our neighborhood. We got that legislation passed we took that fight all the way to washington dc into hud and because of the work that we did, because of the work that [inaudible] 12 was get in those applications [applause] instead of at the willie d kennedy apartments, instead of what we typically see, maybe if we are lucky, three, maybe five africanamericans, 38 of the 98 units went to africanamericans that willie d kennedy apartments. Thank you delta sigma theta. Thank you Mayors Office of housing, thank you mayor ed lee. [applause] but we are not done. Weve got work to do. I want to also secondly acknowledge the fact that weve got work to do with the next generation. You know, education is wide a good education is why im standing here today as the president of the board of supervisors pushing legislation that helps our community. So, now, we have the next generation in these amazing young people who sang so beautifully for us today from the will he be im sorry lewis brown Junior School and thank you for coming here. We support you. We encourage you. We lift you up. Thank you for those beautiful words. I come along with supervisor cohen we are committed to continuing our fight here in San Francisco, to push the policy that will continue to push us out. To make sure that theres a voice for the voiceless. We have a lot of work to do and why we will so great today, our history, our culture, our heritage, we know that there is a lot going on in our country. We know the days are challenging times but lets remember, this is not new to us. We have been here before and we prepared. The are paired for the fight, for freedom, for justice, for the things that we have fought for way back in the 60s. We are not afraid and we are going to continue to stand up and fight. Thank you all so much for being here today to kick off this incredible month. [applause] happy new year. No. Happy black History Month. [applause] this is incredible times. When my favorite times of the year where we get together, we come together and reflect on how much we have accomplished but more importantly, where we sit back and take note on the work we need to do in order to push forward. I want to recognize when of our newest school Board Members, deboned cooked. [applause] theres three key things i want to communicate with you today. First of all, the people palace, the city hall, in honor of black History Month will be lit up in red, black and green. [applause] i also want to let you know that in the spirit of red, black, and green pan african pride, there are polls that are placed painted in bayview Hunters Point along third seed by our very own dpw team. Thank you mohammed nuru. Signifying the cultural contributions that African Americans and africans have made to this city. So when you are driving out third and you see those polls, just thought id knowledge and smile. You are being recognized. You are going down in history. [applause] my final piece of information that you must know and you must understand. District 10 has the largest citys Public Housing unit. Last week, excuse me earlier this week, the mayor signed into legislation the rebuild of sunnydale and potrero hill. We are rebuilding Public Housing. [applause] this is incredible good this is transformative. They said it could not be done could they said we cannot do sunnydale and potrero hill at the same time. Im here to tell you that the mayor, pres. Breed myself and my colleagues, we have got it done. This is the beginning of a new definition of what Public Housing is going to look like. We are taking care of those that need our assistance. Were not leaving anyone behind. That has been our pledge to you and we are delivering and making good on that and i want you to know, that is why we are celebrating black History Month out of the many accomplishments africanamericans have made not just to the city, not to the state but to this entire country. Ladies and gentlemen, i want you to celebrate enthusiastically and have pride. I also want you to run the pres. Breed and i are having our annual black history celebration. February 23, right here in this rotunda. Now, if youve been with us in the past you know you know we have to get under we will have food could be well entertainment we will have wine provided from the african cultural and diaspora. Be please come join us. Thank you very much. [applause] i wish i could claim credit and say supervisor cohen and i planned her presentation way she would talk about the great accomplishments that are Public Housing is a set of to bring the mayor on but the fact is, i blew it and did ring the mayor up before the rest of them got up. Be please join me in welcoming mayor ed lee to the podium. [applause] good afternoon everyone could welcome to the peoples palace. The kickoff of an entire month of celebrating our black history. What a wonderful opportunity this is. And to have at the forefront the theme of education and we are going to hear from land and in a few minutes, but i am excited for this city. Because there is more to celebrate. You know, i saw former mayor willie brown just a minute ago. He broke that big ceiling being the mayor of San Francisco. That was big to celebrate. And have a bridge and a choir named after him, thats pretty good. Thats great to celebrate. [applause] well, we have more. We have not stopped. Yet as our leaders of the present and the past keep reminding us, weve got to move forward with everyone. So it is that you should know we have not stopped in the great city of San Francisco celebrating the talent and the leadership from our Africanamerican Community. You look at the fact, did you know that we have the first africanamerican city administrator in the history of San Francisco right now good [applause] naomi kelly. The first africanamerican to head the Public Utilities commission for the city and engineer sounds irish but his name is harlan kelly and he is africanamerican. Our public works director, the first africanamerican to head public works in the city of San Francisco. [applause] derek brown, the head of our Neighborhood Services helping every single neighborhood in the city, thank you, derek for your leadership. [applause] it continues more and more that i also want to say, that im glad our new chief is here. He is what levels reach that sense of justice along with his partners like allen nance and others for the juvenile justice because we have more work to do when it comes to justice. Right, amos . More work to do and we will do that work. But we will do it as deliberately and proudly as we are rebuilding all of our property housing, as we are rebuilding neighborhoods. Because we have an even greater leadership because, did you know, that we are also at a store moment when pres. Lyndon breed has become the twoterm president of the board of supervisors. That San Francisco, is history. [applause] we are still making its. We are still doing it. Were still doing it together. As a city and isaac community. I am so proud, not only of everybody in this room but all of the young kids that we look to take up our roles, be it the mayor, be the supervisors, the heads of departments, be our police chief. Were doing our job now so that you can proudly come in and take your spot in the world. By the way, if we have a few billionaire ceos in the crowd, we would like that, too. We need morewe need more africanamericans in our business communities stepping up, right . So weve got a lot of work to do but we are going along ways already with the people that weve got leading this effort. Because no one in this administration were the board of supervisors is standing still. We are lifting people up. We are moving forward. Were getting rid of the barriers and we are not afraid of that guy in the white house. [applause] [cheerring] i dont know about you, i am sick and tired of worrying about trump can i want him to worry about what we are doing. [applause] this is the way it should be. San francisco will lead this effort. We will do it with our Africanamerican Community. We will do it with the cornerstones of education, of transportation, of housing and most importantly, of equality. This is a city of e quality. We will always be a city of e quality. [applause] with that, let us kick off the celebration by blessing the leadership of our african cultural Historical Society leadership and now i williams, i know have known this guy for decades and he will work bitterly, without a desk to put the history books together the papers together,. He will never allow us to forget what our history is in our culture is in the city. Al, step up. Thank you very much for your leadership in keeping us apprised of our apprised of ourhistory. [applause] thank you mr. Mayor. And that, how williams as always talked about is simply representative of a lot of people who are members of the africanamerican historical and Cultural Society we certainly welcome all of you to become owners of the society as well and help keep this important work moving forward. Before we ask shavonda walton president of the board of education to come for, i just want of knowledge a couple of other people. First of all, are all the commissioners and i can commissioners and Board Members, would you please stand members of the audience, mems of the commissions would you so we can acknowledge you as well. [applause] welcome, all and thank you for being here get, one, diane, get up. Diane great. [applause] he also have with us today, [inaudible] the new airport director along with jeff littlefield. His assistant mr. Said carol and mr. Littlefield from the San Francisco airports. [applause] davon cook the new member of the board of education is with us as well. Davon, welcome [applause] and joyce hicks is with the Mayors Office of police acco