[drums and singing] [applause] [drums and singing] [applause] put those hands together for the west african dancers and drummers what a way to kickoff the celebration. Now time for our libation. [drums playing] the libation is our connection to the past and our roadmap to a better future. The purpose of libation is to remember and honor those who walked and worked before us and thus paved the path we now walk. We pour in the direction of the four winds, north, south, east and west. For africa and mother land and those known and unknown who defended our land in history. For ancestors who struggled for our freedom and those who defied to [indiscernible] develop our interest as a people. We pour. For our elders who helped to give us wisdom, strength for fathers and mothers who please call out the name of your loved ones who have now rest in the valley of the departed. We pour. For the youth who represent the future of tomorrow, we pour. For men and women in the human rights struggle, we pour. For a new world we struggle to build, we pour. For the principals as our guide and in and out in every day life, we pour. Our all mighty creator who makes all things possible, we pour. [drums playing] [applause] here now to present the National Anthem please welcome mikayla, [indiscernible] and joshua carter. [applause] please let us all rise. [singing] [single lift every voice and sing] [applause] thank you. One more time for mikayla, [indiscernible] and joshua carter. [applause] now, please give me one moment as i catch my breath. I will be your mc today and im here to welcome our very own, ms. Felicia, you all know her. Felicia jones at this time. [applause] thank you. Thank you thank you. It is so good to see all of you here, celebrating juneteenth. Juneteenth. And so [applause] you all lood gook. The people in the back, the caterers i welcome you to juneteenth, 2024. Lynn i love you and so this is what i would like to say before we bring up the mayor. Im humbled at this particular time. Times are difficult for us. Things are going every which way, but it going to go the right way, and if you believe in that, stand on your feet with your flags . Stand on your feet with your flags, because it is juneteenth. It is juneteenth. Juneteenth. Just like we said last year, we will wave our flags up in the air and rock them to the right and to the left like we just dont care. Juneteenth juneteenth and so i will bring up the honorable mayor breed. Keep standing. Do not sit down. Do not sit down on my mayor. Do not sit down on my mayor. And so, what i want you guys to do, i want everyone in here to show our mayor breed some love. Clap it up clap it up for my mayor [applause] looking good in that purple. Come on up, mayor breed. Yes. I want you to go up there. Before you go up there, there is something that i would like to present to you on behalf of wealth dispareties in the black community and on behalf of the black community in general, because we love you. We love you and we want you to know we love you. Everyone say, we love you mayor breed say it one more time because it sounds so good. We love you mayor breed alright. I have something for you. I would like toprint present to this identify as a memory of juneteenth from last year, and it is all of us stapding. Standingism i think it is wonderful keepsake and i just want to say, love i you girl. You my girl. [applause] alright. Say amen first of all, if you need a seat, there are seats in the front. If anybody is looking for a place to sit. Welcome to San Francisco city hall to kickoff juneteenth [applause] you are going to be hearic from a number of our leaders today, but i want to take this opportunity to recognize a few leaders. Youll hear from our state attorney general rabanta. [applause] and our california state senator, scott wiener. [applause] thank you to our local elected leaders, including jose sisneros, our district attorney, brooke jenkins, our City Attorney david chui, our chair paul miyamoto, our assessor, joaquin torres. Our fire chief, jeanine nicholson. Our police chief, bill scott. Our city administrator, carmen chui and a bunch of other Department Heads including dr. Grant colfax, reverend brown and you name it. I appreciate the leadership of this city being here to kickoff juneteenth. It is important that we recognize this as a celebration, but also it is important that we take a step back to understand the significance of juneteenth. And, we know that this dates back to starting in 1863 with the emancipation proclamation and people in the deep south in rural texas not finding out about the freedom that we are enjoying today until two years later, some time in june of 1865. And then in San Francisco, we can look back at when we started celebratory events, all the way back to 1945 or so, and really kicking it off with a number of local night clubs originally in 1950, but Walter Johnson of the texas playhouse really set it up in 1964 with the first juneteenth festival and parade down fillmore street. And heres the thing, what i have always appreciated about opportunities to celebrate juneteenth is, yes, it is celebrating freedom, but it also overcoming a lot of adversity. When we think about how far this countrys history is, in terms of the oppression of black people, thats not even disant histly. That is really recent history. My grand mother worked one generation out of slavery and she actually migrated from texas to San Francisco and still felt very uncomfortable interacting sometimes with people who were not African American. But she was tough and she would give you a good whooping on occasion. When i think about what people like my grand mother and others have to overcome in places like the south, and what we are experiencing here today in San Francisco, we havent come as far as we would like to believe. Now, i know that i am the first black woman to serve as mayor of San Francisco. [applause] but i definitely dont want to be the last. Just a couple weeks ago, some of you may have recalled or heard in the press of some very racist and sexist words were spray pointed on the front of city hall. And it made me realize in 2024, we havent come as far as we believe we have. So, i will not apologize for making hard decisions that include significant investments in black people in San Francisco. [applause] while, a lot of people talked a good game after the death of george floyd, we actually did something about it. [applause] we with wealth and despair tease in the black community and Felicia Jones implemented the 272 recommendations from the Obama Administration department of justice to reform our Police Department and our chief bill scott helped to lead those efforts. [applause] and with a dream Keeper Initiative, people who have opened their First Business in San Francisco, people who are born and raised in this city opening their First Businesses providing opportunities for their program over 32 black people received half a Million Dollars for down payments assistance to buy their first home. [applause] and we know the work continues. And especially for all of you who have been the beneficiary of resources from the dream keeper 96ative. Initiative. The dream Keeper Initiative is about insuring your success, knut but it also about the insuring the success of the entire community. You are a part of helping to up lift the next generation of black kids growing up in this city. [applause] because, they need us now more then ever. And we may talk about the fact that we have a less then 5 percent African American population in this city, but that 5 percent is mighty and can move mountains. [applause] the forces have always worked against me in my life. You know what . The ancestors have always worked for me in my life. [applause] we have to remember that and take the ancestors of strength of what they have gone through and use that to lift us up and lift up our community. That is how we recognize their legacy and what they have done to get us to this point thusfar in life. [applause] and again, like Harriet Tubman did, put her life on the line to go back and free other people. She was not just content with her success, she wanted to insure that others were free too. As we commemorate juneteenth, yes, we will celebrate, yes, there will be music, yes there will be fun and we will see people that we havent seen in a long time. Yes, we will uplift African Americans in this city and this country, but we will also remain and remember work needs to be done to address the Racial Disparities and discrimination and a lot of the problems we still experience, even at a place like San Francisco. [applause] so, i want to thank all of you for being here today and one of the other things i want to say before iintroduce the next speaker, we this summer under the direction of dr. Cheryl davis [applause] and dream Keeper Initiative, we have brought to San Francisco an opportunity to bring students from historically black colleges and universities [applause] who are taking classes downtown, who are staying in our communities, and who will connect with the young people in our communities. I want our children to see up close and personal what black excellence look like from these students who are joining us here this year. [applause] so, lets continue to do all we can to make sure that we are celebrating juneteenth, but we are recognizing celebrating uplifting our community all yearround. [applause] and with that, i want to take this opportunity to introduce the next speaker. Our attorney general, rob banta has been a real partner in a lot of the work that we do to address the challenges that exist in our Law Enforcement community. I want to especially appreciate how consistently when there are problems in this city, he is always doing everything he can to use the law as a tool for good and in fact, we have been working together to address a number of the challenges related to hate crimes in this state. He formed a committee to really insure that people are held accountable and brought to justice and earlier today, we were at selfhelp for the elderly, talking about elder abuse, and how elder abuse of our seniors is on the rise and we have services and support to protect our most vulnerable, our senior community. I appreciate the work hes done. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome, attorney general, rob bonta [applause] give it up one more time to mayor breed thank you for the very kind generous introduction mayor breed. Im honored and grateful for the opportunity to be here to celebrate the kickoff of juneteenth with all of you. I want to say first, greetings from both me and Assembly Member mia bonta, sometimes known as the better bonta. We send our best as you kickoff the celebration in San Francisco and of course we are commemorating the emancipation of enslaved black americans in the United States of america. A time we take the time to honor the legacy of those who fought for freedom and celebrate the significant sacrifices and achievements and contributions of black americans to our great country. We also recommit to forging a new unified future, a future that doesnt ignore the past, because we must acknowledge the sins of the past, the wrongs and ingests of the past but isntvoting disenfranchisement. America fulfills its promise to all and juneteenth and about acknowledging that and acknowledging while we made great strides, we cant afford to be complacent and for granted the hard fought gains and as the mayor just stated, we have more road to travel on that road to progress. There is more to do. It is important in my humble opinion to be impatient for the change we need. We need to demand it. We need to be intolerant for ingests of injustice and make sure we pursue in place jz spaces and also must remind ourselves, we all have a role to play. We have agency, we have power, we have potency, the ability to create the change, the society the state the nation we deserve. That we want. And, we must be cognisant of the challenges and threats that we see all around us when we see rampant efforts to erase black history from School Curriculum whether through book bans. Hate crimes against the black community at very high level as they continue to be remain a ongoing threat. And doj, we are committed to this important work of protecting and advancing civil rights and freedom and democracy. We launchthank you [applause] we in my first weeks in office we launched the Racial Justice bureau to call out systemic racial injusts in california. To work with and for the community throughout california. Active with civil rights making sure our california constitutional and civil rights are honored and make sure the rights are vindicated. We are supporting the work of the California Reparations Task force. [applause] that has acknowledged the original sin that remains a stain on our country history of slavery and taking steps to create more justice and more opportunity and more healing. We will continue to fight against racial bias in housing and healthcare in policing. Make sure our schools teach inclusive curriculum that reflects the states beautiful diversity. Combat attacks on diversity programs that provide equitable access to education and Economic Growth and disrupt the school to drop out track by protecting students from discriminatory discipline practice and Excessive School removal and that a small sampling of had work we are doing and the work that needs to get done ask the work we can only do if we do it together. I am very proud that i have the opportunity to serve as California Attorney general and i have a role to provide more to californian and americans and also proud my father, marched and organized in the Civil Rights Movement and as a call to action when his friend sent cassette tapes across the country with the voice of Martin Luther king, jr. He went to selma alabama and [indiscernible] when Martin Luther king, jr. Appeared for a unannounced sermon. We all have a role to play, and we can look forward with anxiety and worry and fear about our future, or we can look forward with optimism and hope. And i have optimism and hope that we with accomplish anything if we do to together, if we fight for each other and love each other and have each others back. Happy juneteenth. Im honored to stand by you and fight by your side. [applause] it is my great pleasure to introduce the person who is going to introduce the next speaker. [laughter] thank you attorney general bonta. Welcome director cheryl davis to the podium. [applause] i love having the chief in the audience, because will always make me feel really special. Thank you all for being here this afternoon. Give a round another for ms. Felicia jonesism [applause] i have the great honor to be able to introduce the next speaker. I want to first also give a shout out to dr. [indiscernible] who is supporting this work. [applause] the mayor mentioned we will be launching the hbcu satellight pilot next week and think we have some of the student here today. Could you stand up for us please . [applause] so, i have as many may know, i said this before, im a woman of faith and grateful because god allowed me to do work that gives me such joy and pleasure and hes allowed me to work with the amazing london nicole breed, and supervisor Shamann Walton. [applause] i know both of them from before they were elected. I had the great pleasure to work for years with mayor breed and community and did a lot of work with supervisor walton and the one thing i always say to folks what i know and believe with my whole heart, politics aside, they both went into this work to be what they needed in the city growing up here. And so, when you get to these places and folks challenge and want to talk about what somebody is doing or not doing, lets be very clear, they are doing for black people and for everybody in the city is and county of San Francisco what should have been done when they were children. [applause] so, i am just grateful because, they have both entrusted me to do such great work, and when we think about it and when we look back i want everybody to understand and trust and believe that you will never have stronger leaders in the name of city and county of San Francisco because they know investment in the black community is investment in San Francisco. [applause] and so, it brings me tremendous pleasure to be able to do this work every day and to also be able to recognize and acknowledge them boket and with that, i like to invite up supervisor Shamann Walton to the stage. [applause] good afternoon happy juneteenth everybody i want to say this at attorney general bantas face, but he since left, but i didnt know he was supposed to be giving a keynote today. But i do want to thank attorney general bonta for his work. When i was fighting and working with a lot of you to form the carinates in San Francisco he alsoyes. He also put legislation together when he was in the state assembly to make sure these arbitrary 911 calls that were happening to black people for doing every day activities did not happen at the state level so he put that in into law at the state to protect black folks as well. [applause] i apologize for being late, but i am actually right now as we speak in two places at one t