cow and cutting wood. this is the 1930's. you have to cut wood for everything. as i mentioned earlier prince edward county was not interested in educating colored children but my grandmother and her sisters were persistent and found a school in the neighboring county of appomattox which was down the street from the courthouse where general robert e. lee surrendered to general ulysses s. grant that ended the civil war. once they found that school that had the next calabash task of convincing their father they should go to school. and the way they convinced him was by saying we will take care of the chores on the farm. we will do that work and our school will not interfere with the business of the farm. they did this and that was no easy task because my great- grandfather ruled his farm with an iron fist. yet to me, this was -- there are an example of their unshakeable

persistence and unflinching sacrifice for their pursuit for a better life. as i determined black women left their home and saw entertainment in washington, d.c.. and they knew the value men -- the value of education. there were able to buy their homes and support their families. another woman in my life who demonstrates unshakeable persistence and unflinching sacrifice is my mother who is sitting over there with my son. [applause] she kept her eyes on the prize that is education. as well -- and was well aware of education and its importance for the future of black america. my mom was educated from kindergarten through eighth grade in washington, d.c.. which is recognized as the mother church of all black

catholics. washington, d.c. was south of the transfer -- the mason decisiodixon line. st. augustine was established in the late 1850's during the separate but equal and in most cases on equal time. this school was started by the first order of black roman catholic nuns, the oblate sisters of providence out of baltimore, maryland. their purpose was to educate black children. these nuns persistence and unflinching sacrifice influence my mother's life and my life. my mother was in high school when the march on washington occurred. the weeks leading up to the march, my mother participated in many peaceful demonstrations and picket lines in front of the white house. again, this is another example

of unshakable persistence and sacrifice. she did this being afraid and not reacting when the white agitators were spitting on her and her girlfriend. it was important for her to peacefully continue in her fight for justice and civil rights. i mother was the first to obtain a college degree and went on to an education in education that lasted for decades. my work ethic was derived from her. when you are the daughter of a teacher and administrator i had a front row seat to watching a woman at work in the classroom. most of all, i would -- i truly mean this and the gravity of this hit me last week when i was before commission -- rules committee. i'm humbled and thankful for the many african-american women here who have paved the way for me, naomi kelly.

supervisor kennedy who is here in the audience with us. supervisor doris war. attorney-general harris. judge terry jackson. amelia ward. i am thankful to this woman who embraced me when i started my professional career in san francisco. glendower richardson, carol tatum, and so many of you are here in this audience and i am grateful for my contemporaries who are my sisters and rock. from supervisor malia cohen, karen roy, and lindon. i have found my place here and i have mentioned, i began my career here in 1996 with mayer brown. i realized then in my 20's that i needed to pursue higher education. and it helped the mayor said he

would never give me a raise or promotion on till i went back to school. i enrolled in the university of san francisco law school. i got my j.d. and pass the bar. -- passed the gar. -- bar. [applause] san francisco has been my home. six years ago i was married here on the steps almost six years ago to this month. [applause] some are clapping, some are not. [laughter] it has been a fundamental time for my family and i having been nominated. by mayor ed lee and i am grateful to that community and i am grateful to the mayor and the board of supervisors who are considering this nomination. i vow to do the best job i possibly can for the city and i

have -- as i have done from the outset of my city career. i will continue to draw inspiration and guidance from the black woman in our history and culture who have paved the way for me and others with their relentless fight against prejudice and intolerance and hate. there consummate energy, intelligence, and courage and their unshakeable persistence, unflinching sacrifice and unwavering faith. i have angels on my shoulder and they're my sisters. thank you and i wish you a happy and joyful black history celebration. [applause] thank you. >> thank you for those profound words. now, for all of you whose names

were mentioned by naomi in her remarks, we split up the list so she covered half the room. i am not going to announce it. there are a few other people. mohamad in the public works department, rhonda simmons, give them all around of applause as well. at this time we have a special presentation. for naomi. bill hoskins. [applause] >> did afternoon. >> this is a treat to be able to present this to our keynote speaker.

and on behalf of the african american historical and cultural society and the board, i was sitting there enjoying your presentation. also thinking that there could not be a better match for today's title of which we all know. i wanted to , when al williams was describing and introducing attorney naille kellie -- naomi kelly, he mentioned she had made and still is and will in the future make valuable contributions that will -- we will all benefit from. he suggested she should be honored and was picked to be the keynote speaker not because she is a woman or because she is african-american.

not because she is incredibly capable but they left out two things. she is young and she is beautiful. so again on behalf of the african american historical and cultural society and board, it is a pleasure to present this to you. >> thank you. [applause] >> ok, with that -- we have judge monica riley. and a number of commissioners. please stand. thank you for being here. we will now have a musical presentation by the amira

project. [applause] >> the afternoon, everyone. can you hear me? now you can hear me? all right. i will make my interjections brief. you have been hearing for july afternoon and we're going to do some is secure. that is voice of freedom. we celebrate the roots aof faith and freedom. spirituals are the root of most african american history. and music. it is important to know where the spirituals come from. the music came from africa.

there are slave testimonies to the fact that music came from africa. and so that is the root of african-american music which is renowned around the world. the other thing that happened is that in the u.s. especially, we lost the ability to use the drum. we did not lose the ability to use rhythm. the -- which is the most direct link to africa, we use the staff and hand clapping. we are going to do a song that will become familiar to me -- to you in a moment. it was put together by our musical director who is holding the staff. and our soloists will be carolyn and nedra. when i ask you to join in, i

want you to help us out. all right? thank you very much. [applause] [singing]

[drums and singing] ♪ in the water

♪

♪ [applause]

[singing]

♪ ♪

[singing] [applause] >> the project.

[applause] let's give them another round. ok. that brings us to the acknowledgements and closing remarks. on behalf of the san francisco african-american historical society, i would -- something like this cannot happen without the involvement of a lot of people. and some of those people on the back of your programs, we have listed all the members of the committee who worked hard and long to make this happen. nobody worked as hard as kirsten in the mayor's office out of the office of may -- neighborhood services. let's give kirsten and the committee a big round of applause for their contributions to this great effort. we have another -- a number of

proclamations that was received from senator feinstein and boxer and other offices. a couple of other people we do have with you. michael sweet is with us and sheriff ross mirkarimi is with us. let's give them around of applause. hansothis is a membership organization. open to any -- anyone. ms. kelly spoke to in her remarks. you wrote him to join us. there is information about the society and refreshments. please join us in the light court. thank you for making this a wonderful kick off. let's give naomi kelly a round

of applause again. thank you. [applause] thank you all very much. ♪

when a resident of san francisco is looking for health care, you look in your neighborhood first. what is closest to you? if you come to a neighborhood health center or a clinic, you then have access it a system of care in the community health network. we are a system of care that was probably based on the family practice model, but it was really clear that there are special populations with special needs. the cole street clinic is a youth clinic in the heart of

the haight ashbury and they target youth. tom woodell takes care of many of the central city residents and they have great expertise in providing services for many of the homeless. potrero hill and southeast health centers are health centers in those particular communities that are family health centers, so they provide health care to patients across the age span. . >> many of our clients are working poor. they pay their taxes. they may run into a rough patch now and then and what we're able to provide is a bridge towards getting them back on their feet. the center averages about 14,000 visits a year in the health clinic alone. one of the areas that we specialize in is family medicine, but the additional focus of that is is to provide care to women and children.

women find out they're pregnant, we talk to them about the importance of getting good prenatal care which takes many visits. we initially will see them for their full physical to determine their base line health, and then enroll them in prenatal care which occurs over the next 9 months. group prenatal care is designed to give women the opportunity to bond during their pregnancy with other women that have similar due dates. our doctors here are family doctors. they are able to help these women deliver their babies at the hospital, at general hospital. we also have the wic program, which is a program that provides food vouchers for our families after they have their children, up to age 5 they are able to receive food vouchers to get milk and cereal for their children. >> it's for the city, not only our clinic, but the city. we have all our children in san

francisco should have insurance now because if they are low income enough, they get medical. if they actually have a little more assets, a little more income, they can get happy family. we do have family who come outside of our neighborhood to come on our clinic. one thing i learn from our clients, no matter how old they are, no matter how little english they know, they know how to get to chinatown, meaning they know how to get to our clinic. 85 percent of our staff is bilingual because we are serving many monolingual chinese patients. they can be child care providers so our clients can go out and work. >> we found more and more women of child bearing age come down

with cancer and they have kids and the kids were having a horrible time and parents were having a horrible time. how do parents tell their kids they may not be here? what we do is provide a place and the material and support and then they figure out their own truth, what it means to them. i see the behavior change in front of my eyes. maybe they have never been able to go out of boundaries, their lives have been so rigid to sort of expressing that makes tremendous changes. because we did what we did, it is now sort of a nationwide model. >> i think you would be surprised if you come to these clinics. many of them i think would be your neighbors if you knew that. often times we just don't discuss that. we treat husband and wife and they bring in their kids or we treat the grandparents and then the next generation. there are people who come in who need treatment for their heart disease or for their

diabetes or their high blood pressure or their cholesterol or their hepatitis b. we actually provide group medical visits and group education classes and meeting people who have similar chronic illnesses as you do really helps you understand that you are not alone in dealing with this. and it validates the experiences that you have and so you learn from each other. >> i think it's very important to try to be in tune with the needs of the community and a lot of our patients have -- a lot of our patients are actually immigrants who have a lot of competing priorities, family issues, child care issues, maybe not being able to find work or finding work and not being insured and health care sometimes isn't the top priority for them. we need to understand that so that we can help them take care of themselves physically and emotionally to deal with all

these other things. they also have to be working through with people living longer and living with more chronic conditions i think we're going to see more patients coming through. >> starting next year, every day 10,000 people will hit the age of 60 until 2020. . >> the needs of the patients that we see at kerr senior center often have to do with the consequences of long standing substance abuse and mental illness, linked to their chronic diseases. heart failure, hypertension, diabetes, cancer, stroke, those kinds of chronic illnesses. when you get them in your 30's and 40's and you have them into your aging process, you are not going to have a comfortable