today we're recognizing charlotte l. brown and mary ellen white. brown was the first to legally challenge racial segregation in the united states when she filed a lawsuit against san francisco street car company in the 1860s after she was forceablely removed from a street car, and this was a segregated street car here in san francisco. she sued the company, won, and was awarded the sum of $5,000 in 1854, which i imagine was quite a bit at that time in our country's history. mary ellen also attacked racial discrimination in san francisco after she and two other black women when ejected from a san francisco street car in 1956. she took the omnibus street car system to court twice, in which the second case was taken all the way to the supreme court. the court ruled that street car exclusion based on race was unlawful. in 1893, the california state legislature enacted legislation on strebanning street car segregation. >> so now, i'm going to have mary allen come up here to speak to you. [applause] >> good morning. my name is mary travis allen and i am

narrated by nathan lane, susan brown, denise gough, beth maloney, james mccarty, nathan stewart jones and eddie fowler. becoming, written and narrated by michelle obama. charlottelotte's web" by "charlotte's web" 9 rated by merrill sweep, mcleod andrew, emily renken, kimberly farr, mark deacon, lincoln hoffa and a fool fast. the dutch house by and patchett -- e.b. white by ann patchett, the only plane in the sky, and oral history of 9/11 by garrett m. graff narrated by a fool cast. bryce dallas howard, mae whitman, derek jacoby and margaret advocate. >> the audie awards goes to simon & schuster audio for "the only plane in the sky," and oral history of 9/11. ♪ [applause] >> thank you so much to the judges for this -- it is incredibly humbling with that scene. this is a project that has meant so much to me for so many years, trying to pull together the voices of 480 americans who we follow through 9/11 morning tonight coast-to-coast. i want to thank simon & schuster for believing in this project, and my editor and tom from simon & schuster, i think i could actually hear tom's head explode when i told them what i wanted to do with this audiobook. then holter grah

brown v. board of education, so senator ervin identified the greene county scoreboard out of virginia in the 1960's. and another one, swan versus charlotte-mecklenburg out of the 1970's, where he says these decisions are wrong again because the judiciary is taking into account race when they are making assignments in schools. although the supreme court long aborted this understanding of brown, senator irvin's vision found voice in the court's inision 12 years ago parents involved in committee schools. the case was decided in june of 2007. i had the good fortune of being a law clerk to justice breyer during his term. i was sitting right over there when this decision was handed down. controversy was whether school boards in louisville and seattle could voluntarily adopt racial integration programs. this is not court ordered, but the school boards get together and say we won our public schools to reflect the diversity that exists in the cities and we're going to think about race and making assignments. there is a rank order preference in, and you can consider race in order to achieve greater amounts of racial integration. the supreme court

brown versus board of education. so senator irvin identified a case called green versus county school board, a case out of virginia from the 1960s. and another one, swan versus charlotte mechanic lenberg out of the 1970s where he says these decisions are wrong again because the judiciary is taking account of race when they are making assignments in schools. although the supreme court long avoided this understanding of brown, senator irvin's vision found voice in the court's decision 12 years ago in parents involved in community schools versus seattle district number one. this was a case decided in june of 2007. i had the great, good fortune to be a law clerk to justice briar during this term. i was sitting right over there when this decision, you know, was handed down. the issue in controversy was whether school boards, in louisville and seattle, could voluntarily adopt racial integration programs. this is not court ordered. instead the school boards get together and they say, we want our public schools to reflect the diversity that exists in these cities. so we're going to think about race in making assignments. there's a rank order preferencing and then you consider

today we're recognizing charlotte l. brown and mary ellen white. brown was the first to legally challenge racial segregation in the united states when she filed a lawsuit against san francisco street car company in the 1860s after she was forceablely removed from a street car, and this was a segregated street car here in san francisco. she sued the company, won, and was awarded the sum of $5,000 in 1854, which i imagine was quite a bit at that time in our country's history. mary ellen also attacked racial discrimination in san francisco after she and two other black women when ejected from a san francisco street car in 1956. she took the omnibus street car system to court twice, in which the second case was taken all the way to the supreme court. the court ruled that street car exclusion based on race was unlawful. in 1893, the california state legislature enacted legislation on strebanning street car segregation. >> so now, i'm going to have mary allen come up here to speak to you. [applause] >> good morning. my name is mary travis allen and i am