claudia -- to ms. claudette colvin. we want to thank him for his efforts in securing these proclamations. if ms. colvin would come up as well. >> it is an honor to be asked to make these presentations. the elected officials represented here are trailblazers themselves. many of them have been the first in their community to hold office. for example, ed lee, the first chinese-american to be appointed mayor in san francisco, is represented in this group. so is our congresswoman, nancy pelosi, the first woman ever to become speaker of the house in the history of the united states. [applause] tom amiano, who has been a historic figure and trailblazer, coming from the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered community. [applause] also, our newest elected official, supervisor cohen, with her election last november at age 32, is the youngest african-american ever to be elected to the board of supervisors. [applause] she is now san francisco's highest-ranking elected official who is african-american, one of three women on the 11-me

colvin, without you we would not be where we are. [applause] thank you for sharing your story, and keep telling your story because we need to know, and our children need to know, and our children's children need to know your story. and we want to thank our sponsors today. we have the san francisco unified school district. we have marked as bookstores, who will be selling this -- ms. colvin's book, written about her, by philip house. we have sponsorship from the african diaspora, and the friends of the san francisco public library. i serve as part of the african- american interest committee that helped put this program together, and i want to thank all of you for coming, and i want to thank sfgtv for taking the program today. we want to thank the department here at san francisco public library, and we are having a reception in l58, and we want to thank read your catering for providing some delicious food for us to nibble on today, so will you please join us and say thank you again to mrs. colvin and also to byrin bain for telling his

[applause] >> if i could just show that on friday, ms. colvin spent the whole day at alameda county juvenile hall, and i think we saw eight different units of young men and women, 14 to 18, medium-security, and they were riveted to their seats. when we were looking like we were running out of time, we were told not to worry about the time. they shared poetry. one young woman suggested how -- they share how they are trying to transform their lives, and listening to her story and transformation, and it was a very powerful date. >> this is for one of my heroes, claudette colvin. and a local hero of mine, because we have freedom fighters right here in our midst, and we do not always celebrate them. francisca sanchez, who is seriously about her business about getting the shackles off. i want to do this to honor them, and to thank you for being here. give yourselves a big round of applause. [applause] all i've got is some fish and a few loaves of bread. and a whole lot of folks have got to get fed. but seven seats were made in under seven days,

i was talking to ms. colvin earlier. she said the media has a certain way to take people and put them up and you do not hear about everyone else. as if these are isolated incidents. so they called and his producers were like, we want to interview. we want to interview you on your campus in cambridge. i said, my brothers would like to, too. we have been putting this case for five months. basically, i said we are not going to do it. this is bogus. my porter rican red-haired cousin, he has funny hair. he was there, too. so we came back and they decided to do it with everybody. when that story came out, i started getting harassed. the police were giving out my social security number, my name. i had 50 cases of identity theft that followed. the next thing you ask to talk about was november 23, 2002. this experience changed my life. we started going to the prisons with a purpose now. we turned into touring artists for the prisons around the country. talking to the folks who were incarcerated, folks in the local community to in