ward. >> good evening, everybody. i'm so honored to be had been this evening and very pleased having been involved with the 50-year old civil rights event. and i remember when i was all about that. i remember that i was on my way to washington d.c. to participate in the march. i was president of the na acp at the time in indianapolis, indiana. they said, you can't go. we need to have a group of people here to review a group of people as they come from indianapolis. i said, you mean i can't go to washington? they said no. we have to receive all the people that are marching. i said oh, my god! i have to give that up. then i did that. because the number of people came through and i and other people we prepared food for them at our house as they were coming tired from that march. they stopped. so i was happy that i was able to participate. [inaudible] all right. if you had asked me, 2013, oh, my god! we must say what we did, we must keep on doing and we must continue to support and push all people. don't let people say i

and we are honored to have doris ward with us tonight. [ applause ] >> and i can't emphasize enough how critical and how influential and how just fundamental these three people have been and are to the work of civil rights and human rights in san francisco. [ applause ] i would also like to recognize someone who is very special to us, the commissioners, forward hrc commissioner who was present at the 1963 march on washington. she is here with her husband. flees join us in honoring frankie jill e t and maxwell. >> before we go to this year's nominees and awardees, i would like to recognize the nominees for this year's awards who were ultimately not selected but who because of their tr work were nominated by their contemporaries, their contemporaries in the community. dr. caesar churchwell. [ applause ] officer fred crisp. [ applause ] >> mr. michael mcenolate. [ applause ] >> so at this point i will ask miss polk who is a staff member for the hrc who is fundamentally responsible for tonight's proceedings to assist us in distributing the awards. >> so, first, we have the hrc hero ward for