“Every year, as we celebrate Black History Month, we are reminded of the countless people who sacrificed their lives so we could move forward, no matter how slow progress has been.

San Francisco has a long, rich history of Black leaders who fought for the rights that many of us take for granted today. Leaders like Mary Helen Rogers, who would lay down in front of bulldozers to prevent homes in the Fillmore/Western Addition from being torn down; like Julie Anderson, a member of the Board of Education who fought against the discrimination that Black and Asian students and educators were facing in the 1970s. We also remember public safety officers like Richard Finis, the first full-time Black police officer, and Bob Demmons, our City’s first Black Fire Chief. With this year’s theme of Black health and wellness, we are also reminded of Black doctors like Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett, who not only cared for our community, but was also a civil rights leader and a newspaper publisher, telling Black stories in our own voices.

These leaders fought for a better future, often sacrificing their ambitions to ensure that their children and grandchildren could live in a better world than the one that they had inherited. They made these sacrifices knowing full well that their names would never be in the history books. We must speak their names and tell their stories, so they are not forgotten. We must celebrate our history, and how Black history is American history, as we continue to move forward with efforts like our Dream Keeper Initiative, which is centered in long-term sustainability, reform, and lasting change for the Black community in San Francisco. That is how we remain committed to a vision for a more equitable and just City.”