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Redwood City – The San Mateo County Board of Supervisors marked 100 years of Black History Month on Tuesday by honoring civil rights attorney Dr. Clarence B. Jones and astronaut and physician Dr. Yvonne Cagle.
Supervisor Lisa Gauthier said the centennial is both a celebration and a reminder that progress requires intention.
“Black history is American history,” she said, calling the month a time to recognize “the stories that shape our nation’s conscience, character and future.”
Supervisors recognized Jones as a civil rights leader and close legal adviser to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., helping to draft the 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech and advising King at critical moments.
In the decades since, Jones has served as a professor and author, writing extensively about the civil rights movement and its lessons for future generations.
Speaking by Zoom, the 95-year-old Jones said the foundation of leadership is simple.
“You have to deeply care about the people you serve,” he said. “You can’t fake it.”
The legal and social gains of the civil rights movement opened doors in science, government and higher education that had long been closed to Black Americans. Dr. Yvonne Cagle grew up during that era of expanding opportunity.
After earning a degree in biochemistry from San Francisco State University, she trained at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, qualifying as a mission specialist and contributing to astronaut health research and space telemedicine.
She traced her path to July 20, 1969, when she was high in an old oak tree in Northern California, playing hide-and-seek, unaware that astronauts were walking on the moon.
When her father called her inside and she saw the images on television, her “dreams took wing,” she said, setting her on a path toward science, medicine and space exploration.
 Dr. Yvonne Cagle, in her blue astronaut jacket, is recognized by the Board of Supervisors during a ceremony marking 100 years of Black History Month. With her are, from left, Supervisors Ray Mueller, Jackie Speier and Noelia Corzo, and Supervisors Lisa Gauthier and David Canepa.
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