WHEREAS, Willie L. Brown, Jr. was born on March 20, 1934, in Mineola, Texas, and was the son of Minnie Collins Boyd and Willie Lewis Brown, Sr. and grandson of Anna Collins. He married the former Blanche Vitero in September 1957. He is the father of four children: Susan Elizabeth Brown, Robin Elaine Brown-Friedel, Michael Elliot Brown, and Sydney Minetta Brown; and

WHEREAS, Mr. Brown received a bachelor of arts degree from San Francisco State University in 1955 and a juris doctor from the University of California, Hastings College of Law, in 1958. He was admitted to the practice of law in the State of California and to the federal court, including the United States Supreme Court; and

WHEREAS, Mr. Brown was first elected in 1964 and served in all of the following capacities: as a Member of the California State Assembly from 1965 to 1995, as Speaker of the California State Assembly as the longest serving Speaker in California history, from 1980 to 1995, and the first African American; and two terms as the 41st Mayor of the City and County of San Francisco, from January 8, 1996, to January 8, 2004; and

WHEREAS, Mr. Brown served as the Chair of the Assembly Ways and Means Committee and the Chair of the Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee; served on the Board of Trustees of the California State University system and as a Regent of the University of California; and served on the Board of Administration of the California Public Employees’ Retirement System; and

WHEREAS, As mayor of California’s most cosmopolitan city, he refurbished and rebuilt one of the nation’s busiest transit systems, pioneered the use of bond measures to build affordable housing, created a model juvenile justice system, and paved the way for creating the expansion campus of the University of California, San Francisco, to serve as the anchor of a new development that would position the city as a center for the burgeoning field of biotechnology; and

WHEREAS, Mr. Brown is widely regarded as one of the most influential politicians of the late 20th century, and has been at the center of California politics, government, and civic life for an astonishing four decades; and

WHEREAS, Mr. Brown’s career spans the American presidency from Lyndon Johnson to Barack Obama, and he has worked with every California Governor from Edmund Gerald “Pat” Brown, Sr., to Edmund Gerald “Jerry” Brown, Jr., and has left his imprimatur on every aspect of politics and public policy in the Golden State, including civil rights, education reform, tax policy, economic development, health care, international trade, domestic partnerships, and affirmative action; and

WHEREAS, Today, Mr. Brown heads the Willie L. Brown, Jr. Institute on Politics and Public Service, where he shares his vast political knowledge and skills with a new generation of California leaders; now, therefore, be it