 And now, ladies and gentlemen, the President of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Stephanie Meeks. Well, good evening, everybody, and thanks so much for being here for Pass Forward 2017. It's a great pleasure to be here with you in one of America's most historic cities. This was once the center of American industry, the nexus of the railroads and the meeting place of East and West, the home of whole house and the birthplace of skyscrapers. It was described by Carl Sandberg as the city of big shoulders. Come and show me another city with lifted heads singing, so proud to be alive and course and strong and cunning. There's no better place for us to come together to build the future of preservation. One year ago, we celebrated a golden anniversary, 50 years of achievement since the passage of the National Historic Preservation Act. We spent much of 2016 thinking about the strengths and challenges of our profession and where we want to go in the next 50 years. And ultimately, all of our conversations kept coming back to the same theme. Let's put people back front and center in our preservation projects. Instead of talking about tools, let's talk about the positive impact our work has for families and communities. Rather than focus on just the history of a place, let's talk about what that history means for the present day and how historic places can continue to play an important role in our future. I'm proud to say that in 2017, we've hit the ground running. All over the country, your efforts have given new energy and purpose to our work. Just take a look at this great video put together by Bonnie MacDonald and her team at Landmarks Illinois. It encapsulates so much of what we're all trying to do. It's people. It's people. It's people saving places for people. For people like me. Like us. Like us. Like us. Saving places for people. That's really it in a nutshell. That's why we put in the long hours. We hold the meetings. We all go the extra mile. And it's having an impact. Your hard work is demonstrating all the ways that preservation can help solve problems for today's communities and in rich lives. By providing affordable housing and economic opportunities. By spurring investment and job creation. By promoting diversity, inclusion, and a much needed dialogue with our history. By filling our days with awe and beauty. And by bringing people together. This past year I was inspired by the movie Hidden Figures. About the mathematicians who propelled the space program forward. Yes. And these women who really never got the credit that they deserved. John Glenn and Neil Armstrong are in the history books of course. But they only got to space and back because of the work of Catherine Johnson who quietly worked wonders with her pencil and slide rule. I thought about that movie a lot this past year as I traveled around the country. Because it shows the important work that we still have to do to tell the full and inclusive story of America. Something that became only more evident after the hateful rallies in Charlottesville in August. Which I'm going to come back to in a few minutes. But also because I meet and hear about hidden figures in our field all the time. The best part of my job is getting the chance to see firsthand all the ways that our preservation colleagues are making a difference in their communities. Let's take a look for instance at this beautiful theater that we're in. You may have never heard the name Beatrice Spachner but she's a big reason why this auditorium still thrives today. When the theater opened its doors in 1899 it was the first ever multi-use building project and the tallest and grandest building in Chicago at the time. Booker T. Washington rallied Chicago to embrace racial equality here. In 1912 Theodore Roosevelt stood on this stage and declared we stand at Armageddon and we battle for the Lord. But after struggling through much of the depression the auditorium closed its doors in 1941. And then along came Beatrice. She was a Chicago violinist and for seven years from 1960 to 1967 she spearheaded the multi-million dollar fundraising campaign that restored the auditorium to its former glory. By all accounts she almost single-handedly brought this vibrant center of Chicago arts back to life. And as a result from everyone from Jimi Hendrix to Janice Joplin have played here in the 1960s. And today it remains a vibrant jewel of the second city. It's home to the Joffrey Ballet and a beating heart of the 21st century Chicago. This room today is filled with Beatrice Botchners and I want to talk about some of the hidden figures in our profession and the profound difference they are making you all are making every day. People saving places for people. Let me start with some of the great work being done here in Chicago. Like too many of our big cities the cost of living is rising here and it's getting harder and harder for families to find affordable housing. But there are buildings all over this city that could be repurposed to meet this need and preservations are helping to bring them back to life. A case in point are the historic Rosenwald apartments in the Bronzeville section of Chicago. This complex of more than 400 affordable apartment units was first built in 1929 by Julius Rosenwald of Sears Row Bucking Company. The same philanthropist who funded the Rosenwald schools across the south. He built them to serve the housing needs of the growing black middle class in Chicago during the years of the Great Migration. And among the famous Rosenwald residents at one time were Quincy Jones, Nat King Cole, Joe Lewis and Lorraine Hansberry. In 1973 the buildings were sold to the city and they continued to provide low income and section 8 housing for another 25 years. But then in 1999 the apartments were vacated and there was no plans for rehabilitation. And that might still be the case if not for Bobby Johnson, a nurse and local committee woman who knew that the Rosenwald apartments could be so much more. She created the Save the Rosenwald Coalition to encourage the revitalization and reuse of the complex and she'd tell anyone who would listen about their history and their potential. One friend said to Bobby that she was truly extraordinary. She was relentless, pushy, funny, determined and really knew how to celebrate life. Which describes me as a lot of the people in this room tonight. That's what it reminds me of. And she started something because landmarks in Illinois included the Rosenwald apartments in its 2002 most endangered places list. The fight lasted for more than a decade. Bobby passed away in 2012 and never got to see her hard work come to fruition. But it did. The preservation and community groups that she inspired really have undergone, have discontinued their work and the Rosenwald apartments have undergone a complete restoration and they reopened in September. The new complex includes 120 discounted units for Chicago area seniors and 105 additional affordable housing units. It also features the Bobby Johnson community room as a testament to her dedication and all of her accomplishment. We all know about the challenges that too many urban residents face today with rents, rising and local businesses giving way to upscale chain stores. It's getting harder and harder for people to get by. But as our favorite preservation economist Don Ripkima says, there are more than 3 million vacant older and historic buildings in this country that could be re-employed to help mitigate these trends. Our work can help to keep our cities affordable and inclusive and it must. That's one of the central focuses of our new re-urbanism initiative at the National Trust and we're working to put our money where our mouth is to help raise money for financing worthwhile community projects that can help make a difference. Since 2000, led by John-Leith Tetrow and now Meryl Hoopengardner, our for-profits subsidiary the National Trust Community Investment Corporation or NTCIC as we like to call it, has helped to raise and invest more than $1 billion in tax credit financing for over a hundred worthy real estate projects. Among them, just to take one example, is the Pythian Temple in downtown New Orleans. It began its life in 1908 as home to the Knights of Pythias, an African-American fraternal organization. For decades, it served as a center of black culture and commerce. Its theater and rooftop gardens hosted dances and performances from the likes of Louis Armstrong. NTCIC provided financing when the Pythian recently underwent a $44 million mixed-use renovation into affordable housing to office space and a food market. And it now provides a home for people like Dodie Smith Simmons. She was one of the original freedom writers in the 1960s and her husband played jazz with some of the original Pythian band. When Dodie lost her old affordable apartment, the Pythian was there to provide a new home and new hope. And she's not alone. To see that same hope playing out in communities across America just take a walk with me down Main Street. For 40 years now, the local groups that comprise the Main Street network have been showing us how to really make America great again by attracting resources and investment to our historic downtowns. Time and again, led by Patrice Frye and her team at the National Main Street Center, they have revitalized town centers by capitalizing on the features that make them unique and using their historic assets to forge a strong foundation for growth. That strategy has worked wonders at every scale, from towns like Marion, Virginia and Mount Vernon, Iowa to commercial corridors of major cities like the H Street and Shaw corridors of Washington, D.C. And along the way, they've brought new life to communities all over America. And each one has an amazing story to tell. To take just one example, let's spend a few minutes with Katie Meyer and Renaissance Covington, one of the 2017 winners of the Great American Main Street Award. I recall memories of parades in downtown. It was packed with people. You would be shocked how rapidly our downtown declined. From a young age, we had a lot of issues around poverty and crime. There were names like Scovington that were used. We weren't proud to be from Covington. The good news is I think that's really, really changed. We have a reputation issue, and so starting to embrace who we are and celebrate it was one of those first things where Main Street could really, really help with that. It's helped shape our board so that we could find people that had talents and interests in specific areas based on the four points. So it doesn't have to be, I'm passionate about Main Street, but I'm passionate about bikes. I'm passionate about art. I'm passionate about architecture and putting them in a room. And that's where kind of the magic happens. So in Covington and all across the country, Main Streets are using their old and historic buildings to power an economic revival. And from Acme, Feed and Seed in Nashville to Antigone Books in Tucson, Wanda's Hair Salon in Washington, DC, and Puffer Belly's Toy Store in Stanton, Virginia. Local businesses in historic neighborhoods keep our neighborhoods alive and distinctive and provide important opportunities for their local residents. But of course it's not just about small businesses and entrepreneurship. Preservation creates opportunities in other ways. So let me introduce you to Durell Boyd, an alumnus of our Hope Crew Program who now works for the National Park Service. Durell graduated from high school in Manassas, Virginia in 2014 and then joined the Citizens Conservation Corps and took part in two Hope Crew projects in Prince William Forest Park in Triangle, Virginia. Because of his exemplary work, Durell was hired by the National Park Service as a full-time employee at the Prince William Forest Park, our first Hope Crew member to join the service. Here he is in his own words. I am Durell Boyd and I'm a maintenance worker at Prince William Forest Park. The work I do makes me feel productive knowing I had something to do with history to help maintain it. We were proud to honor Durell at an event celebrating our hundredth Hope Crew project at Fort Monroe this past summer. And I should say that these 100 projects in three years all came about because of the Hope Crew Program's secret weapon and that's the tireless Monica Rhodes. And now Durell will have the opportunity to follow in the footsteps of the legendary Bob Stanton who's here tonight, the first African American director of the National Park Service and this year's Louise DuPont Crown and Shield Award winner who we will recognize on Friday at the closing plenary. Welcome, Bob. So you all know it feels great to take part in saving a place that matters and there's so much power in saving the history that tells your story and the story of your community. Just ask Zanya Lubisic and Elois Aratai, a couple in San Gabriel, California who led the fight to preserve the one-of-a-kind La Laguna playground. Known as the Dragon Park or Dinosaur Park by the locals, La Laguna was designed by Mexican-born artist Benjamin Dominguez in 1965. It's filled with sculptures of whimsical sea creatures that have delighted generations of children and adults. Zanya says, Dinosaur Park is a creative experience without rival for our children. You really feel like you've crossed into another world. So when San Gabriel considered demolishing La Laguna in 2006 to build a more traditional playground, Zanya and Elois helped form the friends of La Laguna to save Dominguez's creation. They rounded up 3,000 signatures from local residents, they applied for grants and they enlisted the aid of the Los Angeles Conservancy. Now thanks to their efforts, this work of an underappreciated Chicano artist is on the local register of historic places and kids will be able to slide along the La Laguna Sea Serpent and play among the dinosaurs for years to come. And that's so important because historic places and especially places that tell our story inspire us. They spur creativity, empathy and joy. Studies even suggest they can help us live longer and help make us kinder to one another. Our friends at the Richard H. Drehouse Foundation have been supporting some important and exciting research in this area. But at a time when our nation is divided against itself in so many ways, old places create a sense of community that's more vital than ever. That vision of one nation united by a common history and joined in a common destiny seems as contested as it's ever been in over a century. Now we've all seen how places can promote understanding and can bring people, even those who disagree on everything else together as Americans. But this year, sadly, we've also seen how they can divide us. And after what we saw in Charlottesville this year, we have a responsibility to help our country confront the complex and difficult chapters of our history and to help communities move forward in an informed and inclusive way. When it comes to Confederate memorials, there really are no easy answers. These monuments reflect a difficult past that still shapes our present. And that these memorials have become rallying points for bigots and white supremacists also shows how much work we still have to do to tell the story of America in a truly representative and inclusive way. Nonetheless, the fate of these memorials must be the beginning of a necessary conversation and not its end. Sheffield Hale and his team at the Atlanta History Center are leading the way on this front. All across the South, Sheffield's been working to bring communities together to encourage honest and respectful debate and to help us confront the history and meaning of Confederate memorials with clear eyes. As he puts it so well, the past has much to teach us about who we are and where we are if we let it. That's our job as preservationists to help our country reflect on how the past continues to shape our present and our future. We help manage change over time so that we can all move forward together and so we can all feel like we're part of one American community. Now I don't have to tell anybody in this room that this is hard work, but it's critical to our common future. At historic sites all over the country, places like Belgrove and Montpelier, Oatlands, Clifton and Drayton Hall, preservationists are working to tell the full stories of those who are enslaved there. At Chaco Bottom in Richmond, we're working with the local community to create a memorial that does justice to the families broken and the lives bartered in the antebellum slave trade. And from Paulie Murray's house in Durham, North Carolina, to Madame CJ Walker's home of Villa Loireau and Sweet Auburn in Atlanta to Motown in Detroit, we're celebrating and highlighting stories of African American achievement that have too often gone overlooked. Over the past few months, we at the National Trust have been working on a bold plan to step forward, to help carry the national narrative beyond Confederate memorials and to accelerate our own commitment to celebrating the contributions of all of our people. So tonight, I'm pleased to announce the launch of the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund. With this effort, the National Trust builds upon four decades to preserve the African American story, and we seek to at least double our own work and our own efforts celebrating the many overlooked contributions of African Americans over the next five years. And through this action fund, we'll also be developing a matching grant fund to help local organizations advance their own efforts to protect places significant in their communities. Already, several major foundations have committed more than $3.5 million towards a $25 million effort, and we're hoping and working to have many more join us in the weeks and months to come. To aid in the implementation of the fund, we've created an advisory council that includes some of the most penetrating thinkers on these issues. The council will be chaired by Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation who's been an instrumental champion of this idea. And it will also include people like Bob Stanton, Skip Gates, and Lonnie Bunch. The council includes not just preservationists, but historians and social justice advocates, artists, journalists, and filmmakers, lawyers, and scholars. Let's hear now from an early champion of the Action Fund, the accomplished actress, singer, stage director, and preservationist, Felicia Rashad. There's a place in Chester, South Carolina called Brainerd Institute that tells my story, and there are places that tell your story too. Many more historic places of African-American achievement and activism all across this great nation of ours that remain hidden. We're at an important time in our country, a time to correct the misconceptions of our history and to craft a new narrative to tell the full history. This is why I support the African-American Cultural Heritage Action Fund. And I'm proud to join the efforts of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and its partners. This fund will provide grants for African-American historic sites, empower our youth through a hands-on preservation experience, and promote communities that work for everyone. We invite you to make an important and lasting contribution to the cultural landscape of this country. Go to savingplaces.org forward slash tell the full history to learn more and join us. I'm also happy to announce that the Action Fund will be led by our colleague at the National Trust, Brent Legs, who's guided our work. Yes. Congratulations, Brent. Well, you all know Brent, apparently. Brent, so Brent has guided our work to preserve outstanding examples of African-American history at places such as Villa Loouaro, Hinchliffe Stadium, Joe Frazier's Gym, and recently the A.G. Gaston Motel, now part of the Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument. Through the Action Fund, we hope to highlight more stories of achievement, like some of the ones that I've mentioned tonight. Hidden figures like Catherine Johnson, who shouldn't be hidden any longer. And that goes for all of the hidden figures in our national story, regardless of race, color, gender, or sexual orientation. As we embark on this Action Fund, the National Trust will continue its efforts to tell the stories of all of these people. Because we aim to inspire a new generation of preservationists to help make an important and lasting contribution to the cultural landscape of our country and to build a stronger and more united America. People, saving places for people, for all of our people. Thank you.