Dr. Mary Frances Berry addresses the audience gathered for a special event marking the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

In the KSC Training Auditorium at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Dr. Mary Frances Berry, on stage, addresses the audience gathered for a special event marking the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, supported by a sign-language interpreter.

Berry served as the assistant secretary for education in the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare HEW between 1977 and 1980. From 1980 to 2004, she was a member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, serving as chair from 1993 to 2004. Among Berry's many honors are the NAACP's Roy Wilkins Award, the Rosa Parks Award of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and the Ebony Magazine Black Achievement Award. She is one of 75 women featured in the book "I Dream a World: Portraits of Black Women Who Changed America." Sienna College Research Institute and the Women's Hall of Fame also designated her one of "America's Women of the Century." The event was presented by Kennedy's Office of Diversity and Equal Opportunity. For more information about Kennedy Space Center, visit http://www.nasa.gov/kennedy. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett