Among the many awards Dr.Harris has received, she was honored with the People Who Make a Difference Award from the Gleitsman Foundation in 1990 and was named a MacArthur Fellow in 1991. Dr. Harris was recognized as Alumna of the Year by Auburn University in 1992, was given an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Dartmouth College in 1993, at Dartmouth College’s 223^rd Commencement. She was named Outstanding Advocate for Children by the Children's Defense Fund in 1997. That same year, Dr.Harris was recognized as National Public Citizen of the Year by the National Association of Social Workers in Baltimore, Maryland. In 2001, Dr. Harris received the Champion of Children Award from the Civitan International Center, and in 2004 Dr. Harris was honored with the Martin Luther King Jr. Humanitarian Legacy Award from Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity.

Dr. Sophia Bracy Harris has made presentations all over the world for organizations including the World Conference on Women (Nairobi, Kenya), the Fourth Western Hemisphere Seminar (Lima, Peru), University of Newcastle International Family Strengths Conference (New South Wales, Australia), Harvard University School of Law Colloquium on Child Care (Cambridge, MA), and the Council on Foundations (San Diego, CA). Dr. Harris has served on numerous community, regional, and national boards, including the Ms. Foundation for Women (New York, NY), Women's Technical Assistance Project (Washington, DC), New World Foundation (New York, NY), Southern Institute on Children and Families: Southern Regional Task Force (Columbia, SC), Child Welfare Policy and Practice Group (Montgomery, AL), Calvert Fund on Socially Responsible Investments (Washington, DC), and the Alabama Organizing Project. She is the co-developer and leader of Interchange, a cross-cultural dialogue project of Leadership Montgomery, and serves on the board of Central Alabama Envision, a five-county community planning project.

 Dr. Harris as a young African American girl growing up in the Deep South (Alabama) during the 1960s became aware through personal experience just how horrible racial prejudice could be. After Dr. Harris and her sister became the first African Americans to attend an all white high school their family home was fire bombed. As a result of that experience Dr. Harris has made racial equality and improved living conditions and educational standards for low income black families, her life work.

Dr. Harris is co-founder of the Federation of Child Care Centers of Alabama (FOCAL) an organization that she started in 1972. The organization is devoted to combating state regulations that threaten the well being of the poor. Because of her efforts more than twenty million dollars have been generated for child care providers. She is truly a remarkable woman.

Dr. Harris inspiring speech today included a story about the Eagle which was so inspiring I want to share it verbatim with you today:

At the edge of the woods, near a small farm, a baby eagle fell out of the nest.   The farmer found the eagle, and thinking it was one of his own, brought the eagle to the chicken coop with his other chickens.   As time passed, the baby eagle grew up learning to do what chickens do.  The  eagle clucked, he strutted around the coop pecking at the corn and even tried his voice at the morning wake-up call.

A neighbor came to visit his friend the chicken farmer.  He was surprised to see the eagle strutting around the chicken coop, pecking at the ground, and acting like a chicken.  The farmer explained to him that he had brought the bird to the coop as a chick and only later discovered that it was an eagle.  He further told his friend that since the eagle had been raised as a chicken that the eagle actually believed himself to be a chicken.

The neighbor knew there was more to this noble bird than his behavior showed as a chicken.  He was born an eagle and had the heart of an eagle, and nothing could change that.  The neighbor reached down and lifted the eagle onto the fence surrounding the chicken coop and said, “Eagle, you are an eagle.  Stretch your wings and fly.”  The eagle only looks blankly at the man and clucked. The farmer threw down some chicken feed and the eagle jumped off the fence and started eating the chicken feed.  The farmer was satisfied. “I told you - he thinks he’s a chicken,” the farmer said.

The neighbor couldn’t sleep that night and returned the next day to convince the farmer that the eagle was born for something greater.  The man took the eagle from the dirty coop and carried him to the top of the farmhouse.  Setting the bird down on the roof, the neighbor spoke to him: “Eagle, you are an eagle.  You therefore belong to the sky and not to the earth.  Stretch your wings and fly.” The large bird blinked at the man, clucked, and then jumped down into the chicken coop where the farmer had spread more chicken feed. The eagle began to eat the chicken feed once again. 

After another restless night, the friend returned the next morning to the chicken farm and took the eagle and the farmer away from the chicken coop to the foot of a high mountain.  They could not see the farm or the chicken coop from this great height.  The man lifted the eagle on his outstretched arm and pointed high into the sky where the bright sun was beckoning above.  He spoke: “Eagle, you are an eagle!  You therefore belong to the sky and not to the earth.  Stretch your wings and fly.” This time the eagle stared skyward into the bright sun, straightened his large body, and stretched his massive wings.  His wings moved, slowly at first, then surely and powerfully. 

With the mighty screech of an eagle, he flew away.

 In the words of my dad, “You must honor the chair whether it is sitting, walking or lying down.”