Dorothy I. Height: Educator, Activist, and Civil Rights Leader

Posted on 08. Oct, 2009 by Leshell Hatley in Scholarly Celebrations

Presidents from Bill Clinton to Ronald Reagan have sought her advice. Arts and entertainment icons from Bill Cosby to Maya Angelou call her friend; and four million African-American women have looked to Dorothy Height for decades as their unwavering voice in the corridors of power. -Visionary Project

Dorothy Irene Height was born in Richmond, Virginia on March 24, 1912. At an early age, she moved with her family to Rankin, Pennsylvania. While in high school, Height was awarded a scholarship to Barnard College for her oratory skills; however, upon arrival, she was denied entrance. At the time, Barnard admitted only two African Americans per academic year and Height had arrived after the other two had been admitted. After this disappointment, she subsequently pursued studies at New York University, where she earned her Master’s Degree in psychology.

Years later, at its 1980 commencement ceremonies, the Barnard College awarded Height its highest honor, the Barnard Medal of Distinction. (According to an article written in the New York Amsterdam News by author Jamal E. Watson, Barnard College also officially apologized to Height for their refusal to admit her into the college.)

After college, Dorothy Height worked as a teacher in the Brownsville Community Center, Brooklyn, New York. She was active in the United Christian Youth Movement after its founding in 1935.

D. Height with E. Roosevelt

As a young woman during this vibrant period, she became friends with young artists like Sidney Poitier, Langston Hughes, and Harry Belafonte. She also developed relationships with some of the legendary leaders who would shape this country’s racial history: W.E.B. DuBois, Marcus Garvey, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Mary McLeod Bethune, her life-long mentor, and the woman she eventually succeeded as head of the National Council of Negro Women. As a matter of fact, it was in 1938 that Dorothy Height, one of ten young people selected to help Eleanor Roosevelt plan a World Youth Conference, she met Mary McLeod Bethune (through Eleanor Roosevelt) and became involved in the National Council of Negro Women.

Also in 1938, Dorothy Height was hired by the YWCA. She worked for better working conditions for black domestic workers, leading to her election to YWCA national leadership. In her professional service with the YWCA, she was assistant director of the Emma Ransom House in Harlem, and later executive director of the Phillis Wheatley House in Washington, DC. She was also able to influence the YWCA to be involved in civil rights beginning in the 1960s, and worked within the YWCA to desegregate all levels of the organization.

During the civil rights movement, Dorothy Height was the only female among the Big Six, a small group of the movement’s most powerful leaders, including Dr. Martin Luther King. She was part of some of the most compelling events in U.S. history. Height was one of the few women to participate at the highest levels of the civil rights movement, with such others as A. Philip Randolph, Martin Luther King, jr., and Whitney Young. At the 1963 March on Washington, she was on the platform when Dr. King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech.

Dorothy Height traveled extensively in her various positions, including to India, where she taught for several months, to Haiti, to England. She served on many commissions and boards connected with women’s and civil rights.

“We are not a problem people; we are a people with problems. We have historic strengths; we have survived because of family.” – Dorothy Height

Dorothy Height became national president of Delta Sigma Theta in 1947, after serving for three years as vice president. She served until l956.

National Council of Negro Women, Washington, DC

In 1957, Dorothy Height’s term as president of Delta Sigma Theta expired, and she was selected as the president of the National Council of Negro Women, an organization of organizations. Always as a volunteer, she led NCNW through the civil rights years and into self-help assistance programs in the 1970s and 1980s. During the more than 40 years of her leadership, NCNW grew into an umbrella organization encompassing some 240 local women’s groups and 31 national organizations, representing some 4 million, primarily African-American women. She focused on creating programs for the economic empowerment of women. She built up the organization’s credibility and fund-raising capacity such that it was able to attract large grants and therefore undertake major projects. She also helped establish a national headquarters building for NCNW and led the drive to purchase NCNW’s historic headquarters on Pennsylvania Avenue (the only African-American owned building on the corridor), and successfully lobbied for the building of a sculpture of Bethune.

In 1986, Dorothy Height became convinced that negative images of black family life was a significant problem, and to address the problem, she founded the annual Black Family Reunion, an annual national festival.

In 1994, President Bill Clinton presented Height with the Medal of Freedom. When Dorothy Height retired from the presidency of the NCNW, she remained chair and president emerita.

In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante listed Dorothy Height on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans.

In 2003, Dr. Height wrote and published the remarkable story of her life, in her autobiography, Open Wide The Freedom Gates: A Memoir, which was turned into a stage play called “If This Hat Could Talk” in 2006.

Dorothy Height Congressional Gold Medal

In 2004, she was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal by President George W. Bush on behalf of the United States Congress.

Dr. Height is currently, at age 97, the Chairperson of the Executive Committee of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, the largest civil rights organization in the USA. She was an honored guest and seated among the dignitaries at the inauguration of President Barack Obama on January 20, 2009.

Every year, she still personally attends the National Black Family Reunion, celebrated on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

For more clips, visit the Visionary Project.

-Summarized from Wikipedia, Ask.com, and the Visionary Project.

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