Dorothy Height | |
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 Height in 2008 | |
| Born | Dorothy Irene Height (1912-03-24)March 24, 1912 Richmond, Virginia, U.S. |
| Died | April 20, 2010(2010-04-20) (aged 98) Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Education | New York University (BA,MA) Columbia University |
Dorothy Irene Height (March 24, 1912 – April 20, 2010) was an African-Americancivil rights andwomen's rights activist.[1] She focused on the issues of African-American women, includingunemployment,illiteracy, and voter awareness.[2] Height is credited as the first leader in thecivil rights movement to recognize inequality for women and African Americans as problems that should be considered as a whole.[3] She was the president of theNational Council of Negro Women for 40 years.[4] Height's role in the "Big Six" civil rights movement was frequently ignored by the press due to sexism. In 1974, she was named to theNational Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research, which published theBelmont Report, a bioethics report in response to the infamousTuskegee Syphilis Study.
Dorothy Height was born inRichmond, Virginia, on March 24, 1912.[5] When she was five years old, she moved with her family to Mckees RocksRankin, Pennsylvania, a steel town in the suburbs ofPittsburgh, where she attended racially integrated schools. Height's mother was active in thePennsylvania Federation of Colored Women's Clubs and regularly took Dorothy along to meetings where she established her "place in the sisterhood".[6]
Height's long association with theYWCA began in a Girl Reserve Club in Rankin organized under the auspices of the Pittsburgh YWCA. An enthusiastic participant, who was soon elected president of the club, Height was appalled to learn that her race barred her from swimming in the pool at the central YWCA branch. Though her arguments could not bring about a change in policy in 1920's Pittsburgh, Height later dedicated much of her professional energy to bringing profound change to the YWCA.[6]
While in high school, Height became socially and politically active inanti-lynching movement.[7] A talented orator, she won first place and a $1,000 scholarship at a national oratory contest held by theElks.[8] Height graduated from Rankin High School in 1929.[9]
She was accepted toBarnard College ofColumbia University in 1929, but was denied entrance because the school had an unwritten policy of admitting only two black students per year.[10] She enrolled instead atNew York University, earning an undergraduate degree in 1932 and a master's degree ineducational psychology the following year.[11] She pursued further postgraduate work atColumbia University and theNew York School of Social Work (the predecessor of theColumbia University School of Social Work).[12]
From 1934 to 1937, Height worked in the New York City Department of Welfare, an experience she credited with teaching her the skills to deal with conflict without intensifying it.[citation needed] From there she moved to a job as a counselor at theYWCA of New York City, Harlem Branch, in the fall of 1937. Soon after joining the staff there, Height metMary McLeod Bethune andEleanor Roosevelt at a meeting of the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) held at the YWCA. In her 2003 memoir, Height described the meeting: "On that fall day the redoubtable Mary McLeod Bethune put her hand on me. She drew me into her dazzling orbit of people in power and people in poverty…. 'The freedom gates are half ajar,' she said. 'We must pry them fully open.' I have been committed to the calling ever since."[13] The following year, Height served as acting director of the YWCA of New York City's Emma Ransom House residence. In addition to her YWCA and NCNW work, Height was also very active in the United Christian Youth Movement, a group intensely interested in relating faith to real-world problems.[6]
In 1939, Height went to Washington, D.C., to be executive of thePhyllis Wheatley Branch of the DC YWCA. In the fall of 1944, she returned to New York City to join the YWCA national staff, joining the program staff with "special responsibility" in the field of Interracial Relations. This work included training activities, writing, and working with the Public Affairs committee on race issues where her "insight into the attitude and feeling of both white and negro people [was] heavily counted on". It was during this period that the YWCA adopted its Interracial Charter (1946), which not only pledged to work towards an interracial experience within the YWCA, but also to fight against injustice on the basis of race, "whether in the community, the nation or the world". Convinced that segregation causes prejudice through estrangement, Height facilitated meetings, ran workshops, and wrote articles and pamphlets aimed at helping white YWCA members transcend their fears and bring their daily activities in line with the association's principles.[6]
Height was an active member ofDelta Sigma Theta sorority, throughout her life, developing leadership training programs and ecumenical education programs.[13] She was initiated at the Rho chapter atColumbia University, and served as national president of the sorority from 1947 to 1956.[13] In 1950, Height moved to the Training Services department where she focused primarily on professional training for YWCA staff. She spent the fall of 1952 in India as avisiting professor at theDelhi School of Social Work, then returned to her training work in New York City.[6] Height participated in the Liberia Watch Program and worked within the ranks of leadership in 1955.[14]
In 1963, the increasing momentum of thecivil rights movement prompted the YWCA's National Board to allocate funds to launch a country-wide "Action Program for Integration and Desegregation of Community YWCAs". Height took leave from her position as associate director for Training to head this two-year Action Program. At the end of that period, the National Board adopted a proposal to accelerate the work "in going beyond token integration and making a bold assault on all aspects of racial segregation". It established an Office ofracial integration (renamed Office of Racial Justice in 1969) as part of the Executive Office. In her role as its first director, Height helped to monitor the association's progress toward full integration, kept abreast of the civil rights movement, facilitated "honest dialogue", aided the Association in making best use of its African-American leadership (both volunteer and staff), and helped in their recruitment and retention. Shortly before she retired from the YWCA in 1977, Height was elected as an honorary national board member, a lifetime appointment.[6]
In 1958, Height became President of theNational Council of Negro Women (NCNW) and remained in that position until 1990. While working with both the YWCA and NCNW, Height participated in the Civil Rights Movement and she was considered a member of the "Big Six" (a group with up to nine members, includingMartin Luther King Jr.,James Farmer,John Lewis,A. Philip Randolph,Roy Wilkins, andWhitney Young). In his autobiography, civil rights leaderJames Farmer noted that Height's role in the "Big Six" was frequently ignored by the press due to sexism.[15] During theCivil Rights Movement, she organizedWednesdays in Mississippi withPolly Spiegel Cowan, which brought together black and white women from the North and South to work against segregation.[16] Height's background as a prize-winning orator allowed her to serve as an effective middleman through creating a dialogue of understanding between unfamiliar parties. Though Height was not called upon to speak at theMarch on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, she served as one of the chief organizers for the gathering, becoming a key part in the demonstration's success.[17] Height also acted as an ambassador for the lone women's organization during the event.[3] Additionally, Height developed many international volunteer programs with the NCNW in Asia, Africa, Europe, and South America.[6]
In the mid-1960s, she wrote a column called "A Woman's Word" for the weekly African-American newspaper theNew York Amsterdam News.[18]
In 1974, she was named to theNational Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research, which published theBelmont Report a response to the infamous "Tuskegee Syphilis Study" and an international ethical touchstone for researchers to this day.[19] Height was the driving force in the campaign to erect a statue in honor of Mary McLeod Bethune inLincoln Park, Washington, D.C. The monument was the first statue dedicated to either a woman or an African-American person to be erected on federal land. At the July 1974 unveiling of theMary McLeod Bethune Memorial, which had an attendance of more than eighteen thousand people, Height stated that the statue represented the awakening appreciation for the contributions of racial minorities and women within the United States, which was best represented by aBlack woman.[20]
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In 1990, Height, along with 15 other African Americans, formed theAfrican-American Women for Reproductive Freedom.[21] Height received thePresidential Medal of Freedom from PresidentBill Clinton in 1994. Height's 90th-birthday celebration in 2002 raised five million dollars towards funding the NCNW's mortgage on their Washington, D.C., headquarters, theDorothy I. Height Building. Two notable donors wereDon King andOprah Winfrey.[7] Height was recognized by Barnard for her achievements as an honorary alumna during the college's commemoration of the 50th anniversary of theBrown v. Board of Education decision in 2004.[10]
She was also well known for her hats and hat collection, many of them made by a Black Washington, D.C., milliner,Vanilla Beane, one of which was featured on Height's USPS stamp.[22][23] Portions of her hat collection have been shown in museums.[24]
The musical stage playIf This Hat Could Talk, based on her memoirsOpen Wide The Freedom Gates, debuted in 2005. The work showcases her unique perspective on the civil rights movement and details many of the behind-the-scenes figures and mentors who shaped her life, includingMary McLeod Bethune andEleanor Roosevelt.
PresidentBarack Obama called Height "the godmother of the civil rights movement and a hero to so many Americans".[25] She attended theNational Black Family Reunion on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., every year until her death in 2010.[26] Height was the chairperson of the executive committee of theLeadership Conference on Civil Rights, anumbrella group of Americancivil rightsinterest groups, until her death in 2010. She was an honored guest at theinauguration of President Barack Obama on January 20, 2009, and was seated on the stage.[4]
On March 25, 2010, Height was admitted toHoward University Hospital in Washington, D.C., for unspecified reasons and under protest, because she had pending speaking arrangements.[27] She died less than four weeks later, on April 20, 2010, at the age of 98. PresidentBarack Obama delivered theeulogy for her funeral service at theWashington National Cathedral on April 29, 2010, which was attended by many other dignitaries and notable people.[28] She was later buried at Fort Lincoln Cemetery inColmar Manor, Maryland.[29]
Shortly after Height's death, congresswomanEleanor Holmes Norton and MayorVincent Gray encouraged the U.S. Postal Service to name D.C.'s former main post office the Dorothy I. Height Post Office. This honor made Height the only African-American woman to have a federal facility in Washington, D.C., named after her.[27]
"I want to be remembered as someone who used herself and anything she could touch to work for justice and freedom. I want to be remembered as one who tried." – Dorothy Height
This article incorporates text available under theCC BY 3.0 license.| External videos | |
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 Dorothy Height's funeral service at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., April 29, 2010,C-SPAN | |
| Presentation by Height onOpen Wide the Freedom Gates: A Memoir at the National Book Festival, October 9, 2004, C-SPAN |
| External videos | |
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| Booknotes interview with Height onOpen Wide the Freedom Gates: A Memoir, August 3, 2003, C-SPAN | |
| "Life and Career of Dorothy Height". July 20, 2001, C-SPAN |
| External videos | |
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| "Dorothy Height Oral History Interview" for the University of Virginia's "Explorations in Black Leadership" project, December 9, 2003, C-SPAN |
| External videos | |
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| Booknotes interview with Height onOpen Wide the Freedom Gates: A Memoir, August 3, 2003, C-SPAN | |
| Presentation by Height onOpen Wide the Freedom Gates: A Memoir at the National Book Festival, October 9, 2004, C-SPAN |
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| National | |
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