Dorothy Height

American social activist Dorothy Height (born 1912) was an advocate of women's rights and civil rights. She shared the platform with the Martin Luther King Jr. when he delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech in 1963. The recipient of more than 50 awards from local, state, and national organizations, Height received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, in 1994.

Early Years

Dorothy Irene Height was born in Richmond, Virginia, on March 24, 1912. She was the daughter of James Edward Height, a building contractor, and Fannie Burroughs Height, a nurse. When Dorothy Height was very young, the family moved to Rankin, Pennsylvania, not far from Pittsburgh, where she attended integrated schools. Although she taught Bible stories to white children at her church, she was hurt at the age of nine when her best friend, a white girl, told her that she could not play with her any longer because Height was black.

As a high school student, Height made a speech about slavery amendments to the U.S. Constitution that won her a scholarship to the college of her choice. Although she was accepted at Barnard College in New York City, when she showed up to enroll there, she was told the college's quota for blacks had been filled. Instead, she enrolled in New York University, where she earned a bachelor's degree in social sciences and a master's degree in educational psychology.

As a young woman, Height made time to join church-sponsored and civic groups. She continued her voluntary service in these organizations even after she graduated from New York University in 1932.

Welfare Caseworker

Following Height's graduation, she became a welfare caseworker. As an employee of the New York Welfare Department, Height helped the city deal with the 1935 Harlem riots. She emerged as one of the leaders in the National Youth Movement during President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal years.

Height also volunteered in Christian activist groups. In 1937, she became an assistant director of the Harlem YWCA. She developed leadership training programs for volunteers and staff and programs promoting interracial and ecumenical education. Height worked with the national YWCA from 1944 until 1977. She founded the YWCA's Center for Racial Justice in 1965 and directed it for 12 years.

Height caught the attention of U.S. government leaders and human rights activists as a representative to international YWCA meetings. In 1966, she served on the council to the White House conference "To Fulfill These Rights." Height also worked with Delta Sigma Theta sorority, serving as its national president from 1946 to 1957. She never married.

Headed NCNW

In 1937, while escorting First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt to a National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) meeting, Height met Mary McLeod Bethune, the NCNW's founder. Bethune asked Height to help in promoting the NCNW's agenda, which included pursuit of full and equal employment and educational opportunities for women. Height later said she learned "the value of collaboration and of building political coalitions" in NCNW.

Height assumed leadership of the NCNW in 1957 and led the organization for 41 years until she became president emerita in 1998. By then, the National Council of Negro Women had become a federation of 250 community organizations. During Height's tenure, she fought for the rights of black women and sought ways to strengthen black families. Under Height, the organization developed national and community programs aimed at combating problems such as teenage pregnancy and poor nutrition in rural communities. In 1975, Height started the only African American private voluntary organization working in Africa, building on the earlier achievements of NCNW's programs in other parts of the world.

In 2002, in honor of Height's ninetieth birthday, a gathering of friends that included TV star Oprah Winfrey, boxing promoter Don King, author Maya Angelou, the Reverend Al Sharpton, and former Washington D.C. mayor Marion Barry pledged $5 million to pay off the mortgage of the NCNW building on Washington's Pennsylvania Avenue. Height had been struggling for years to retire the debt.

Height, who was never an employee of NCNW, remained a strong advocate of volunteer work throughout her career. She said that people should realize that they can do more by working together than they can on their own.

Civil Rights Activist

While working with the NCNW, Height also worked for civil rights. In 1936 in New York, she participated in a protest against lynchings. She advocated an end to segregation in the military, a fairer legal system, and an end to racial restrictions on access to public transportation. During the 1950s, she worked on voter registration drives in the South.

By the 1960s, Height was at the forefront of the civil rights movement. She worked closely with the movement's major leaders, including King, Roy Wilkins, Whitney Young, and A. Philip Randolph, and she participated in nearly all of the major civil and human rights events of the era.

In 1964, Height initiated the NCNW's "Wednesdays in Mississippi" program, in which women activists from the North flew south to spend Wednesdays in small towns, meeting with black women. One such meeting, held in a church in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, was nearly the scene of tragedy after someone threw a Molotov cocktail through the church window. Fortunately, the bomb did not ignite.

During Height's years as a civil rights activist, she never acquired a reputation as a radical or militant. Height received little attention for her work, perhaps because the movement was dominated by men. But Height told People in 1998, "If you worry about who is going to get credit, you don't get much work done." James Farmer, a former leader of the Congress for Racial Equality, credited Height with bringing the women's movement into the civil rights struggle.

New Directions

Following major civil rights victories in the 1960s, Height supported initiatives aimed at eliminating poverty among southern blacks, such as home ownership programs and child care centers. There was even a program aimed at giving poor families a pig. As Height explained to People in 1998, "I thought if they had a pig in their backyard, no one could push them around."

In the 1980s and 1990s, the NCNW under Height's direction took on AIDS education and put in place a program to celebrate traditional African American values. In 1986, Height inaugurated the Black Family Reunion Celebration to reinforce the traditional strengths and values of the African American family. In the late 1990s, Height championed the confirmation of Alexis Herman, the first black woman to head the U.S. Department of Labor.

In 2001, Height told Black Issues in Higher Education that sit-ins and protest marches had been replaced by lobbying for legislation. Instead of desegregation and voting rights, the issues had become economic opportunity, educational equality, and an end to racial profiling. If Height had any regrets, one was that the righteous indignation that had spurred the civil rights movement was lacking in the new century. She asked where the country would be if the "vigor placed in fighting slavery and in the women's movement had kept pace."

Height was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1993. She received more than 20 honorary degrees, including degrees from Harvard and Princeton Universities. In 1998, she told People, "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."

Periodicals

Black Issues in Higher Education, August 16, 2001.

Jet, December 29, 1997.

People, October 19, 1998.

Richmond Times-Dispatch, February 1, 2002.

Online

"Dorothy Height, a model of social consistency," The African American Registry,http://www.aaregistry.com/african_american_history/772/Dorothy_Height_a_model_of_social_consistency (January 2003).

"Dorothy Height Honoring the Diversity of America," National Women's History Project,http://www.nwhp.org/tlp/biographies/height/height_bio.html (January 2003).

"Dorothy Irene Height," Endarkenment.com,http://www.endarkenment.com/eap/mission/donations/_holdings/height/ (January 2003).

president (organization)

Personal Information

Born Dorothy Irene Height, on March 24, 1912, in Richmond, VA; daughter of James Edward (a building contractor) and Fannie (a private nurse; maiden name, Burroughs) Height.
Education: Received B.A. and M.A. from New York University; postgraduate studies at New York School of Social Work.
Memberships: Served on U.S. Department of Defense Advisory Committee on Women, 1952-55; New York State Welfare Board, 1958-68; Consultant on African affairs to the U.S. Secretary of State; visiting professor, School of Social Work, Delhi, India, 1952. Member of board of governors of American Red Cross, 1964-70; member of board of directors, CARE.

Career

Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) Phillis Wheatley Home, Philadelphia, PA, executive director, 1939; YWCA School for Professional Workers, Mt. Carroll, IL, director, 1939; staff member of YWCA national board, New York City, beginning in 1944, director of YWCA Center for Racial Justice, beginning in 1946; Delta Sigma Theta (sorority), vice-president, 1944-47, president, 1947-56; National Council of Negro Women (NCNW), Washington, DC, president, 1957-97, president emerita, 1998--.

Life's Work

Dorothy I. Height has been a prominent organizer and leader representing African American women in the United States, and a 2004 recipient of the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest honor from the U.S. Congress. From 1957 until 1997, she served as president of the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW), a social services organization with millions of members nationwide, comprising a number of civic, church, educational, labor, community, and professional groups. Guided by the principles of the group's founder Mary McLeod Bethune, Height was a NCNW leader who championed the needs and interests of African American women and their families, and emphasized the cooperation of different segments of the African American community in solving problems. Prior to her NCNW presidency, Height also served distinguished terms as a leader with the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) and the national black women's sorority, Delta Sigma Theta. Her commitment to women's organizations was influenced by a 1937 meeting with Bethune who impressed upon a socially-minded Height, as she recalled in Ebony, "not only to be concerned but to use whatever talent I had to be of some service in the community."

Height was born in 1912 in Richmond, Virginia, and shortly thereafter moved with her family to Rankin, Pennsylvania, where she attended school. Height's family was Baptist, and both her mother and father, who were involved in a number of church activities and organizations, were early role models for her future work in social services. An excellent student, basketball player, and public speaker during high school, Height received a one-thousand dollar college scholarship for winning a national oratory competition. Her outstanding academic record later gained her acceptance at New York University, where she had applied after Barnard College delayed her admission because of a racial quota. Graduating with a bachelor's degree in psychology three years later, Height then obtained her master's degree in the same field. Since she had originally planned to follow a career in social work, Height took a position with the New York City welfare department for two years, supplementing her service with studies at the New York School of Social Work.

Early Call to Organizational Work

Height became active in African American women's groups in 1937 after meeting NCNW founder Bethune and becoming inspired by her vision of organizing African American women with a goal of improving standards in education, health, and wages. "Faced with grim realities of absence of power and exclusion from opportunity," Height stated in Ebony, "[Bethune] understood the need for the collective power of Black women on behalf of themselves and their families." In 1938, Height became a member of the YWCA in New York City and devoted her energies to improving the quality of life for African American women. She worked as an assistant director of the YWCA's Emma Ransom House, a Harlem lodging facility for African American women, and later served as executive director of the YWCA Phillis Wheatley Home in Washington, D.C. One of Height's early causes was the abolishment of substandard wages for female African American domestic workers, who negotiated daily for work on the streets of Brooklyn and the Bronx, New York. Height testified on the workers' behalf before the New York City Council and became involved in efforts to organize labor unions to ensure fair wages.

Height's activities resulted in her rise to the national planning levels of the YWCA as well as the national African American women's sorority, Delta Sigma Theta. During the 1940s she worked at the YWCA's national headquarters in New York City and was involved in coordinating the organization's 1946 convention, which chartered a policy of integrating YWCA facilities nationwide. At the convention, Height was elected the organization's national interracial education secretary. In addition, Height's work with Delta Sigma Theta during the 1940s resulted in her appointment as its national president in 1947. In the ten years she served as the sorority's leader, Height was especially involved in organizing efforts to increase employment opportunities for African American women and obtaining their representation on labor policy-making boards and commissions. She helped charter the Deltas' first international chapters and worked towards increasing the consciousness of women of color from the United States and Third World countries, unifying them in their common objectives.

Named President of NCNW

In 1957, Height became the fourth president of the NCNW, the organization whose principles had guided her work within the African American women's movement. During the civil rights movement of the 1960s, Height and the NCNW were involved in such activities as voter registration in the South, voter education programs in the North, and the implementation of financial aid opportunities for students working within the movement. While Height and the NCNW were known to be politically moderate, calling for measured steps toward integration and civil rights, their stance became more strident during the 1970s. They advocated a direct response by the white majority in addressing problems affecting African Americans. During the 1970s, the NCNW received various grants to support such projects as "Operation Woman Power," which assisted women in opening their own businesses and provided vocational training. The NCNW also obtained federal money to set up a job training program for teenagers and became active in establishing food cooperatives in rural areas. Under Height's leadership in the 1970s, the NCNW grew to include a national planning and administrative staff of more than ninety members.

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Height was a prominent activist for civil rights and the rights of women. In 1965, she founded the YWCA's Center for Racial Justice and served as its director until she retired from the national YWCA in 1977. In 1966, Height participated in the White House Conference "To Fulfill These Rights." Along with other activists, she founded the National Women's Political Caucus (NWPC) in 1972. Two years later, Height served as a delegate to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Conference on Woman and Her Rights held in Kingston, Jamaica. Height also secured a grant from the United States Agency for International Development to hold a conference or women from the United States, South America, Africa, and the Caribbean. The purpose of the conference was to promote greater solidarity between women throughout the world and seek solutions to common problems.

During the 1980s and 1990s, Height championed the African American community's tradition of “self-help.” and promoted the notion of an extended family--one encompassing all levels of class and society--in countering such perils as drugs, family disintegration, poverty, and economic disparity. In a 1989 article for the Nation, Height explained that "self-help" is an idea that runs contrary to a pervasive conception of African American society as "overdependent and predominantly welfare-oriented." She added, however, that such an outlook disregarded the reality that "the major energies of black people in America historically have had to be directed to attaining the most elementary human freedoms (such as owning one's own body and the fruits thereof) that our white sisters and brothers take for granted." While the civil rights movement of the 1960s dramatically demonstrated the collective efforts of African Americans to end racial discrimination in the United States, Height continued in Nation, in the past African Americans have united "to provide services for one another in every conceivable way: feeding and clothing the destitute; tending the sick; caring for orphaned children and the aged; establishing insurance companies, burial societies, travelers' accommodations when hotels were segregated--the list goes on."

"Family Reunions" Emphasize "Self-Help"

To emphasize resources available within African American communities, Height and the NCNW sponsored a series of "Black Family Reunion Celebrations" during the 1980s. Held in several major U.S. cities, the celebrations brought together African Americans from various socioeconomic levels in order to promote unity and foster awareness of community resources. Each reunion, in addition to providing live entertainment for both adults and children, offered such services as free blood pressure tests as well as informative sessions on family planning, health care, and youth employment services. At a gathering in Los Angeles, which drew up to 60,000 people, Height reiterated her message of African American solidarity: "The concept of self-help for the black family is contrary to public opinion," Newsweek quoted her as saying. "The image of dependency is always put forth, but the reality is that we have helped ourselves and we have provided for ourselves many services our white brothers and sisters take for granted.... So much has been drilled into us about what is wrong with our community.... We're looking at what we have to work with."

During the 1990s, the NCNW recruited young people to address such problems as drugs, lack of education, and unemployment within their communities. Height emphasized in Ebony that teenagers needed to make a greater effort to become involved in the problems and challenges they face. "With drugs and television and things of that sort, young people really have to work against being spectators rather than involved participants."

While president of the NCNW, Height steadily maintained the group's traditional course of organizing African American women from all levels of society with the hope of attaining a common goal--improving education, health, and economic status. Among other accomplishments in her long career, Height served as a social services expert on several governmental committees and commissions at the federal, state, and local level. Her work in this area included positions on the U.S. Department of Defense's advisory committee on women in the armed services and membership on the State of New York's Social Welfare Board from 1958 to 1968. Height also served on the board of directors for CARE, and was a member of the ARC board of governors from 1964 until 1970.

Height had received a multitude of awards and holds more than 20 honorary degrees from such universities as Tuskegee, Coppin State in Maryland, Harvard, Princeton, and Pace in New York. In 1965, the National Council of Jewish Women presented Height with the John F. Kennedy Memorial Award. For her tireless efforts in promoting the rights of women and people of color, Height was presented with the William L. Dawson Award by the Congressional Black Caucus in 1974. That year, she was named Woman of the Year by the Ladies Home Journal for her advocacy of human rights. In 1989, President Ronald Reagan presented Height with the Citizens Medal Award for distinguished service. In 1990, she was also the recipient of the Camille Cosby World of Children Award and the Olender Foundations Generous Heart Award. Along with newspaper publisher Katharine Graham, feminist leader Betty Friedan, and Norwegian prime minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, Height was inducted into the International Women's Forum Hall of Fame in 1991. She was awarded the nation's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, in 1994. In 1998, Height was honored with a celebration entitled "Uncommon Height, the Legends Celebrate the Legend." Distinguished guests included Hillary Rodham Clinton, Oprah Winfrey, Rosa Parks, James Farmer, Marian Wright Edelman, and Camille Cosby. Notable poet, Maya Angelou, also read a poem that she had written in honor of Height entitled "Phenomenal Woman."

In February of 1998, Height was named president emerita of the NCNW. She remained committed to championing the rights of women and people of color, and promoting a greater sense of unity among all peoples. As Height's grandniece, Dana Rudolph, remarked to People Weekly in 1998, "Her work is her life. She never sleeps." In 2001, the 86-year-old Height was living in Washington, D.C. She continued to serve as chair and president emerita of the NCNW.

Height in 2003 she published her memoir, titled Open Wide the Freedom Gates. In 2004, she wrote the introduction to Cynthia Jacobs Carter’s Africana Woman: Her Story Through Time. Early in 2004, she also received a humanitarian award from the Choral Arts Society of Washington.

Awards

Selected Awards: William L. Dawson Award, 1974; Citizens Medal Award, 1989; Camille Cosby World of Children Award, 1990; Inducted into International Women's Forum Hall of Fame, 1991; Presidential Medal of Freedom, 1994.

Further Reading

Books

• "Dorothy Height," Richmond Times Dispatch,1 February 2001. Available from http://www.timesdispatch.com/ (August 21, 2001).
• Hine, Darlene Clark, ed. Black Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia. Carlson Publishing Inc., 1993.
• Luker, Ralph E. Historical Dictionary of the Civil Rights Movement. The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1997.

• Boston Herald, July 13, 2003, p. 10.
• Cincinnati Enquirer (Cincinnati, OH), October 5, 2003, p. C4.
• Ebony, August 1982; August 1985; August 1988; July 1989; August 1990; October 1990; November 1990.
• Jet, October 19, 1998.
• Nation, July 24-31, 1989.
• Newsweek, August 17, 1987.
• New York Times, October 25, 1991.
• People Weekly, October 19, 1998.
• Sarasota Herald Tribune, December 2, 2003, p. E1.

• USA Today, http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2004-03-24-height-gold-medal_x.htm, March 24, 2004.

— Michael E. Mueller and David G. Oblender

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (December 2007) (Find sources: Dorothy Height – news, books, scholar)

Dorothy I. Height
Dorothy Irene Height
Born	March 24, 1912 (1912-03-24) (age 97) Richmond, Virginia, United States

Dorothy Irene Height (born: March 24, 1912) is an African American administrator, educator, social activist, and a 2004 recipient of the Congressional Gold Medal.

Contents 1 Biography 2 Career 3 Awards and Honors 4 Sources 5 References 6 External links

Biography

Height was born in Richmond, Virginia. 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.

The musical stageplay If This Hat Could Talk, based on her memoirs Open Wide The Freedom Gates, opened in the summer of 2005 and is currently on tour. It showcases her unique perspective on the civil rights movement and details many of the behind-the-scenes figures/mentors who shaped her life, including Mary McLeod Bethune and Eleanor Roosevelt.

Career

Height started working as a caseworker with the New York City Welfare Department and, at the age of twenty-five, she began a career as a civil rights activist when she joined the National Council of Negro Women. She fought for equal rights for both African Americans and women, and in 1944 she joined the national staff of the YWCA. She also served as National President of Delta Sigma Theta, Sorority Incorporated from 1946-1957.^[1] She remains active with Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. While there she developed leadership training programs and interracial and ecumenical education programs.^[2]

Dorothy Height

In 1957, Height was named president of the National Council of Negro Women, a position she held until 1997. During the height of the civil rights movement of the 1960s, Height organized "Wednesdays in Mississippi", which brought together black and white women from the North and South to create a dialogue of understanding. American leaders regularly took her counsel, including First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, and Height also encouraged President Dwight D. Eisenhower to desegregate schools and President Lyndon B. Johnson to appoint African American women to positions in government. In the mid 1960s, Height wrote a column entitled "A Woman's Word" for the weekly African-American newspaper, the New York Amsterdam News. Her first column appeared in the March 20th, 1965 issue (p. 8).

Height has served on a number of committees, including as a consultant on African affairs to the Secretary of State, the President's Committee on the Employment of the Handicapped, and the President's Committee on the Status of Women. In 1974, Height was named to the National Council for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research, which published The Belmont Report ^[3]- a response to the infamous "Tuskegee Syphillis Study" and an international ethical touchstone for researchers to this day.

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.

Awards and Honors

• Presidential Citizens Medal (1989)
• Spingarn Medal from the NAACP (1993)
• Franklin Delano Roosevelt Freedom From Want Award (1993)
• inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame (1993)
• Presidential Medal of Freedom (1994)
• 7th Annual Heinz Award Chairman's Medal (2001)^[4]
• listed on Molefi Kete Asante's list of 100 Greatest African Americans (2002) ^[5]
• Congressional Gold Medal by President George W. Bush on behalf of the United States Congress (Approved, 2003) (Awarded, 2004)

Sources

• National Council for Science and the Environment
• African Events - Congressional Gold Medal Award for Dorothy Height in Washington DC

References

1. ^ D. Height. (2003) Open Wide the Freedom Gates: A Memoir, New York, NY:PublicAffairs Press.
2. ^ D. Height. (2003) Open Wide the Freedom Gates: A Memoir, New York, NY:PublicAffairs Press.
3. ^ http://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/humansubjects/guidance/belmont.htm
4. ^ The Heinz Awards, Dorothy Height profile
5. ^ Asante, Molefi Kete (2002). 100 Greatest African Americans: A Biographical Encyclopedia. Amherst, New York. Prometheus Books. ISBN 1-57392-963-8.

• Height, Dorothy. Open Wide the Freedom Gates: A Memoir.
• Tracey A. Fitzgerald, The National Council of Negro Women and the Feminist Movement, 1935-1975, Georgetown University Press, 1985.
• Judith Weisenfeld, "Dorothy Height", Black Women in America: Profiles, MacMillan Library Reference USA, New York, 1999, pp. 128–130.

External links

• Dorothy Height's oral history video excerpts at The National Visionary Leadership Project

v • d • e Delta Sigma Theta National Presidents Sadie T. M. Alexander, 1919–1923 • Dorothy Pelham Beckley 1923–1926 • Ethel Lemay Calimese, 1926–1929 • Anna Johnson Julian, 1929–1931 • Gladys Byram Shepperd, 1931–1933 • Jeannette Triplett Jones, 1933–1935 • Vivian Osborne Marsh, 1935–1939 • Elsie Austin, 1939–1944 • Mae Wright Downs Peck Williams, 1944–1947 • Dorothy I. Height, 1947–1956  • Dorothy P. Harrison, 1956–1958 • Jeanne L. Noble, 1958–1963 • Geraldine P. Woods, 1963–1967 • Frankie M. Freeman, 1967–1971 • Lillian Pierce Benbow, 1971–1975 • Thelma Thomas Daley, 1975–1979 • Mona Humphries Bailey, 1979–1983 • Hortense Golden Canady, 1983–1988 • Yvonne Kennedy, 1988–1992  • Bertha M. Roddey, 1992–1996 • Marcia L. Fudge, 1996–2000 • Gwendolyn E. Boyd, 2000–2004 • Louise A. Rice, 2004–2008 • Cynthia M.A. Butler-McIntyre, 2008–present

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