Dorothy Irene Height

BORN: MARCH 24, 1912, RICHMOND, VA

DIED: APRIL 20, 2010, WASHINGTON, DC

Women know how to get things done.

Dorothy Irene Height was a lifelong activist and leader in the civil rights and women’s movements and served as the president of the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) and an executive in the YWCA. Throughout her life, Dorothy followed her mother’s motto, “lifting as we climb.” At a very early age, Dorothy became a “joiner,” participating in lots of church and school activities including music and sports. She competed in local and national oratory contests, consistently aiming for excellence. Dorothy recalled, “By the time I was twenty-five, I had already shaped my life’s work” as a champion of social justice.

During her college years, Dorothy formed important friendships through the Harlem Youth Council. In 1937, Dorothy was on staff at the YWCA when she helped host a meeting of the NCNW. Her encounter with the influential Mary McLeod Bethune and Eleanor Roosevelt was life-changing. Mary was so impressed with Dorothy that she invited her to join the NCNW, and the three women collaborated on projects for almost twenty years.

Dorothy’s activism was also fueled by influential meetings with Dr. Benjamin Mays, who introduced her to then-fifteen-year-old student Martin Luther King Jr. Dorothy later used her considerable organizational skills to help plan the 1963 March on Washington, along with the “Big Six” leaders: Martin Luther King Jr., James Farmer, John Lewis, A. Philip Randolph, Roy Wilkins, and Whitney Young. She was the only woman seated on the platform, but she was not invited to speak. Dorothy became an activist for women’s rights and organized interracial “Wednesdays in Mississippi,” a program that brought Northern and Southern women together to assist student activists operating Freedom Schools, which taught civics and political activism in addition to academic subjects, and encouraged further cooperation.

Dorothy’s many awards included the 1994 Presidential Medal of Freedom, the 2004 Congressional Gold Medal, and many honorary doctoral degrees. President Barack Obama dubbed her “the godmother of the civil rights movement.”