...and RIP to a true icon - Dorothy Height

**Perql8r** · 04-20-2010, 07:02 AM

Civil rights activist Dorothy Height dies at 98

Washington (CNN) -- Dorothy Height, a leading civil rights activist, died Tuesday, Howard University Hospital said.

Height died at 3:41 a.m., said hospital spokesman Ron Harris. No cause of death was given. She was 98.

Height, who had been chair and president emerita of the National Council of Negro Women, worked in the 1960s alongside civil rights pioneers, including the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., future U.S. Rep. John Lewis and A. Philip Randolph.

"I am deeply saddened by the passing today of my dear friend and mentor, Dorothy Irene Height," former U.S. Secretary of Labor Alexis M. Herman said.

"She was a dynamic woman with a resilient spirit, who was a role model for women and men of all faiths, races and perspectives. For her, it wasn't about the many years of her life, but what she did with them."

**Perql8r** · 04-20-2010, 07:05 AM

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Civil Rights Legend Dorothy Height Dies

WASHINGTON - Dorothy Height, who as longtime president of the National Council of Negro Women was the leading female voice of the 1960s civil rights movement, died Tuesday. She was 98.
Height, who continued actively speaking out into her 90s, had been at Howard University Hospital for some time.

As a teenager, Height marched in New York's Times Square shouting, "Stop the lynching." In the 1950s and 1960s, she was the leading woman helping the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and other leading activists orchestrate the civil rights movement.

The late activist C. DeLores Tucker once called Height an icon to all African-American women.

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"I call Rosa Parks the mother of the civil rights movement," Tucker said in 1997. "Dorothy Height is the queen."

Height was on the platform at the Lincoln Memorial, sitting only a few feet from King when he gave his famous "I have a dream" speech at the March on Washington in 1963.

"He spoke longer than he was supposed to speak," Height recalled in a 1997 Associated Press interview. But after he was done, it was clear King's speech would echo for generations, she said, "because it gripped everybody."

Height became president of the National Council of Negro Women in 1957 and held the post until 1997, when she was 85. She remained chairman of the group.

"I hope not to work this hard all the rest of my life," she said at the time. "But whether it is the council, whether it is somewhere else, for the rest of my life, I will be working for equality, for justice, to eliminate racism, to build a better life for our families and our children."

Height received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1994 from President Bill Clinton.

To celebrate Height's 90th birthday in March 2002, friends and supporters raised $5 million to enable her organization to pay off the mortgage on its Washington headquarters. The donors included Oprah Winfrey and Don King.

Height was born in Richmond, Va., and the family moved to the Pittsburgh area when she was four. She earned bachelor's and master's degrees from New York University and did postgraduate work at Columbia University and the New York School of Social Work. (She had been turned away by Barnard College because it already had its quota of two black women.)

In 1937, while she was working at the Harlem YWCA, Height met famed educator Mary McLeod Bethune, the founder of the National Council of Negro Women, and first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, who had come to speak at a meeting of Bethune's organization. Height eventually rose to leadership roles in both the council and the YWCA.

One of Height's sayings was, "If the time is not ripe, we have to ripen the time." She liked to quote 19th century abolitionist Frederick Douglass, who said that the three effective ways to fight for justice are to "agitate, agitate, agitate."

**CoCoa Mahogany** · 04-20-2010, 08:32 AM

I got this email from my chapter president early this morning...

Good Morning Sorors,
*
I regret to inform you that*our
10th National President, Soror Dorothy Irene Height, died this morning at 3:41 a.m. at the age of 98.* Rest In Peace Soror Height!*
Pray for her family and all of our sorors.**

**Long Island Head** · 04-20-2010, 09:04 AM

RIP Mrs Height's a true crusader for racial justice.

God Bless You for all you've done...

**VEESTER** · 04-20-2010, 09:27 AM

O' no!!! Simply lengendary! R.I.P.

**Mike Barnes** · 04-20-2010, 09:29 AM

I'm very sorry to hear about the passing of Dorthy Height(Who once attended a Hiphop/ Black History Lecture at CCNY(City College in Harlem) In New York in 1991, Featuring, Bobby Seale, Dr. Leonard Jeffries, Dr.Naim Akbar, Maulana Karanga(Founder of Kwanzza),

Sonia Sanchez, KRS-One, Chuck-D, Sista Soul-Ja, Kool Moe Dee, Dr.Betty Shabazz(Wife of Malcolm X), Doug Fresh, Daddy-O and Delight(Stetasonic), Kwame Ture(Stockley Carmichael/Rip), Kathleen Cleaver(Former Wife of Eldgridge Cleaver from the Panthers,

During the 60's/70's), Ms.Melodie, Etc, Dorothy Height, Was asked to speak by Dr. Leonard Jeffries, But, Dorothy Height, Declined not to speak, But, To listen and observe the message, Of community activism and black history, That all of the speakers were alluding too, Through-out the lecture, Dr. Height was a fearless young lady, With a very warm heart for human decency for all.

Much Respect
Mike Barnes