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Civil Rights Icon Dorothy Height Passes At 98
Props to Essence.com

Civil rights icon Dorothy Height died this morn­ing at Howard Uni­ver­sity Hos­pi­tal. No reports on the cause of her death have been released. She was 98.

The pas­sion­ate activist was on the podium when Dr. Mar­tin Luther King, Jr., deliv­ered his “I Have a Dream,” speech at the March on Wash­ing­ton in 1963. Height was the pres­i­dent of the National Coun­cil of Negro Women (NCNW) in 1957 until 1997. She still remained chair­man of the organization.

Born in Rich­mond, Vir­ginia, Dr. Height earned a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree from New York Uni­ver­sity and did post-graduate work at Colum­bia Uni­ver­sity and New York School of Social Work. In 1994, Pres­i­dent Bill Clin­ton pre­sented her with the Pres­i­den­tial Medal of Free­dom award. This morn­ing, Pres­i­dent Barack Obama released a state­ment, in which he called Height “the god­mother of the Civil Rights Move­ment and a hero to so many Americans.”

Pres­i­dent Barack Obama’s offi­cial state­ment:
“Michelle and I were deeply sad­dened to hear about the pass­ing of Dorothy Height–the god­mother of the Civil Rights Move­ment and a hero to so many Amer­i­cans. Ever since she was denied entrance to col­lege because the incom­ing class had already met its quota of two African Amer­i­can women, Dr. Height devoted her life to those strug­gling for equal­ity. She led the National Coun­cil of Negro Women for 40 years, and served as the only woman at the high­est level of the Civil Rights Movement–witnessing every march and mile­stone along the way. And even in the final weeks of her life–a time when any­one else would have enjoyed their well-earned rest–Dr. Height con­tin­ued her fight to make our nation a more open and inclu­sive place for peo­ple of every race, gen­der, back­ground and faith.

“Michelle and I offer our con­do­lences to all those who knew and loved Dr. Height–and all those whose lives she touched.”

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