First Person Singular by Wendy Braitman

filed in Single Women's Hall of Fame

The Glorious Dorothy Height, 1912-2010

April 20, 2010 ⋅  Email This Post ⋅  Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment

Dorothy Height (with one of her signature hats in the photo above) met Martin Luther King when he was 15. She was impressed that King had already thought seriously about his future, and how he might contribute. I am trying to imagine what it was like for Dorothy Height, born in 1912, to dream of what her future as an African American woman would bring. She won an oratory contest in high school, with the prize of a four-year college scholarship. After getting accepted into Barnard, she was told by the Dean, right before classes began, that they had already reached their quota of two Negro students. Height went on to a B.A. and Masters degree from NYU, and from there, had an influential career, as an executive at the YWCA and for 40 years, as President of the National Council of Negro Women. Along with Gloria Steinem, Shirley Chisholm and Betty Friedan, Height helped found the National Women’s Political Caucus in 1971. She met with every President since Roosevelt, and upon hearing of her death at 98, Obama hailed her as the godmother of the civil rights movement, who witnessed “every march and milestone along the way.”

Photo: Martin Luther King, delivering his, “I have a dream” speech, August, 1963, Washington D.C.

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