29 Facts About Dorothy Height

Dorothy Irene Height was an African American civil rights and women's rights activist.

Dorothy Height focused on the issues of African American women, including unemployment, illiteracy, and voter awareness.

Dorothy Height was the president of the National Council of Negro Women for 40 years.

Dorothy Height was born in Richmond, Virginia, on March 24,1912.

An enthusiastic participant, who was elected president of the club, Dorothy Height was appalled to learn that her race barred her from swimming in the pool at the central YWCA branch.

Dorothy Height was accepted to Barnard College in 1929, but was denied entrance because the school had an unwritten policy of admitting only two black students per year.

Dorothy Height enrolled instead at New York University, earning an undergraduate degree in 1932 and a master's degree in educational psychology the following year.

Dorothy Height pursued further postgraduate work at Columbia University and the New York School of Social Work.

From 1934 to 1937, Dorothy Height worked in the New York City Department of Welfare, an experience she credited with teaching her the skills to deal with conflict without intensifying it.

In 1939, Dorothy Height went to Washington, DC, to be executive of the Phyllis Wheatley Branch of the DC YWCA.

Dorothy Height was an active member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority, throughout her life, developing leadership training programs and ecumenical education programs.

Dorothy Height was initiated at the Rho Chapter at Columbia University, and served as national president of the sorority from 1947 to 1956.

In 1950, Dorothy Height moved to the Training Services department where she focused primarily on professional training for YWCA staff.

Dorothy Height spent the fall of 1952 in India as a visiting professor at the Delhi School of Social Work, then returned to her training work in New York City.

Dorothy Height participated in the Liberia Watch Program and worked within the ranks of leadership in 1955.

Dorothy Height took leave from her position as Associate Director for Training to head this two-year Action Program.

Shortly before she retired from the YWCA in 1977, Dorothy Height was elected as an honorary national board member, a lifetime appointment.

In 1958, Dorothy Height became President of the National Council of Negro Women and remained in that position until 1990.

Dorothy Height acted as an ambassador for the lone women's organization during the event.

Additionally, Dorothy Height developed many international volunteer programs with the NCNW in Asia, Africa, Europe, and South America.

Dorothy Height was the driving force in the campaign to erect a statue in honor of Mary McLeod Bethune in Lincoln Park, Washington, DC The monument was the first statue dedicated to either a woman or an African American person to be erected on federal land.

At the July 1974 unveiling of the Mary McLeod Bethune Memorial, which had an attendance of more than eighteen thousand people, Dorothy Height stated that the statue represented the awakening appreciation for the contributions of racial minorities and women within the United States, which was best represented by a Black woman.

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

Dorothy Height was well known for her hats and hat collection, many of them made by a Black Washington, DC, milliner, Vanilla Beane.

Dorothy Height attended the National Black Family Reunion on the National Mall in Washington, DC, every year until her death in 2010.

Dorothy Height was the chairperson of the Executive Committee of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, an umbrella group of American civil rights interest groups, until her death in 2010.

Dorothy Height was an honored guest at the inauguration of President Barack Obama on January 20,2009, and was seated on the stage.

On March 25,2010, Dorothy Height was admitted to Howard University Hospital in Washington, DC, for unspecified reasons and under protest, because she had pending speaking arrangements.

Dorothy Height died less than four weeks later, on April 20,2010, at the age of 98.