Remembering Dr. Dorothy Height
By Allida Black on 05/01/2010 @ 08:00 PM
Dr. Dorothy Height was a woman warrior for justice. She knew that democracy is only as strong as its weakest link and hazarded all she to make that link as strong as possible. Mentored by Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune and Eleanor Roosevelt, she not only understood that civil rights are women’s rights but also that women’s civil rights are women’s human rights. While others focused on the right to vote, she helped lead effective campaigns to protect and expand communities – to build quality schools for all children, provide a rich variety of safe jobs at good wages, feed the hungry, and provide shelter for those at risk -- while also jumpstarting a political movement.
News reports have praised her grace and style and faith. All noted she was “the woman” at the table when the men restarted the civil rights movement. Do you think they just put her there? That Dr. King, the NAACP, SNCC and labor just held the door open for her while she walked into the room? She earned that seat at that table. She grasped that door handle firmly in her hand and seated herself at that table. No one held out the chair for her and said, “hey, sister, here’s your seat.”
Dorothy Height’s track record made the men make room for her. They knew what she could do. They watched her organize young people (the Fellowship for Reconciliation), women (the National Council for Negro Women and the YWCA), and elected officials (the National Women’s Political Caucus and the Women’s Division of the DNC). They saw her organize teachers, sorority members, and community leaders – and the saw the enormous respect justice warriors, known and unknown, had for her.
I loved Dr. Height. Not just because she helped me start the Eleanor Roosevelt Project, but also because she always stood up for me and helped me stand up for myself. Before any other noted civil rights leader, she knew that women, lesbian/gay/transgendered people, and people new to America had the same rights as any other Americans – and the same responsibilities to their community. And as founder of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, she made all the other leaders expand their own visions and enlarge their own tents.
She was a giant. A fearless leader. Graceful and shrewd. A woman brave and bold enough to take Mary McLeod Bethune and Eleanor Roosevelt on her shoulders can carry them into the 21st century – while wearing flat-out fabulous hats.
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