March 24th…Happy birthday to Dorothy Height, a civil rights and women’s rights activist focused on improving the circumstances of and opportunities for African-American women including unemployment, illiteracy, and voter awareness. She was a leader in addressing the rights of both women and African Americans as the president of the National Council of Negro Women for forty years.
Height was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1994, and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2004. These are the two highest honors awarded to an American civilian. She also stood on as Barack Obama was inaugurated in 2009, and Obama called her the “godmother of the civil rights movement” after her death in 2010.
