For
half a century, Dorothy Height was a leader in the struggle for
civil rights, women's rights and ending hunger and poverty in
America. As the president of the National Council of Negro Women
from 1957 to 1998, she helped direct civil rights and community-building
events and activities involving four million women. She was also
National President of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority for a decade,
and was active in its leadership and interracial programs throughout
her life. Over the years, her advice and counsel on racial issues
was sought by leaders like First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt, and
she helped influence President Dwight D. Eisenhower's efforts
to desegregate schools and Lyndon Johnson's appointment of African
American women to governmental positions. Dorothy Height received
the nation's highest honors, the Presidential Medal of Freedom
in 1994, and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2003. She remained
active in her dedication to a better world, chairing the Leadership
Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the largest umbrella group
of civil rights organizations, until her death at 98. She had
an honored seat on the stage when President Barack Obama was inaugurated
in 2009, and when she died the next year, President Obama ordered
flags to be flown at half-mast.
