Black History Month: Dorothy I. Height

Good Tuesday morning, good pilgrims on the way of the remains of The Epiphany Season. Facebook continues to treat me like some heinous criminal. I have been placed in a solitary dungeon without light or heat, denied food or water. Apparently, I've been "scrubbed" from its pages - not just my FB page but all shared posts and even my comments on other people's pages.

Never mind. I have my trusty old blog and today I get some help to start my Substack Column. Stay tuned. I do miss reading your posts on your Facebook pages, but I continue to file 5 appeals per day on "report a problem" to Instagram (I just follow directions). Let's hope this is settled soon.

Meanwhile do NOT respond to any "friend" requests from me. Well done, then. Onward.

Today, I want to lift up and celebrate and call the name of one of the saints who now dwells in Light Eternal, having been a bright light for justice and equality while here on earth.

Dorothy Irene Height was born on March 24^th, 1912 in Richmond, Virginia, the daughter of a building contractor and a nurse. She grew up in Rankin, Pennsylvania where she attended racially integrated schools. During and after college, she lived and worked in New York City.

She would grow to become a leader and an activist, hailed as "the godmother of the Civil Rights Movement," and one of the few women to have a seat on the speaker stage at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

An excellent student, Ms. Dorothy won a full scholarship to college. In 1929, she was admitted to Barnard College but was not allowed to attend because the school said it had "already met its quota" for African Americans. Instead, Height went on to graduate from New York University where she received a bachelor’s in education and master’s in psychology.

Her first job was as a social worker in Harlem, New York. She later joined the staff of the Harlem Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA). In no time, Height became a leader in the local organization. She created diverse programs and pushed the organization to integrate YWCA facilities nationwide in 1946.

Those who are inspirations have often been inspired by others. And so it was that, during a chance encounter with renowned Black educator and consultant to President FD Roosevelt,  Mary McLeod Bethune, that she was inspired to begin working with the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW).

Through the NCNW, Height focused on ending the lynching of African Americans and restructuring the criminal justice system. In 1957, she became the fourth president of the NCNW. Under her leadership, the NCNW supported voter registration in the South. The NCNW also financially aided several civil rights activists throughout the country. Height was president of NCNW for 40 years.

Ms. Dorothy's oratory and organizational skills were legendary in the Civil Rights Movement. Indeed, her advice and counse were sought after by Eleanor Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Lyndon B. Johnson.

She was an integral part of the organizing team with Bayard Rustin to bring the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom from dream to reality, serving as one of "The Big Six" organizers. Anna Arnold Hedgeman of the National Council of Churches was the lone woman to serve on the event's administrative committee.

However, neither woman was invited to speak, despite Ms. Dorothy's skills as a speaker and a leader. In fact, originally no women were included on the program at all. Ms. Dorothy and Ms. Anna were persistent and, eventually, the men were persuaded to allow Myrlie Evers to speak during the program and present the other women to be honored during the “Tribute to Negro Women Fighters for Freedom.”

Ultimately, many other women were included on the speakers list, including actresses and activists Ruby Dee, Lena Horne, and Josephine Baker, along with Rosa Parks and Daisy Bates, NAACP chapter president and an advisor to the Little Rock Nine.

Thanks to Ms. Dorothy and Ms. Anna, the honored women included Parks, Bates, Evers, Diane Nash, Elvira Turner, widow of assassinated NAACP activist Herbert Lee; and Gloria Richardson, cofounder of the Cambridge Nonviolent Action Committee.

Ironically and sadly, due to traffic delays en route from the airport, Ms. Evers missed her speaking slot and never made it to the stage.

The morning after The March, Ms. Dorothy assembled female leaders at a meeting called “After the March—What?” to discuss lessons learned from the event and plot their course forward. At the meeting, lawyer Pauli Murray delivered remarks criticizing the exclusion of women from the Lincoln Memorial program.

The group reached a consensus that future activism needed to focus on both gender and racial equality, heightening momentum for the women’s empowerment movement to come.

Ms. Dorothy later wrote that the March on Washington event had been an eye-opening experience for her. Her male counterparts "were happy to include women in the human family, but there was no question as to who headed the household," she wrote. Height joined in the fight for women's rights. In 1971, she helped found the National Women's Political Caucus with Gloria Steinem, Betty Friedan and Shirley Chisholm.

In 1994, President Bill Clinton awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 2004, President George W. Bush gave her the Congressional Gold Medal. She later befriended the first African American president of the United States, Barack Obama, who called her "the godmother of the civil rights movement."

Dorothy Height died in Washington, D.C., on April 20, 2010. She was 98 years old. Appropriately, her funeral was held at the Washington National Cathedral.

I confess that I did not know much of anything about Ms. Dorothy until I started doing my own research and investigation about some of the Bright Lights of women in the Black Community. That is not a reflection on the goodness or effectiveness of the work of Ms. Dorothy but the fact that, as one of my elementary teachers used to say, my "education has been sadly neglected."

I'm trying to change that, at least for myself. Black History Month is a wonderful opportunity to learn that Black History is American History which connects us to the many injustices that have been done to people of color and ethnicity, women and gender identity, sexual orientation, and class or economic status - and all in "the land of the free and the home of the brave."

As Ms. Dorothy Height was inspired by Ms. Mary McLeod Bethune, may we be inspirations for each other to bring an end to all prejudice and discrimination in any form, by anybody, anytime, anywhere.

I hope something good happens to you today.

Bom dia.