Dorothy Height
Dorothy Irene Height ( born March 24, 1912 in Richmond, Virginia, † April 20, 2010 in Washington DC) was an American politician, civil rights activist and social worker.
Family and Education
Height was born as the daughter of James Edward Heights, a building contractor, and Fannie ( Burroughs ) Height, a nurse. Height grew up in Rankin, Pennsylvania, on a steel collar town in the suburbs of Pittsburgh. In 1929, she was admitted to study at Barnard College, Columbia University, but could not begin studies because in each academic year, the university took only two black students and these places already other candidates had been allocated. Instead Height studied at New York University, where she made her bachelor's degree in 1932 and 1933, a Master's Degree in Developmental Psychology (Educational Psychology) earned.
Career
Height began her career as a social worker and a social worker at the New York City Welfare Department. In 1933 she became director of the United Christian Youth Movement of North America. During this time you began permanent, professional fighting for the rights of African Americans in the United States. She fought against the lynching of blacks and argued for desegregation in the U.S. armed forces. She made nationwide travel, in which they exhorted the representatives of local administrative units, allowing mixed-race ( interracial ) residential area. Height was thus one of the first civil rights activists who stood up against racial segregation, were in a time when racial segregation and discrimination on the agenda and there was strong resistance to the integration of blacks. 1935 Height engaged in ending the race riots, the so-called Harlem Riots, in New York's Harlem. 1937 - Height was Deputy at that time leader of the Young Women's Christian Association in Harlem - it was shared with Mary McLeod Bethune, the founder and president of the National Council of Negro Women ( NCNW ), entrusted by Eleanor Roosevelt in order to organize a youth conference. Height subsequently became a member of NCNW and supported McLeod Bethune in their struggle for women's rights, especially for the equivalent pay and the right of women to education and training. Later, from 1957 to 1998, Height conducted himself as president of the National Council of Negro Women.
At the height of the civil rights movement in the 1960s, organized Height legendary Wednesdays in Mississippi, where American women of different skin color, race and religion from the North America in Mississippi met with attitude comrades from the south to be in a community dialogue for the lifting racial barriers, advocate for social justice, for the professional advancement of women and the establishment of Freedom Schools. In 1963, she was the only woman to win a place on the speaker stands, when Martin Luther King made his famous speech I Have a Dream. Although women in the protest rally March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom were not intended as speakers, had their placement in the stands symbolic importance as the Height and the women had often provided the impetus for events within the civil rights movement and the nucleus of the protest were.
From 1944-1977 Height worked at the national level in various management positions at the Young Women's Christian Association. From 1952 to 1955 she was a member of the U.S. Department of Defense Advisory Committee on Women. From 1958 to 1968 she was a member of the New York State Welfare Board. In 1965, the Center for Racial Justice Height; 1965-1977 she was the President. 1970 Height called the Women's Center for Education and Career Advancement in New York City to life, support an organization that women in the search for an entry-level job.
Height was politically active into old age. In October 1997, she participated in Philadelphia 's Million Woman March. In 2008, she spoke at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. On 20 January 2009 she was among guests of honor at the inauguration of U.S. President Barack Obama. In September 2009 she visited, like every year, the National Black Family Reunion on the National Mall in Washington, DC occurred.
Height died at Howard University Hospital in Washington DC of old age. U.S. President Barack Obama praised Height as " a pioneer of the civil rights movement and heroine of many Americans. " The funeral ceremony took place on 29 April 2010 in the Washington National Cathedral in part. U.S. President Barack Obama was on this day, all flags set at half-mast. He took part together with his wife Michelle Obama Heights funeral.
Awards
Height received the highest honors and Order of the Government of the United States of America for their political, social and social action: In 1989, she received the Four Freedoms Award for Freedom from want and Presidential Citizens Medal in 1993, the second highest U.S. civilian award. It was also included in the American National Women 's Hall of Fame in 1993. In 1994 she was awarded by U.S. President Bill Clinton, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest U.S. citizen award. In 2003 she was awarded by U.S. President George W. Bush, the Congressional Gold Medal, which they officially opposed, in 2004. In 1980 she also received the Barnard Medal of Distinction, the highest award of the Barnard College, which had once denied her admission to the course.