Posted
on March 24, 2015
If
you had to list the biggest names in the Civil Rights movement, who
would you name?
You'd
probably name Martin Luther King, Jr., and Rosa Parks. You might list
James Farmer and John Lewis. You probably wouldn't mention today's
famous birthday...
But
according to James Farmer, you should!
Farmer
claims that Dorothy Height was one of the six top movers-and-shakers
in the Civil Rights movement. She was left off of most people's “Big
Six” lists, he said, because she was a woman.
Born
on this date in 1912, in Virginia, Height received a scholarship to
attend college and was formally admitted to Barnard College. But when
she arrived at college, ready to register for classes, she was turned
away. Apparently there was an unwritten rule that the college only
admitted two black students per year, and those token spots were
already filled!
Height
still managed to get a college education elsewhere and began to work
as a caseworker for the New York City Welfare Department.
Height
was a joiner, a fighter, an activist. She was an active member of a
sorority, and she used the organization to create leadership training
programs for women (especially focusing on African American women).
She joined the national staff of the YWCA, and she joined the
National Council of Negro Women; she helped create the organization
called the Council for United Civil Rights Leadership and the
African-American Women for Reproductive Freedom.
Height
also organized “Wednesdays in Mississippi” – a program with
which well-connected, educated white and black women who live in the
north would leave for Mississippi on Tuesday and return to the north
on Thursday. All day Wednesday, they would meet with southern white
and black women—there would be discussions and workshops and
projects.
Wednesdays
in Mississippi was an attempt to build bridges between races, between
classes, between different regional and societal groups. Apparently,
it worked very well to increase connection and understanding and to
help motivate people for social and racial justice!
 |
| In addition to being an administrator and writer, Dorothy Height was an educator. |
 |
| Dorothy Height was known for her hats!! |
Even
though Dorothy Height is left out of many discussions about the Civil
Rights movement, she did meet with and influence leaders such as
First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and Presidents Eisenhower and Johnson.
She wrote a newspaper column, she served on committees and
commissions, and she won honors such as the Presidential Medal of
Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal. Her memoirs were turned
into a musical stage play called If This Hat Could Talk.
Height was even awarded a “Google Doodle” last year!
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