[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 47 (Wednesday, March 24, 1999)]
[House]
[Pages H1672-H1673]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    TRIBUTE TO DOROTHY IRENE HEIGHT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton) is recognized 
for 5 minutes.
  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, in light of this being Women's History 
Month, the Congresswoman from California (Ms. Lee) will be on the floor 
later this evening on a special order on women of color.
  Because of a prior commitment, I will not be here at that time. But I 
would like to use a few minutes to offer a few words concerning a great 
woman of color of this century, Dorothy Irene Height, President and CEO 
Emeritus of the National Council of Negro Women.
  Dorothy Height has spent half a century of ground-breaking service to 
her country to African American women. She is one of the great civil 
rights and women's rights leaders of our time. And I emphasize both of 
those great missions in speaking about Dr. Height.

[[Page H1673]]

  Today is Dr. Dorothy Irene Height's 87th birthday. Mentored by her 
predecessor, the great Mary McLeod Bethune, Dorothy Height has spent a 
lifetime mentoring black women.
  Today was no leisure day for Dorothy Height. As the day began, she 
was here in this House protesting the majority's census proposal that 
knowingly undercounts children and people of color. Dorothy Height has 
spent a lifetime keeping on top of issues of the day like the census.
  There are so many landmarks in her extraordinary career, I will not 
attempt to list them. Let me name a few of the great ones. She is the 
first national female civil rights leader of the modern era. That was 
clear when 10 civil right leaders got together in 1963 and decided that 
there would be the first mass march on Washington for civil rights of 
the 20th century.
  There were 10 leaders. Only one of them was a woman. My colleagues 
can imagine who the others were, leaders like the heads of the NAACP 
and Urban League. And there was that one great woman, Dorothy Height, 
the President of the National Council of Negro Women.
  To cite another landmark, when women's rights burst on the scene, Mr. 
Speaker, Dorothy Height was one of the first leaders to understand that 
there must be no cleavage between women's rights and African American 
rights, between race and sex.
  Inevitably there was some confusion about how blacks were to see this 
great new movement of half of the population. It took real leadership 
to come forward and clear up this confusion. Dorothy Height was among 
the foremost who forged unity. She even helped to make good feminists 
out of black men, who have ever since been in the forefront of women's 
rights.
  All the while she has been carrying the great domestic issues of our 
time, Dorothy Height has carried an international portfolio. She indeed 
is recognized today as a world leader on matters of women of color.
  I come to the floor this evening to salute Dorothy Irene Height, who 
has made the National Council of Negro Women one of America's great 
coalitions. Black women's groups of every variety are united under the 
umbrella of the Council. Together they work to improve the lives of 
African American women.
  In celebrating women of color this evening, we would do well to begin 
with the life and times and work of Dorothy Irene Height.

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