[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 96 (Wednesday, July 11, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1306-E1307]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  IN HONOR OF DR. DOROTHY IRENE HEIGHT

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. STENY H. HOYER

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, July 11, 2001

  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, on July 17, the University System of Maryland 
Board of Regents will honor civil rights pioneer Dorothy Irene Height 
with the sixth annual USM Regents' Frederick Douglass Award.
  Dr. Height, chair and president emerita of the National Council of 
Negro Women (NCNW) in Washington, D.C., is a legendary figure in the 
civil rights movement. In 1989, President Reagan acknowledged her 
achievements by presenting her with the Citizens Medal Award. In 1993, 
the NAACP awarded her its prestigious Spingarn Medal. That was followed 
by the Presidential Medal of Freedom Award, bestowed by President 
Clinton in 1994. Last August, a feature story on Dr. Height in the 
Cincinnati Enquirer declared that every president since Eisenhower has 
called on her for advice. In their book, The African American Century, 
Cornel West and Henry Louis Gates, Jr., cited her as one of the 100 
most influential African-Americans of the 20th century.
  Dr. Height was born in Richmond, Virginia, in 1912, but grew up near 
Pittsburgh in a household where volunteerism prevailed. In those days, 
blacks from the southern states were migrating north to jobs in the 
steel mills. Height's mother and father, a nurse and building 
contractor respectively, helped these families settle in, thus 
instilling in her a sense of responsibility and integrity. Dr. Height 
earned both bachelor's and master's degrees in educational psychology 
from New York University in four years and graduated in 1933--the 
height of the Depression. She then turned her attention to social work 
in New York City, later working for the Young Women's Christian 
Association (YWCA). During those years, she also was active in 
community service and religion, and eventually became one of the first 
leaders of the United Christian Youth Movement.
  From her position in the church and at the YWCA in Harlem, she 
spanned caps between the city's impoverished ethnic groups and the 
government, spotlighting the plight of unemployed domestic workers for 
national figures such as Eleanor Roosevelt and Langston Hughes.
  Dr. Height's successes did not escape notice by the leadership of the 
NCNW. In 1937, she was approached to conduct committee work for the 
organization, an affiliation of civic, education, labor, community, 
church, and professional institutions headquartered in Washington. By 
1957, she was its president. Under the guidance of educator and NCNW 
founder Mary McLeod Bethune, she organized voter registration drives in 
the South, testified repeatedly before Congress on social issues, and 
worked tirelessly on the more mundane tasks of the civil rights 
movement, such as jobs programs and food drives. She became an 
international leader in the
  Dr. Height, who has been called the ``grande dame'' of the civil 
rights movement, has served in the leadership of dozens of 
organizations devoted to social change, most notably as president of 
Delta Sigma Theta sorority from 1947 to 1956. In 1986, she founded and 
organized the Black Family Reunion Celebration, a national coming 
together of African-American families designed to promote historic 
strengths and traditional values.
  The Frederick Douglass Award will be presented to Dr. Height at 
Westminster Hall, in Baltimore, adjacent to the University of Maryland 
School of Law. Those in attendance will include Maryland Governor 
Parris N. Glendening, USM Board of Regents Chairman Nathan A. Chapman, 
Leronia A. Josey, member of the USM Board of Regents, Thelma T. Daley, 
past national president of Delta Sigma Theta sorority, and USM 
Chancellor Donald N. Langenberg. Frederick Douglass IV, professor at 
Morgan State University and a direct descendent of Douglass, will 
provide a dramatic reading from the latter's work. David J. Ramsay, 
president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore, will welcome the 
audience.

[[Page E1307]]

  The Frederick Douglass Award was established in 1995 by the USM Board 
of Regents to honor individuals ``who have displayed an extraordinary 
and active commitment to the ideals of freedom, equality, justice, and 
opportunity exemplified in the life of Frederick Douglass.'' Previous 
recipients include the Honorable Parren J. Mitchell, a member of 
Congress for the 7th District of Maryland (1996); Benjamin Quarles, 
scholar at Morgan State University (1997, posthumously); Samuel Lacy, 
Jr., sports writer for the Baltimore Afro-American (1998); the Hon. 
Kweisi Mfume, president of the National Association for the Advancement 
of Colored People (1999); and Beatrice ``Bea'' Gaddy, advocate for the 
poor and homeless and a member of the Baltimore City Council (2000).
  Statesman, publisher and abolitionist Frederick Douglass was the 
leading spokesman of American blacks in the 1800s. Born a slave in 1817 
in Tuckahoe, MD, he devoted his life to the abolition of slavery and 
the fight for black rights. Douglass's name at birth was Frederick 
Augustus Washington Bailey, but he changed it when he fled from his 
master in Baltimore in 1838. He ended up in New Bedford, Mass., where 
he attempted to ply his trade as a ship caulker, but settled for 
collecting garbage and digging cellars. In 1841, at a meeting of the 
Massachusetts Antislavery Society, Douglass delivered a lecture on 
freedom that so impressed the society that it hired him to talk 
publicly about his experiences as a slave. He then began a series of 
protests against segregation, and published his autobiography, 
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, in 1845.
  Mr. Speaker, I know the Members of the House take great pride in 
joining me in congratulating Dr. Dorothy Irene Height on this very 
special day for her lifelong work. She is truly deserving of the 
Frederick Douglass Award and I rise to congratulate her on this 
esteemed award.

                          ____________________