[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 59 (Monday, April 26, 2010)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E645-E646]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            CELEBRATING THE LIFE OF DR. DOROTHY IRENE HEIGHT

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                           HON. RUSH D. HOLT

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, April 21, 2010

  Mr. HOLT. Madam Speaker, I rise today to support the resolution 
commemorating and celebrating the life of Dorothy Height, a woman of 
petite stature but enormous presence, and the only woman included among 
the ``Big Six'' most renowned civil rights leaders: the Reverend Dr. 
Martin Luther King, Jr., James Farmer, our own esteemed colleague John 
Lewis, A. Philip Randolph, Roy Wilkins, Whitney Young, and Dorothy 
Height.
  Dorothy Height exemplified the spirit of democracy like perhaps no 
one else.The daughter of a building contractor, James Edward

[[Page E646]]

Height, and a nurse, Fannie Burroughs Height, she rose to national 
prominence and leadership from humble beginnings. She was prepared to 
lead the charge, even when it meant being a lone figure; she was the 
only woman on the speaker's platform when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 
gave his ``I Have A Dream'' speech. She combated the challenges facing 
African Americans from every angle; in 1936 in New York, she 
participated in a protest against lynchings. She advocated an end to 
segregation in the military, fought for a fairer legal system, and 
worked to end racial restrictions on access to public transportation. 
During the 1950s, she worked on voter registration drives in the South.
  But she also understood the economic underpinnings of the same 
challenges. Following her work to achieve major civil rights victories 
in the 1960s, Height shifted her focus to supporting initiatives aimed 
at eliminating poverty among southern blacks, such as home ownership 
programs and child care centers. Among her more creative efforts, Ms. 
Height instituted a so-called pig bank, through which poor black 
families were provided with a pig of their own, a prize commodity in 
the early 1960s. Despite the violence and dangers of the time, during 
Height's years as a civil rights activist, she never acquired a 
reputation as a radical or militant. She simply steadfastly moved 
forward, seamlessly removing barriers for all who followed.
  In a 2001 interview, Height expressed bittersweet feelings for the 
earlier years of her work, noting that sit-ins and protest marches had 
been replaced by lobbying for legislation. The power and momentum 
behind the struggle for desegregation and voting rights had been 
replaced by the comparative quietude of pursuits for economic 
opportunity, educational equality, and an end to racial profiling. She 
asked where the country would be if the ``vigor placed in fighting 
slavery and in the women's movement had kept pace.''
  Even without that, her accomplishments and awards fill pages. Height 
is perhaps best known for her four decades of work with the National 
Council of Negro Women, the Washington, DC, headquarters of which 
stands just steps from where slaves were once traded in the shadow of 
the U.S. Capitol. She has served as advisor on civil rights matters to 
U.S. Presidents going back to Eisenhower, as well as advising and 
traveling with programs sponsored by the Council to the White House 
Conference, UNESCO, the Institute on Human Relations of the American 
Jewish Committee, USAID, and the United States Information Agency, 
among other organizations. Her unparalleled contributions to the 
advancement of women's rights, civil rights, and human rights have 
earned her dozens of awards including the 1993 NAACP Springarn Medal, a 
Presidential Medal of Freedom Award, presented by Bill Clinton in 1994, 
and a Congressional Gold Medal by President George W. Bush in 2004.
  In addition, during her lifetime of service, Dr. Height has been 
presented with more than three dozen honorary degrees, including 
doctorates from institutions including Tuskegee, Harvard and Princeton 
Universities. But the one that undoubtedly mattered the most was her 
receipt of the equivalent of a bachelor's degree in 2004 from Barnard 
College, 75 years after the College had turned her away because it had 
already enrolled its quota of two African American females that year.
  Dorothy Height was a pillar of the civil rights movement, and will be 
dearly missed by us all. I am deeply saddened at her passing but 
everlastingly uplifted by her life's work.

                          ____________________