[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Pages 5707-5708]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL TO DOROTHY HEIGHT

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, last week Dr. Dorothy Height was awarded 
the Congressional Gold Medal in a ceremony in the Capital rotunda, on 
her 92nd birthday.
  Dr. Height is a living legend. She is widely recognized as one of the 
preeminent civil rights leaders of modern history. Dr. Height has been 
a tireless advocate for equal rights for women, African Americans, and 
others for more than 65 years. From 1944 and until 1977, Dr. Height 
served on the National Board of the Young Women's Christian Association 
YWCA. In 1965, she launched the Center for Racial Justice at the YWCA, 
and she served as its director until 1977.

[[Page 5708]]

  Currently the Chair and President Emerita of the National Council of 
Negro Women, Dr. Height became its fourth president in 1957. Under her 
leadership, the NCNW made substantial contributions and advances--both 
for the greater community of African American women and as an 
organization. Dr. Height led the NCNW to establish the first 
institution devoted to Black women's history, secure the Mary Bethune 
Council House designation as a national historic sited, achieve tax 
exempt status for the NCNW, and bring the NCNW to national prominence.
  Dr. Height played an active leadership role in virtually every major 
civil and human rights cause since the 1960s. She was the only woman at 
the table when Dr. Martin Luther King and the ``Big Six'' civil rights 
leaders made plans for he civil rights movement. Her life of 
distinguished service has been recognized with over 50 awards, 
including the National Council of Jewish Women's John F. Kennedy 
Memorial Award, the Congressional Black Caucus's William L. Dawson 
Award, the Ladies Home Journal's `Women of Year,'' the Presidential 
Medal of Freedom from President Clinton, and now the Congressional Gold 
Medal.
  It is rare that Congress comes together to grant this award, but Dr. 
Height's life's work epitomizes the distinguished commitment to serve 
for which it was created to recognize. I congratulate Dr. Dorothy 
Height for nearly a century of remarkable leadership.

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