[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 5814]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




         HONORING THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF DR. DOROTHY I. HEIGHT

  (Mr. COHEN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, today America mourns the loss of Dr. 
Dorothy Height, a civil rights pioneer, Presidential adviser, and 
woman's rights activist. For many years, this Freedom Fighter served as 
president of the National Council of Negro Women, the Young Women's 
Christian Association, and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated.
  Dr. Height was the backbone of the civil rights movement and worked 
alongside Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Whitney Young, A. Phillip 
Randolph, Roy Wilkins, and our own John Lewis. During the March on 
Washington, she was the only African American woman on the speaker's 
platform during Dr. King's historic ``I Have a Dream'' speech.
  In 1994, President Clinton awarded Dr. Height the Presidential Medal 
of Freedom for her selfless service to others. In 1995, in my hometown 
of Memphis, Tennessee, she received the National Civil Rights Museum's 
Freedom Award. In 2004, President Bush presented her with the 
Congressional Gold Medal. During Dr. Height's lifetime, the freedom 
gates were half ajar, yet she fought to open them full and wide for 
everybody.
  Our Nation mourns the loss of a great woman, a great African American 
leader, a great civil rights leader. Hers was a life well lived.

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