[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 6567]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    A TRIBUTE TO DR. DOROTHY HEIGHT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Davis) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Madam Speaker, I take this opportunity to pay 
tribute to one of the most accomplished, most engaged, and most 
effective social workers that this country has ever known, Dr. Dorothy 
Height. Following in the footsteps and tradition of Mary McLeod 
Bethune, Dr. Height became renowned for her dedication to social 
justice in her roles as administrator, educator, and social activist.
  Dr. Height was born in 1912, the same year as my father, and, 
therefore, experienced and endured all of the social characteristics of 
her childhood era. Nevertheless, she attended college at New York 
University and did postgraduate work at Columbia University and the New 
York School of Social Work. Working as a social worker, Dr. Height came 
into contact with the problems and conditions of the average citizen or 
common man. These experiences and understandings guided her thinking, 
ignited her passions, and kept her going until just a few days ago.
  Dr. Height joined the National Council of Negro Women and became its 
voice and leader. She served as the national president of Delta Sigma 
Theta, Inc. for 11 years and was the only woman engaged in leadership 
of the United Civil Rights Organization with Dr. Martin Luther King, 
Jr., Whitney Young, Jr., A. Phillip Randolph, James Farmer, Roy 
Wilkins, and John Lewis. When the movement subsided, Dr. Height's work 
continued.
  She was energetic, went everywhere and to everything. She developed 
women by serving as their mentor and friend. The women that I know and 
worked with in Chicago are Ms. Rosie Bean and Ms. Anetta Wilson, both 
of whom are always willing to call themselves disciples of Dr. Dorothy 
Height.
  Dr. Height was an incredible, unbelievably committed and dedicated 
woman whose life was the true essence of living. And I think that the 
poet Sam Walter Foss may have had Dr. Dorothy Height in mind when he 
penned, ``House by the Side of the Road.''
  ``There are hermit souls that live withdrawn, in the place of their 
self-content. There are souls like stars that dwell apart, in a 
fellowless firmament. There are pioneer souls that blaze the paths, 
where highways never ran. But let me live by the side of the road and 
be a friend to man.
  ``Let me live in a house by the side of the road, where the race of 
men go by. The men who are good and the men who are bad, as good and as 
bad as I. I would not sit in the scorner's seat, nor hurl the cynic's 
ban. Let me live in a house by the side of the road and be a friend to 
man.
  ``I see from my house by the side of the road, by the side of the 
highway of life, the men who press with the ardor of hope, the men who 
faint with the strife. But I turn not away from their smiles and tears, 
both parts of an infinite plan. Let me live in a house by the side of 
the road and be a friend to man.
  ``I know there are brook-gladdened meadows ahead, and mountains of 
wearisome height; that the road passes on through the long afternoon, 
and stretches away to the night. And still I rejoice when the travelers 
rejoice, and weep with the strangers that moan, nor live in my house by 
the side of the road, like a man who dwells alone.
  ``Let me live in my house by the side of the road, where the race of 
men go by. They are good, they are bad, they are weak, they are strong, 
wise, foolish; so am I. Then why should I sit in the scorner's seat, or 
hurl the cynic's ban? Let me live in my house by the side of the 
road''--like Dr. Dorothy Height--``and be a friend to man.''

                          ____________________