Ensuring Quality Education & Quality Living Conditions for African Americans... Dorothy Height [1912 - ]

THROUGH HER LECTURES and fund-raising for political and social groups, including the great civic organization she nurtured-the National Council of Negro Women-Dorothy Height was still a living example of consistency and commitment well into the nineteen nineties. In the time-honored tradition of passing along experience and knowledge to those who follow, Dorothy has been a valuable role model to hundreds of young black American women. It has been a long but worthwhile journey for the little girl who started her life in the cradle of the Confederacy.

On March 24, 1912, Dorothy Height was born in Richmond, Virginia. Her father and mother moved their thriving family to Rankin, Pennsylvania, when Dorothy was not yet five years old. They wanted their bright daughter to attend public schools that were integrated and in the abolitionist stronghold rural Dutch Country, they were able to send Dorothy to well-funded schools. Dorothy excelled at her studies and was graduated from high school with outstanding grades. She decided to apply to colleges outside of the agrarian solitude of small town Pennsylvania.

Dorothy was accepted at Barnard College, a prestigious women’s school in New York with a worldwide reputation for excellence in liberal studies. She was thrilled at the prospect, but it was not to be. A racially discriminatory admissions rule prevented her from attending Barnard. Despite her great grades and test scores, she was not admitted for the fall semester because of a cruel quota system: only two blacks could be granted admission in a semester. It was prime reason why Dorothy would turn to fighting racial discrimination for years thereafter.

Dorothy was disappointed but undaunted. On the cusp of adulthood, she was determined to get a good education from one of the top notch universities in Northeast. She applied to and was accepted at New York University immediately. There she distinguished herself as a dedicated student. Over the next several years, she earned an undergraduate degree and a master’s degree before heading out into the world of TEACHING.

By the late thirties Dorothy had become a familiar face in the civic clubs and educational coalitions in New York. She taught classes at the Brownsville Community Center in Brooklyn, and served on boards and committees for a diverse group of organizations. During a youth award ceremony at the YWCA in Washington, D.C., Dorothy had an opportunity to spend some time with an older black woman she greatly admired-MARY MCLEOD BETHUNE.

Like Bethune, Dorothy had decided to devote her life’s work to bettering the EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES and LIVING CONDITIONS of masses of disenfranchised African Americans... Through her work with the Council for the United Civil Rights Leadership and on a welfare committee of the U.S. Department of Health during the fifties and sixties, Dorothy played a vital role in lobbying for passage of new LAWS and REGULATIONS to erase the long years of inequitable treatment of black Americans... From her years of working with children, Dorothy had seen the myriad ways racial discrimination in jobs and education had wreaked havoc on black Americans, from low self esteem to dependency of government agencies to an array of devastating pathologies. She advanced the idea of helping reacquaint black Americans with their proud heritage. Called the BLACK FAMILY REUNION CELEBRATION, Dorothy’s simple but powerful plans was to encourage millions of black Americans to have family reunions more frequently. Through her grass roots connections in universities and in the National Council of Negro Women and the United Nations Department of Information, Dorothy led a renewed charge among blacks nationwide.

Within ten years, an estimated six million blacks had responded by holding family reunions of their own. From the sun-baked expanse of Fresno, California, to the rolling hills of Virginia, thousands of black families gather each year to honor their pasts and plan for productive futures. Thanks to Dorothy and other BLACK WOMEN who have DEVOTED their lives TO CIVIC CAUSES and improving educational opportunity, the ENTIRE NATION CAME TO BENEFIT.

Dorothy is a key reason for the growing public awareness of the IMPORTANCE of BLACK WOMEN’S CONTRIBUTION through United States history.

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Excerpts from “Fifty Black Women Who Changed America”

Alexander, Amy “Fifty Black Women Who Changed America” New Jersey: Birch Lane Press, 1999:105