Civil Rights Leader Dorothy Height Dead at 98
A longtime leader of the U.S. civil rights movement Dorothy Height died today in Washington.
The veteran black civil rights figure, who was also the chairwoman of the National Council of Negro Women, was 98.
Height was a trained social worker and she had started her career in the 1930s as an advocate for civil rights and gender equality. She worked hard to prevent lynching, desegregate the U.S. armed forces and bringing reform in the criminal justice system of the country. Height also campaigned relentlessly for free access to public accommodations in the United States.
Height breathed her last at Howard University Hospital. "Ms. Height was arguably the most influential woman at the top levels of civil rights leadership, but she never drew the major media attention that conferred celebrity and instant recognition on some of the other civil rights leaders of her time," said the Washington Post.
Height was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1994 by then US President Bill Clinton. Height was also bestowed with the Congressional Gold Medal in 2004.
