Funeral Services Set for Dorothy I. Height

WASHINGTON — For more than a half-century, women and people of color have had a fighter for human rights, a leader for equality and a crusader for a better world.

You can find a picture of this warrior in the National Women's Hall of Fame tucked among the likes of Clara Barton, Susan B. Anthony and Sojourner Truth.

Dorothy Irene Height, who dedicated her life to education and social activism, died of natural causes at 3:41 a.m. Tuesday at Howard University Hospital in Washington. Services will be held Tuesday through Thursday in Washington.

Height, 98, who continued to work until her hospitalization last month, was chair and president emerita of the National Council for Negro Women (NCNW) and chair of  the executive committee of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights.

"She has always said her life is a life characterized by service," Alexis M. Herman, Height's confidante and former U.S. Secretary of Labor, told the Howard University News Service. "She is the ultimate statement of what it means to be a public servant. She's given back, she's always given herself to worthy causes. Always."

Height has encouraged political figures such as First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, President Dwight Eisenhower and President Lyndon B. Johnson to create legislation and promote acts that benefited women and African Americans. And she has had the ear of every president since then.

"We advanced in so many ways, but at the same time the poorest seem to be poorer, and the poverty among us seems to be entrenched," Height said. "However, I am always an optimist, because I have an abiding faith. I believe that somehow the right will prevail. We have to keep working. Justice is not impossible. We can achieve it."

With the advancements of her people, Height reveled in how far African Americans have come.

"In my lifetime, I have witnessed the evolution of desegregation, the spread of civil rights and the rise of possibilities for people regardless of race and sex," Height said. "I have also recently witnessed the passage of our health-care bill, something people of all different races and genders can applaud."

Herman, who is overseeing the funeral arrangements, said that services for her mentor are as follows:

• Height will liie in repose for a public viewing from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesday at the NCNW Dorothy I. Height building at 633 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W.

• Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., will conduct a public Omega Omega Service at 2 p.m. Wednesday in the Burr Gymnasium at Howard University. Height served as national president of the sorority in 1947.
• A public "Community Celebration of Life" memorial will begin at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Shiloh Baptist Church, 1500 Ninth St. at P Street.
• The funeral service, which is open to the public, will begin at 10 a.m. at Washington National Cathedral at Massachusetts and Wisconsin Avenues Northwest. The burial service will follow at Fort Lincoln Cemetery in Brentwood, Md.

A Gifted Student and Speaker

Born on March 24, 1912, in Richmond, Va., and reared in Rankin, Pa., Height was a gifted student, winning a $1,000 scholarship after excelling in a national oratorical contest on the U.S. Constitution. Her skills awarded her entry into Barnard College, but upon arrival, Height was denied entrance into the institution. Barnard had a two African Americans-per-academic year limit, and Height would have surpassed the quota.

Instead, Height earned both bachelor's and master's degrees in four years from New York University in educational psychology. Later, she continued her education with post-graduate work at the New York School of Social Work and Columbia University, whose educational system includes Barnard and three other undergraduate schools.