Dorothy Irene Height was born in Richmond, Virginia, on March 24, 1912. When Dorothy was 4, the family moved to the mining town of Rankin, Pa., in search of greater opportunity. She joined a Girl Reserve Club in Rankin. She was very active and soon became president of her club. But she was shocked to learn she couldn't swim in the main YWCA pool because she was Black. Even though she argued, the rules didn't change back then. In high school, she began her activism, participating in anti-lynching campaigns of the 1920s. Height excelled in school and assumed leadership positions such as running for student government and teaching music lessons. In her senior year of high school, Height landed a college scholarship in an oratory contest from the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. She winningly spoke on the Constitution's 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments. Dorothy graduated from Rankin High School in 1929.
Dorothy planned to use the scholarship to attend Barnard College in New York City. But she arrived after Barnard had already admitted the two Blacks it accepted per year at the time. So, Dorothy was not allowed to attend. Instead she attended New York University. She earned her undergraduate degree in education from NYU in 1932. In 1933, she earned her master’s degree in educational psychology from the same university. She pursued further postgraduate work at Columbia University and the New York School of Social Work (the predecessor of the Columbia University School of Social Work). Height initially worked for the New York City Welfare Department. Height’s first job was as a caseworker in the New York City Welfare Department.
By 1933, Height was working against lynching and for reforms in the nation’s criminal justice system and for free access to public accommodations. Her civil rights career began in the 1930s protesting discrimination in Harlem. In the late 1930s she began working at the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) and rose to hold a national position in the organization. At the YWCA she brought attention to the conditions of African American domestic workers. In 1937, Height was working with the YWCA in Harlem and was assigned to escort Eleanor Roosevelt into a meeting of the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW). Mary McLeod Bethune noticed Height and immediately recruited Height to work for the organization’s quest for women's rights for full, equal employment, pay and education.
In 1939, Dorothy moved to Washington, D.C. She became an executive at the Phyllis Wheatley YWCA. Her special job was to work on "Interracial Relations." This meant she trained people and wrote about race issues. Her understanding of both Black and White people's feelings was very important. During this time, the YWCA created its Interracial Charter (1946). This charter promised to work for racial equality within the YWCA. It also pledged to fight against unfairness based on race. She worked for better working conditions for Black domestic workers, leading to her election to YWCA national leadership. After her move to the national staff, Dorothy led the integration efforts, seeing desegregation at the YWCA’s Dorothy believed that segregation caused prejudice. She led meetings and workshop, while writing articles to help White YWCA members. She helped them live by the YWCA's principles of equality.
Height became Delta’s 10th National President in 1947, during a pivotal post-WWII moment when Black women were redefining political and professional activism, after serving for three years as vice president. Dorothy major accomplishments as national president were numerous. 1) She expanded Delta’s political footprint. She strengthened Delta’s commitment to: Voting rights, Desegregation, and Equal employment. She positioned Delta as a policy-engaged organization, not just a service sorority. 2) Dorothy united Delta with global Black struggles. 3) She strengthened national structure. Professionalized national leadership operations. Improved coordination between local chapters and the national office. Emphasized leadership training for women at every level. 4) Youth and Education focus. Dorothy reinforced Delta’s long-standing emphasis on education as liberation. She expanded scholarship and mentorship initiatives.
Dorothy Height first became involved with the National Council of Negro Women in 1937. She started serving in various capacities within the organization from that point on. Bethune became Height’s mentor, and the two worked closely together until Bethune’s death in 1955. As president of the National Council of Negro Women from 1957-1998, she became the most influential woman within the civil rights movement’s leadership. She turned NCNW into the central coordinating body for Black women’s organizations. She rescued the NCNW from financial instability and helped establish a national headquarters building for NCNW. Dorothy saw to it that African American women had a collective voice in civil rights, labor, education, and federal policy debates. The NCNW became a trusted liaison between Black communities and the federal government. She ensured institutional continuity long after her presidency.
In addition to her YWCA and NCNW work, Height was also very active in the United Christian Youth Movement, a group intensely interested in relating faith to real-world problems. In 1950, Height moved to the Training Services department where she focused primarily on professional training for YWCA staff. She spent the fall of 1952 in India as a visiting professor at the Delhi School of Social Work, then returned to her training work in New York City. During the 1950s she pressured President Dwight Eisenhower to more aggressively pursue school desegregation. She responded to and helped mobilize around the consequences of Brown v. Board of Education decision through education and integration initiatives in organizations like the YWCA. After the decision, Dorothy helped produce a booklet called Our Schools and Our Democracy in an effort to participate in school desegregation efforts and support Black students entering formerly all-White schools.
Dorothy Height was extremely active, organizing "Wednesdays in Mississippi". This brought Black and White women together from the North and South to create a dialogue of understanding. They worked against segregation. In the mid-1960s, she wrote a column called "A Woman's Word" for the weekly African-American newspaper the New York Amsterdam News. Dorothy was a skilled speaker. She helped different groups talk to each other. She created understanding between people who were unfamiliar with each other. Dorothy assisted with the organization and execution of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963. Even though she didn't speak, she helped make the event a success. She also represented the only women's organization at the march. Height worked closely with Bayard Rustin on the complex logistics surrounding the March, and offered the NCNW headquarters in Washington as a meeting place.
She also helped mediate and resolve differences among the other organizers of the March as ideas and egos clashed throughout the planning process. She worked with every major civil rights leader of the period, including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Roy Wilkins, Whitney Young, and A. Philip Randolph. Civil rights leader James Farmer said the press often ignored Dorothy's role. This was because of sexism. She consistently challenged the male-dominated leadership of civil rights organizations. During the civil-rights movement she organized voter registration in the South and voter education efforts in the North. In 1965, Height became the first director of the YWCA’s Center for Racial Justice, a position she held until her retirement from the organization in 1977. She began many other social programs as well. In the 1970s she helped the NCNW to assist women in opening businesses. Height was among the civil rights movement’s most influential leaders. In 1971, she joined Gloria Steinem, Shirley Chisholm, Betty Fredian and others to found the National Women’s Political Caucus.
Height has served on a number of committees, including as a consultant on African affairs to the secretary of state, the President's Committee on the Employment of the Handicapped and the President's Committee on the Status of Women. Though rarely in the public eye, she was known as the “glue” holding the top echelons of civil rights leaders together. Her tireless efforts for equal rights have earned her the praise and recognition of numerous organizations, as well. She has received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Franklin Delano Roosevelt "Freedom From Want Award" and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Spingarn Medal. She became the institutional backbone of Black women’s leadership in the 20th century. Martin Luther King Jr. called her “the godmother of the civil rights movement” — and that wasn’t hyperbole. In 2003, Height published her autobiography, Open Wide the Freedom Gates. The next year, she received a Congressional Gold Medal. On April 20, 2010, Height died of natural causes in Washington, D.C.