Remembering Equal Rights Hero Dorothy Height

Imagine showing up for your first day of college, only to be told by administrators that you couldn't enroll. The reason? The college had already allowed two people of your same race in, and that was their maximum.

Such is the story of Dorothy Irene Height, a civil rights hero who died today at 98. She was an inspiration to every equal rights activist, not so much for her agitation (though that was certainly there), but for her ability to facilitate conversations that would eventually change hearts and minds. Call her the patron saint of collaboration.

Or just call her a hero.

Height, after being refused admission to Barnard College in 1929, went on to study educational psychology at New York University, and then began a long career as a champion of civil rights and women's rights, working at organizations like the YWCA, Delta Sigma Theta, and the National Council of Negro Women, where she would serve as President for a whopping 40 years. (That's the equivalent of ten U.S. presidential terms!)

She was a friend to everyone struggling for equality, and was honored by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) during their 1997 national dinner. At the time, Height said that while we've come far as a civil rights movement, we haven't yet reached our goal.

"Civil rights are civil rights. There are no persons who are not entitled to their civil rights," Height said. "So many of the gains that we thought we had made seem more tentative than they ought to be. But it only means we have to recognize that we have a long way to go, and that we have to go that way together."

In commemorating her life, several LGBT groups took a moment to honor Height's work. Darlene Nipper, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force's Deputy Director, said that "a huge part of Dorothy Height's legacy will be the grace with which she directed her power for the good of all people." And Donna Payne, HRC's Deputy Director for Diversity, said that Height "taught us to reach out to others, and to get the conversations going."

Height took the word "conversation" very literally. One of the things she became famous for organizing is an initiative called "Wednesdays in Mississippi," bringing black and white women from the north and the south together, to talk about racial justice.

Maybe there's a lesson in there for the LGBT community, too. I'm reminded of a video put forward by Stop8.org in the aftermath of the passage of Prop 8 in California. It didn't call for revolution, or anger, or violence. It called for conversations.

"The more people talk about marriage equality, the faster public support grows. That means that even when the news is bad, it's still a great opportunity to start conversations. And each conversation brings us closer to winning the fight," their video said.

Sounds like something Dorothy Height might say, too.

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons