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Dorothy Height was born on March24th, 1912 in Richmond, Virginia.
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In her childhood she moved with her family to Rankin, Pennsylvania,in the suburbs on Pittsburgh.
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She graduated from Rankin High School in 1929, and was also admitted into Barnard College in 1929.
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She applied to New York University, where she eventually earned her Bachelor's degree of education in 1930 and her Master's degree in psychology in 1932
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Height started out working with the New York City Welfare Department.
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At the age of 25 she began her career as a Civil Rights Activist by joining the National Council of Negro Women, fighting for equal rights for African Americans and women. She was also an active member of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority Inc.
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in 1957 Height was named president of the National Council of Negro Women and held that position till 1997.
She encouraged president Dwight D. Eisenhower to desegregate schools and President Johnson to appoint african american women to positions in government office.
She wrote"A Woman's World" for the african american newspaper "The New York Amsterdam News" -
In the 1960's, she organized "Wednesday's In Mississippi."
She was also a founding member of the Council for United Civil Right Leadership -
She was admitted into the hospital on March 25th, 2010 for unknown reasons and died six weeks later on April 20th, 2010, at the age of 98.
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Her funeral was at the Washington National Cathedral and was attended by President and First Lady Barack and Michelle Obama.
