Dorothy Irene Height was born in Richmond, Virginia. A towering figure in the civil rights and women’s rights movements, Height served as president of the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) for over 40 years. She was instrumental in organizing the successful campaign to place a statue of Mary McLeod Bethune in a Washington, D.C. park—making it the first public statue honoring an African American in the nation’s capital. Height’s lifelong dedication to social justice earned her the Presidential Medal of Freedom and Congressional Gold Medal.
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