Statement by Wade Henderson on the Death of Civil Rights Legend, Dr. Dorothy I. Height

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
April 20, 2010

Contact: Maggie Kao, 202.466.2735


Statement by Wade Henderson on the Death of Civil Rights Legend, Dr. Dorothy I. Height

“It is with a heavy heart that I mourn the passing of our chairperson, Dr. Dorothy I. Height. For the past seven decades, her work and her wisdom have enriched and ennobled the civil rights movement and our nation.

Dr. Height has been an extraordinary leader, a gifted organizer, a trusted adviser, and a shrewd strategist from the days of the New Deal to these times of the Raw Deal for so many Americans. She was at every important meeting, participated in every historic struggle, and advised major national leaders from Eleanor Roosevelt and Dwight D. Eisenhower to Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

Indeed, her biography is intertwined with the most significant moments of the modern civil rights movement. If Rosa Parks is the Mother of the Civil Rights Movement, then Dr. Height is its Queen.

On a personal note, I have had the pleasure of working with Dr. Height for more than 20 years. Her wise counsel, political acumen, and pragmatic idealism were, quite simply, invaluable. She was active in the work of The Leadership Conference right up until it was just physically impossible for her to do so, most recently, serving as honorary co-chair of our campaign to ratify the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).

If, as the saying goes, service is the rent we pay for living, then Dr. Height is paid in full, many times over – and she has paid the tab for many of us as well.

It is an honor and a blessing to have known her."


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Wade Henderson is president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a coalition charged by its diverse membership to promote and protect the rights of all persons in the United States. The Leadership Conference works toward an America as good as its ideals. For more information on The Leadership Conference and its 200-plus member organizations, visit www.civilrights.org.