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Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient Dorothy Height
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Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient Dorothy Height
Dorothy Height has also been awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal
PRESS RELEASE
November 20, 2003
Contact: Gwendolyn S.Bethea
Director, Communication and
Public Relations
202-806-6156/6800
gbethea@howard.edu
WASHINGTON, DC – Speaking to an overflow crowd of more than 350,
Dorothy Height, renowned civil rights legend and humanitarian, recently discussed her new book, Open Wide the Freedom Gates, in the Howard University Blackburn Center, East Ballroom. Dr. Height is nationally and internationally renowned for her many years of advocacy on behalf of African Americans, particularly women, and other people of color around the world.
The event was jointly sponsored by the Howard University Graduate School and the Howard University Alpha Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.
In her new book, Height, 91, chronicles seven decades of civil rights activism. She also recounts her close relationship to Eleanor Roosevelt and Mary McLeod Bethune, as well as her encounters with W.E.B. DuBois; Martin Luther King, Jr. ; and Adam Clayton Powell, Sr., among others. She also details forty-one years at the helm of the National Council of Negro Women and her role as counselor to U.S. presidents ranging from Eisenhower to Clinton.
In a detailed conversation with Orlando L. Taylor, Vice Provost for Research and Dean, Graduate School, Dr. Height reminisced over her life in the civil rights movement, remarking that “one did what one had to do” in the face of the obvious discrimination at times against women who were part of the civil rights area that championed civil rights for all of America’s citizens.
Height is the subject of a film, The Life and Surprising Times of Dr. Dorothy Height. The film premiered at a special screening at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. It was the first film of the National Visionary Leadership Project, which was founded last year by Camille Cosby and Renee Poussaint. Height, currently President Emerita of the National Council of Negro Women, was awarded the D.C. Chamber of Commerce's Lifetime Achievement Award at the Chamber's 2003 Women's Leadership Awards Luncheon. Height has also received the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Freedom Medal and the Citizens Medal Award. In 1994, she, along with Rosa Parks, received the Presidential Medal of Freedom , the nation’s highest civilian distinction. Recently President George Bush signed a document awarding Dr. Height the Congressional Gold Medal.
The book signing and discussion also celebrated the official beginning this past fall of the Howard University Graduate Certificate Program in Women’s Studies. The Certificate Program addresses and explores solutions to the problems of women, particularly women of color, globally.
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Medal History
