Dorothy Height

American activist (1912–2010)

For the fantasy writer, see Dorothy J. Heydt.

Dorothy Height

Height in 2008

Born|

Dorothy Irene Height

(1912-03-24)March 24, 1912

Richmond, Virginia, U.S.

Died| April 20, 2010(2010-04-20) (aged 98)

Washington, D.C., U.S.

Education| New York University (BA, MA)
Columbia University

Dorothy Irene Height (March 24, 1912 – April 20, 2010) was an African-American civil rights and women's rights activist.[1] She focused on the issues of African-American women, including unemployment, illiteracy, and voter awareness.[2] Height is credited as the first leader in the civil rights movement to recognize inequality for women and African Americans as problems that should be considered as a whole.[3] She was the president of the National Council of Negro Women for 40 years.[4] Height's role in the "Big Six" civil rights movement was frequently ignored by the press due to sexism. In 1974, she was named to the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research, which published the Belmont Report, a bioethics report in response to the infamous Tuskegee Syphilis Study.

## Early life and education

[edit]

Dorothy Height was born in Richmond, Virginia, on March 24, 1912.[5] When she was five years old, she moved with her family to Mckees Rocks Rankin, Pennsylvania, a steel town in the suburbs of Pittsburgh, where she attended racially integrated schools. Height's mother was active in the Pennsylvania Federation of Colored Women's Clubs and regularly took Dorothy along to meetings where she established her "place in the sisterhood".[6]

Height's long association with the YWCA began in a Girl Reserve Club in Rankin organized under the auspices of the Pittsburgh YWCA. An enthusiastic participant, who was soon elected president of the club, Height was appalled to learn that her race barred her from swimming in the pool at the central YWCA branch. Though her arguments could not bring about a change in policy in 1920's Pittsburgh, Height later dedicated much of her professional energy to bringing profound change to the YWCA.[6]

While in high school, Height became socially and politically active in anti-lynching movement.[7] A talented orator, she won first place and a $1,000 scholarship at a national oratory contest held by the Elks.[8] Height graduated from Rankin High School in 1929.[9]

She was accepted to Barnard College of Columbia University in 1929, but was denied entrance because the school had an unwritten policy of admitting only two black students per year.[10] She enrolled instead at New York University, earning an undergraduate degree in 1932 and a master's degree in educational psychology the following year.[11] She pursued further postgraduate work at Columbia University and the New York School of Social Work (the predecessor of the Columbia University School of Social Work).[12]

## Her impact

[edit]

Height (pictured right) with Eleanor Roosevelt, 1960

From 1934 to 1937, Height worked in the New York City Department of Welfare, an experience she credited with teaching her the skills to deal with conflict without intensifying it.[citation needed] From there she moved to a job as a counselor at the YWCA of New York City, Harlem Branch, in the fall of 1937. Soon after joining the staff there, Height met Mary McLeod Bethune and Eleanor Roosevelt at a meeting of the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) held at the YWCA. In her 2003 memoir, Height described the meeting: "On that fall day the redoubtable Mary McLeod Bethune put her hand on me. She drew me into her dazzling orbit of people in power and people in poverty…. 'The freedom gates are half ajar,' she said. 'We must pry them fully open.' I have been committed to the calling ever since."[13] The following year, Height served as acting director of the YWCA of New York City's Emma Ransom House residence. In addition to her YWCA and NCNW work, Height was also very active in the United Christian Youth Movement, a group intensely interested in relating faith to real-world problems.[6]

In 1939, Height went to Washington, D.C., to be executive of the Phyllis Wheatley Branch of the DC YWCA. In the fall of 1944, she returned to New York City to join the YWCA national staff, joining the program staff with "special responsibility" in the field of Interracial Relations. This work included training activities, writing, and working with the Public Affairs committee on race issues where her "insight into the attitude and feeling of both white and negro people [was] heavily counted on". It was during this period that the YWCA adopted its Interracial Charter (1946), which not only pledged to work towards an interracial experience within the YWCA, but also to fight against injustice on the basis of race, "whether in the community, the nation or the world". Convinced that segregation causes prejudice through estrangement, Height facilitated meetings, ran workshops, and wrote articles and pamphlets aimed at helping white YWCA members transcend their fears and bring their daily activities in line with the association's principles.[6]

Height was an active member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority, throughout her life, developing leadership training programs and ecumenical education programs.[13] She was initiated at the Rho chapter at Columbia University, and served as national president of the sorority from 1947 to 1956.[13] In 1950, Height moved to the Training Services department where she focused primarily on professional training for YWCA staff. She spent the fall of 1952 in India as a visiting professor at the Delhi School of Social Work, then returned to her training work in New York City.[6] Height participated in the Liberia Watch Program and worked within the ranks of leadership in 1955.[14]

In 1963, the increasing momentum of the civil rights movement prompted the YWCA's National Board to allocate funds to launch a country-wide "Action Program for Integration and Desegregation of Community YWCAs". Height took leave from her position as associate director for Training to head this two-year Action Program. At the end of that period, the National Board adopted a proposal to accelerate the work "in going beyond token integration and making a bold assault on all aspects of racial segregation". It established an Office of racial integration (renamed Office of Racial Justice in 1969) as part of the Executive Office. In her role as its first director, Height helped to monitor the association's progress toward full integration, kept abreast of the civil rights movement, facilitated "honest dialogue", aided the Association in making best use of its African-American leadership (both volunteer and staff), and helped in their recruitment and retention. Shortly before she retired from the YWCA in 1977, Height was elected as an honorary national board member, a lifetime appointment.[6]

In 1958, Height became President of the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) and remained in that position until 1990. While working with both the YWCA and NCNW, Height participated in the Civil Rights Movement and she was considered a member of the "Big Six" (a group with up to nine members, including Martin Luther King Jr., James Farmer, John Lewis, A. Philip Randolph, Roy Wilkins, and Whitney Young). In his autobiography, civil rights leader James Farmer noted that Height's role in the "Big Six" was frequently ignored by the press due to sexism.[15] During the Civil Rights Movement, she organized Wednesdays in Mississippi with Polly Spiegel Cowan, which brought together black and white women from the North and South to work against segregation.[16] Height's background as a prize-winning orator allowed her to serve as an effective middleman through creating a dialogue of understanding between unfamiliar parties. Though Height was not called upon to speak at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, she served as one of the chief organizers for the gathering, becoming a key part in the demonstration's success.[17] Height also acted as an ambassador for the lone women's organization during the event.[3] Additionally, Height developed many international volunteer programs with the NCNW in Asia, Africa, Europe, and South America.[6]

In the mid-1960s, she wrote a column called "A Woman's Word" for the weekly African-American newspaper the New York Amsterdam News.[18]

In 1974, she was named to the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research, which published the Belmont Report a response to the infamous "Tuskegee Syphilis Study" and an international ethical touchstone for researchers to this day.[19] Height was the driving force in the campaign to erect a statue in honor of Mary McLeod Bethune in Lincoln Park, Washington, D.C. The monument was the first statue dedicated to either a woman or an African-American person to be erected on federal land. At the July 1974 unveiling of the Mary McLeod Bethune Memorial, which had an attendance of more than eighteen thousand people, Height stated that the statue represented the awakening appreciation for the contributions of racial minorities and women within the United States, which was best represented by a Black woman.[20]

Height with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, 2009

## Later life

[edit]

In 1990, Height, along with 15 other African Americans, formed the African-American Women for Reproductive Freedom.[21] Height received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Bill Clinton in 1994. Height's 90th-birthday celebration in 2002 raised five million dollars towards funding the NCNW's mortgage on their Washington, D.C., headquarters, the Dorothy I. Height Building. Two notable donors were Don King and Oprah Winfrey.[7] Height was recognized by Barnard for her achievements as an honorary alumna during the college's commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education decision in 2004.[10]

She was also well known for her hats and hat collection, many of them made by a Black Washington, D.C., milliner, Vanilla Beane. One of which was featured Height's USPS stamp.[22] Portions of her hat collection have been shown in museums.[23]

The musical stage play If This Hat Could Talk, based on her memoirs Open Wide The Freedom Gates, debuted in 2005. The work showcases her unique perspective on the civil rights movement and details many of the behind-the-scenes figures and mentors who shaped her life, including Mary McLeod Bethune and Eleanor Roosevelt.

The Dorothy I. Height Building, headquarters of the National Council of Negro Women, located on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C.

President Barack Obama called Height "the godmother of the civil rights movement and a hero to so many Americans".[24] She attended the National Black Family Reunion on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., every year until her death in 2010.[25] Height was the chairperson of the executive committee of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, an umbrella group of American civil rights interest groups, until her death in 2010. She was an honored guest at the inauguration of President Barack Obama on January 20, 2009, and was seated on the stage.[4]

## Death

[edit]

On March 25, 2010, Height was admitted to Howard University Hospital in Washington, D.C., for unspecified reasons and under protest, because she had pending speaking arrangements.[26] She died less than four weeks later, on April 20, 2010, at the age of 98. President Barack Obama delivered the eulogy for her funeral service at the Washington National Cathedral on April 29, 2010, which was attended by many other dignitaries and notable people.[27] She was later buried at Fort Lincoln Cemetery in Colmar Manor, Maryland.[28]

Shortly after Height's death, congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton and Mayor Vincent Gray encouraged the U.S. Postal Service to name D.C.'s former main post office the Dorothy I. Height Post Office. This honor made Height the only African-American woman to have a federal facility in Washington, D.C., named after her.[26]

## Awards, honors, and medals

[edit]

* William L. Dawson Award, Congressional Black Caucus (1974)[29]
* George Collins Award, Congressional Black Caucus (1986)[29][30]
* Candace Award for Distinguished Service, National Coalition of 100 Black Women (1986)[31]
* Presidential Citizens Medal (1989)
* Spingarn Medal from the NAACP (1993)
* Franklin Delano Roosevelt Freedom From Want Award (1993)
* inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame (1993)
* Presidential Medal of Freedom (1994)[4]
* 7th Annual Heinz Award Chairman's Medal (2001)[32]
* National Jefferson Award for Greatest Public Service Benefiting the Disadvantaged (2001)[33]
* Listed on Molefi Kete Asante's list of 100 Greatest African Americans (2002)[34]
* Congressional Gold Medal by President George W. Bush on behalf of the United States Congress (Approved 2003, awarded 2004)[4]
* One of the 34 honors on The Extra Mile Memorial in Washington, D.C. (2005)
* 2009 Foremothers Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Center for Health Research[35]
* The Benning / Dorothy I. Height Neighborhood Library, which opened in April 2010, is named in her honor.[36]
* Upon her death, President Barack Obama ordered flags to be flown at half-mast on April 29, 2010, in her honor.
* On May 21, 2010, a callbox was dedicated to Height. It is located on 7th Street, SW, in front of the last building in which she lived.[37]
* On March 24, 2014, in celebration of the 102nd anniversary of her birthday, Google featured a doodle with a portrait of Ms. Height above protestors marching with signs.[38][39][40]
* November 2016, honored with a 2017 United States Postage Stamp, the 40th stamp in the Black Heritage Forever series. The painting of Height is based on a 2009 photograph shot by Lateef Mangum.[41]

"I want to be remembered as someone who used herself and anything she could touch to work for justice and freedom. I want to be remembered as one who tried." – Dorothy Height

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Grant, Lyndia (April 29, 2010). "Uncommon Height". Washington Informer.
2. ^ "Dorothy Height". Biography. April 2021.
3. ^ a b "Dorothy I. Height". www.nps.gov. National Park Service. Retrieved May 25, 2019.
4. ^ a b c d Iovino, Jim (April 20, 2010). "Civil Rights Icon Dorothy Height Dies at 98". NBC Universal. Retrieved April 20, 2010.
5. ^ "Dr. Dorothy Height Biography". Dr. Dorothy Height Biography. Retrieved December 26, 2021.
6. ^ a b c d e f g "Collection: Dorothy Irene Height papers, Smith College Finding Aids". findingaids.smith.edu. Retrieved June 29, 2020. This article incorporates text available under the CC BY 3.0 license.
7. ^ a b Skutch, Jan. "Civil rights leader, beacon for black women Dorothy Height dies". Savannah Morning News. Retrieved May 25, 2019.
8. ^ Hine, Darlene Clark, William C. Hine, and Stanley Harrold. "Chapter 21". The African-American Odyssey Combined Edition. 5th edition. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, 2010. 596. Web.
9. ^ "Dorothy I. Height (U.S. National Park Service)". www.nps.gov. Retrieved November 1, 2023.
10. ^ a b "Civil Rights Pioneer Honor 75 years after rejection Barnard College recognizes woman the school once barred because of admission limit for blacks". Newsday. June 4, 2004. p. A22.
11. ^ "Dorothy Height was educator and activist organizer". Post-Tribune. February 16, 2003. p. A2. Archived from the original on October 29, 2014. Retrieved April 20, 2010.
12. ^ Dr. Dorothy I. Height: Chair and President Emerita, National Council of Negro Women Archived June 18, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, National Council of Negro Women. 75th Anniversary. Retrieved May 29, 2012.
13. ^ a b c Height, Dorothy (2003). Open Wide the Freedom Gates: A Memoir. New York: PublicAffairs Press. ISBN 978-1-58648-286-2.
14. ^ Edelman, Marian (March 30, 2006). "Dorothy Height broadens our horizon". New York Beacon.
15. ^ Farmer, James (1998). Lay Bare the Heart. Fort Worth: Texas Christian University Press. p. 215\. ISBN 9780875651880. Retrieved September 22, 2014. – Article on book: Lay Bare the Heart
16. ^ Evans, Ben (April 20, 2010). "Dorothy Height, civil rights activist, dies at 98". Associated Press. Archived from the original on April 24, 2010. Retrieved April 20, 2010.
17. ^ Owens, Donna M. (August 23, 2023). "The March on Washington's core ideas resonate 60 years later". NBC News. Retrieved August 23, 2023.
18. ^ Height, Dorothy (March 20, 1965). "A Woman's World" column. New York Amsterdam News, p. 8 ff.
19. ^ "The Belmont Report", U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.
20. ^ Woodley, Jenny (May 17, 2017). ""Ma Is in the Park": Memory, Identity, and the Bethune Memorial". Journal of American Studies. 52 (2): 474–502\. doi:10.1017/S0021875817000536. ISSN 0021-8758. S2CID 149358949.
21. ^ Kathryn Cullen-DuPont (August 1, 2000). Encyclopedia of Women's History in America. Info base Publishing. p. 6\. ISBN 978-0-8160-4100-8. Retrieved February 4, 2012.
22. ^ Betsy Cribb (July 4, 2022). "Meet Washington, D.C., Milliner Vanilla Beane". Southern Living. Retrieved October 25, 2022.
23. ^ "Dorothy Height's Hats – Museum of Fine Arts, St Petersburg". Museum of Fine Arts, St Petersburg. Retrieved October 25, 2022.
24. ^ Fox, Margalit (April 20, 2010). "Dorothy Height, Largely Unsung Giant of the Civil Rights Era, Dies at 98". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved June 29, 2020.
25. ^ Mr. Michael; Ms. C (2013). Why I Am So Proud to Be a Black Man: The Many Reasons to Uplift and Celebrate Our Uniqueness in the Universe. iUniverse. p. 165\. ISBN 978-1475979299.
26. ^ a b "Norton's Black History Month Celebration Unveils Dorothy Height Post Office and Celebrates D.C.'s Congressional Protest in the Dorothy Height Tradition: Rep. Norton, Eleanor Holmes (D -DC) News Release". Congressional Documents and Publications. February 22, 2011.
27. ^ Cooper, Helene (April 29, 2010). "Civil Rights Leader Is Eulogized by Obama". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved June 29, 2020.
28. ^ "Dorothy I. Height". National Park Service. Washington, D.C.: United States Department of the Interior. Retrieved March 8, 2018.
29. ^ a b Past Phoenix Award Honorees (1996–2018)". https://s7.goeshow.com/cbcf/annual/2020/documents/CBCF_ALC_-_Phoenix_Awards_Dinner_Past_Winners.pdf
30. ^ LENA WILLIAMS (October 6, 1986). "CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS REJOICES IN GROWING STRENGTH". The New York Times (Late City Final ed.).
31. ^ "CANDACE AWARD RECIPIENTS 1982-1990, Page 1". National Coalition of 100 Black Women. Archived from the original on March 14, 2003.
32. ^ "The Heinz Awards :: Dorothy Height". www.heinzawards.net.
33. ^ National Winners Archived November 24, 2010, at the Wayback Machine, Jefferson Awards.
34. ^ Asante, Molefi Kete (2002). 100 Greatest African Americans: A Biographical Encyclopedia. Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books. ISBN 1-57392-963-8.
35. ^ (2009)"The 2009 Health Policy Heroes and Foremother Awards". Archived May 14, 2011, at the Wayback Machine National Research Center for Women & Families. Retrieved December 5, 2010.
36. ^ "Black History in Your Neighborhood". District of Columbia Public Library. January 31, 2020. Retrieved January 18, 2021.
37. ^ The Southwester, June 2010.
38. ^ Kashmira Gander (March 24, 2014). "Google Doodle US marks Dorothy Irene Height's birthday". The Independent. Retrieved March 25, 2014.
39. ^ Michael Cavna (March 24, 2014). "DOROTHY IRENE HEIGHT: 'Godmother of the civil-rights movement' was a portrait in powerful change. Google Doodle salutes her accordingly". The Washington Post. Retrieved March 25, 2014.
40. ^ Charlotte Alter (March 24, 2014). "Google Doodle Honors Dorothy Height, Unsung Leader in Civil Rights and Women's Movements". Time. Retrieved March 25, 2014.
41. ^ "Postal Service showcases more 2017 stamps". about.usps.com. November 22, 2016. Retrieved June 29, 2020.

External videos

Dorothy Height's funeral service at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., April 29, 2010, C-SPAN
Presentation by Height on Open Wide the Freedom Gates: A Memoir at the National Book Festival, October 9, 2004, C-SPAN
External videos

Booknotes interview with Height on Open Wide the Freedom Gates: A Memoir, August 3, 2003, C-SPAN
"Life and Career of Dorothy Height". July 20, 2001, C-SPAN
External videos

"Dorothy Height Oral History Interview" for the University of Virginia's "Explorations in Black Leadership" project, December 9, 2003, C-SPAN
External videos

Booknotes interview with Height on Open Wide the Freedom Gates: A Memoir, August 3, 2003, C-SPAN
Presentation by Height on Open Wide the Freedom Gates: A Memoir at the National Book Festival, October 9, 2004, C-SPAN

Library resources about
Dorothy Height

* * *

* Resources in your library
* Resources in other libraries

By Dorothy Height

* Online books
* Resources in your library
* Resources in other libraries

## Sources

[edit]

* Height, Dorothy. Open Wide the Freedom Gates: A Memoir.
* Tracey A. Fitzgerald, The National Council of Negro Women and the Feminist Movement, 1935-1975, Georgetown University Press, 1985.
* Judith Weisenfeld, "Dorothy Height", Black Women in America: Profiles, New York: Macmillan, 1999, pp. 128–130.
* Legacy: Black and White in America, a documentary featuring Dorothy Height.
* Norwood, Arlisha. "Dorothy Height". National Women's History Museum. 2017.
* Dr. Dorothy I. Height Facebook Page
* National Council for Science and the Environment
* Dorothy Height – The Daily Telegraph obituary, April 21, 2010
* African Events Congressional Gold Medal Award for Dorothy Height
* Dorothy Height's oral history video excerpts, The National Visionary Leadership Project
* Dorothy Height's Videos
* Legacy: Black and White in America, a documentary featuring Dorothy Height
* Flag Half-Staff Day Order by President Barack Obama
* Dorothy Height (1912–2010): Civil Rights Leader Remembered for Lifelong Activism\- video report by Democracy Now!
* Dorothy I. Height, Unsung Heroine[usurped]

## External links

[edit]

* Dorothy Irene Height papers at the Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College Special Collections
* Appearances on C-SPAN
* “ Mother's Day, May 12; Birmingham: Testament of Nonviolence, Part 3 [1 of 2],” 1963-05-12, University of Maryland, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, Massachusetts and Washington, D.C., accessed June 7, 2021.

* v
* t
* e

Civil rights movement (1954–1968)

Events
(timeline)|

| Prior to 1954|

* Journey of Reconciliation
* Executive Order 9981
* Murders of Harry and Harriette Moore
* Sweatt v. Painter (1950)
* McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents (1950)
* Baton Rouge bus boycott

|

1954–1959|

* Brown v. Board of Education
* Bolling v. Sharpe
* Briggs v. Elliott
* Davis v. Prince Edward County
* Gebhart v. Belton
* Sarah Keys v. Carolina Coach Company
* Read's Drug Store sit-in
* Emmett Till
* Montgomery bus boycott
* Browder v. Gayle
* Tallahassee bus boycott
* Mansfield school desegregation
* 1957 Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom
* "Give Us the Ballot"
* Royal Ice Cream sit-in
* Little Rock Nine
* Cooper v. Aaron
* Civil Rights Act of 1957
* Ministers' Manifesto
* Dockum Drug Store sit-in
* Katz Drug Store sit-in
* Kissing Case
* Biloxi wade-ins

1960–1963|

* New Year's Day March
* Sit-in movement
* Greensboro sit-ins
* Nashville sit-ins
* Sibley Commission
* Atlanta sit-ins
* Savannah Protest Movement
* Greenville Eight
* Civil Rights Act of 1960
* Ax Handle Saturday
* New Orleans school desegregation
* Gomillion v. Lightfoot
* Boynton v. Virginia
* University of Georgia desegregation riot
* Rock Hill sit-ins
* Robert F. Kennedy's Law Day Address
* Freedom Rides
* Anniston and Birmingham bus attacks
* Garner v. Louisiana
* Albany Movement
* Cambridge movement
* University of Chicago sit-ins
* "Second Emancipation Proclamation"
* Meredith enrollment, Ole Miss riot
* Atlanta's Berlin Wall
* "Segregation now, segregation forever"
* Stand in the Schoolhouse Door
* 1963 Birmingham campaign
* Letter from Birmingham Jail
* Children's Crusade
* Birmingham riot
* 16th Street Baptist Church bombing
* John F. Kennedy's speech to the nation on Civil Rights
* Detroit Walk to Freedom
* March on Washington
* "I Have a Dream"
* Big Six
* St. Augustine movement

1964–1968|

* Twenty-fourth Amendment
* Chester school protests
* Bloody Tuesday
* 1964 Monson Motor Lodge protests
* Freedom Summer
* workers' murders
* Civil Rights Act of 1964
* Heart of Atlanta Motel, Inc. v. United States
* Katzenbach v. McClung
* 1964–1965 Scripto strike
* 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches
* "How Long, Not Long"
* SCOPE Project
* Voting Rights Act of 1965
* Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections
* March Against Fear
* White House Conference on Civil Rights
* Chicago Freedom Movement/Chicago open housing movement
* Loving v. Virginia
* Memphis sanitation strike
* King assassination
* funeral
* riots
* Civil Rights Act of 1968
* Poor People's Campaign
* Green v. County School Board of New Kent County
* Jones v. Alfred H. Mayer Co.
* 1968 Olympics Black Power salute

Activist
groups|

* Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights
* American Friends Service Committee
* Atlanta Negro Voters League
* Atlanta Student Movement
* Black Panther Party
* Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters
* Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)
* Committee for Freedom Now
* Committee on Appeal for Human Rights
* An Appeal for Human Rights
* Council for United Civil Rights Leadership
* Council of Federated Organizations
* Dallas County Voters League
* Deacons for Defense and Justice
* Georgia Council on Human Relations
* Highlander Folk School
* Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
* Lowndes County Freedom Organization
* Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party
* Montgomery Improvement Association
* NAACP
* Youth Council
* Nashville Student Movement
* Nation of Islam
* Northern Student Movement
* National Council of Negro Women
* National Urban League
* Operation Breadbasket
* Regional Council of Negro Leadership
* Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
* Southern Regional Council
* Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
* The Freedom Singers
* United Auto Workers (UAW)
* Wednesdays in Mississippi
* Women's Political Council

Activists|

* Juanita Abernathy
* Ralph Abernathy
* Victoria Gray Adams
* Zev Aelony
* Mathew Ahmann
* Muhammad Ali
* William G. Anderson
* Gwendolyn Armstrong
* Arnold Aronson
* Ella Baker
* James Baldwin
* Marion Barry
* Daisy Bates
* Harry Belafonte
* James Bevel
* Claude Black
* Gloria Blackwell
* Randolph Blackwell
* Unita Blackwell
* Ezell Blair Jr.
* Joanne Bland
* Julian Bond
* Joseph E. Boone
* William Holmes Borders
* Amelia Boynton
* Bruce Boynton
* Raylawni Branch
* Stanley Branche
* Ruby Bridges
* Aurelia Browder
* H. Rap Brown
* Ralph Bunche
* John H. Calhoun
* Guy Carawan
* Stokely Carmichael
* Johnnie Carr
* James Chaney
* J. L. Chestnut
* Shirley Chisholm
* Colia Lafayette Clark
* Ramsey Clark
* Septima Clark
* Xernona Clayton
* Eldridge Cleaver
* Kathleen Cleaver
* Josephine Dobbs Clement
* Charles E. Cobb Jr.
* Annie Lee Cooper
* Dorothy Cotton
* Claudette Colvin
* Vernon Dahmer
* Jonathan Daniels
* Abraham Lincoln Davis
* Angela Davis
* Joseph DeLaine
* Dave Dennis
* Annie Bell Robinson Devine
* John Wesley Dobbs
* Patricia Stephens Due
* Joseph Ellwanger
* Charles Evers
* Medgar Evers
* Myrlie Evers-Williams
* Chuck Fager
* James Farmer
* Walter Fauntroy
* James Forman
* Marie Foster
* Golden Frinks
* Andrew Goodman
* Robert Graetz
* Fred Gray
* Jack Greenberg
* Dick Gregory
* Lawrence Guyot
* Prathia Hall
* Fannie Lou Hamer
* Fred Hampton
* William E. Harbour
* Vincent Harding
* Dorothy Height
* Audrey Faye Hendricks
* Lola Hendricks
* Aaron Henry
* Oliver Hill
* Donald L. Hollowell
* James Hood
* Myles Horton
* Zilphia Horton
* T. R. M. Howard
* Ruby Hurley
* Cecil Ivory
* Jesse Jackson
* Jimmie Lee Jackson
* Richie Jean Jackson
* T. J. Jemison
* Esau Jenkins
* Barbara Rose Johns
* Vernon Johns
* Frank Minis Johnson
* Clarence Jones
* J. Charles Jones
* Matthew Jones
* Vernon Jordan
* Tom Kahn
* Clyde Kennard
* A. D. King
* C.B. King
* Coretta Scott King
* Martin Luther King Jr.
* Martin Luther King Sr.
* Bernard Lafayette
* James Lawson
* Bernard Lee
* Sanford R. Leigh
* Jim Letherer
* Stanley Levison
* John Lewis
* Viola Liuzzo
* Z. Alexander Looby
* Joseph Lowery
* Clara Luper
* Danny Lyon
* Malcolm X
* Mae Mallory
* Vivian Malone
* Bob Mants
* Thurgood Marshall
* Benjamin Mays
* Franklin McCain
* Charles McDew
* Ralph McGill
* Floyd McKissick
* Joseph McNeil
* James Meredith
* William Ming
* Jack Minnis
* Amzie Moore
* Cecil B. Moore
* Douglas E. Moore
* Harriette Moore
* Harry T. Moore
* Queen Mother Moore
* William Lewis Moore
* Irene Morgan
* Bob Moses
* William Moyer
* Elijah Muhammad
* Diane Nash
* Charles Neblett
* Huey P. Newton
* Edgar Nixon
* Jack O'Dell
* James Orange
* Rosa Parks
* James Peck
* Charles Person
* Homer Plessy
* Adam Clayton Powell Jr.
* Fay Bellamy Powell
* Rodney N. Powell
* Al Raby
* Lincoln Ragsdale
* A. Philip Randolph
* George Raymond
* George Raymond Jr.
* Bernice Johnson Reagon
* Cordell Reagon
* James Reeb
* Frederick D. Reese
* Walter Reuther
* Gloria Richardson
* David Richmond
* Bernice Robinson
* Jo Ann Robinson
* Angela Russell
* Bayard Rustin
* Bernie Sanders
* Michael Schwerner
* Bobby Seale
* Pete Seeger
* Cleveland Sellers
* Charles Sherrod
* Alexander D. Shimkin
* Fred Shuttlesworth
* Modjeska Monteith Simkins
* Glenn E. Smiley
* A. Maceo Smith
* Kelly Miller Smith
* Mary Louise Smith
* Maxine Smith
* Ruby Doris Smith-Robinson
* Charles Kenzie Steele
* Hank Thomas
* Dorothy Tillman
* A. P. Tureaud
* Hartman Turnbow
* Albert Turner
* C. T. Vivian
* A. T. Walden
* Wyatt Tee Walker
* Hollis Watkins
* Walter Francis White
* Roy Wilkins
* Hosea Williams
* Kale Williams
* Robert F. Williams
* Q. V. Williamson
* Andrew Young
* Whitney Young
* Sammy Younge Jr.
* Bob Zellner
* James Zwerg

By region|

* Omaha, Nebraska
* South Carolina

Movement
songs|

* "Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me 'Round"
* "If You Miss Me at the Back of the Bus"
* "Kumbaya"
* "Keep Your Eyes on the Prize"
* "Oh, Freedom"
* "This Little Light of Mine"
* "We Shall Not Be Moved"
* "We Shall Overcome"
* "Woke Up This Morning (With My Mind Stayed On Freedom)"

Influences|

* Nonviolence
* Padayatra
* Sermon on the Mount
* Mahatma Gandhi
* Ahimsa
* Satyagraha
* The Kingdom of God Is Within You
* Frederick Douglass
* W. E. B. Du Bois
* Mary McLeod Bethune

Related|

* Lyndon B. Johnson
* Jim Crow laws
* Lynching in the United States
* Plessy v. Ferguson
* Separate but equal
* Buchanan v. Warley
* Hocutt v. Wilson
* Powell v. Alabama
* Smith v. Allwright
* Hernandez v. Texas
* Loving v. Virginia
* African-American women in the movement
* Jews in the civil rights movement
* Fifth Circuit Four
* 16th Street Baptist Church
* Kelly Ingram Park
* A.G. Gaston Motel
* Bethel Baptist Church
* Brown Chapel
* Dexter Avenue Baptist Church
* Holt Street Baptist Church
* Edmund Pettus Bridge
* March on Washington Movement
* African-American churches attacked
* List of lynching victims in the United States
* Freedom Schools
* Freedom songs
* Spring Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam
* "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence"
* Voter Education Project
* 1960s counterculture
* African American founding fathers of the United States
* Eyes on the Prize

Legacy|

* In popular culture
* Birmingham Civil Rights Institute
* Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument
* Civil Rights Memorial
* Civil Rights Movement Archive
* Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument
* Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument
* Freedom Rides Museum
* Freedom Riders National Monument
* King Center for Nonviolent Social Change
* Martin Luther King Jr. Day
* Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial
* other King memorials
* Mississippi Civil Rights Museum
* National Civil Rights Museum
* National Voting Rights Museum
* St. Augustine Foot Soldiers Monument
* Olympic Black Power Statue

Noted
historians|

* Taylor Branch
* Clayborne Carson
* John Dittmer
* Michael Eric Dyson
* Jonathan Eig
* Chuck Fager
* Adam Fairclough
* David Garrow
* David Halberstam
* Vincent Harding
* Steven F. Lawson
* Doug McAdam
* Diane McWhorter
* Charles M. Payne
* Thomas E. Ricks
* Timothy Tyson
* Akinyele Umoja
* Movement photographers

Civil rights movement portal

* v
* t
* e

Delta Sigma Theta national presidents

* Sadie T. M. Alexander, 1919–1923
* Dorothy Pelham Beckley 1923–1926
* Ethel Lemay Calimese, 1926–1929
* Anna Johnson Julian, 1929–1931
* Gladys Byram Shepperd, 1931–1933
* Jeannette Triplett Jones, 1933–1935
* Vivian Osborne Marsh, 1935–1939
* Elsie Austin, 1939–1944
* Mae Wright Downs Peck Williams, 1944–1947
* Dorothy I. Height, 1947–1956
* Dorothy P. Harrison, 1956–1958
* Jeanne L. Noble, 1958–1963
* Geraldine P. Woods, 1963–1967
* Frankie Muse Freeman, 1967–1971
* Lillian Pierce Benbow, 1971–1975
* Thelma Thomas Daley, 1975–1979
* Mona Humphries Bailey, 1979–1983
* Hortense Golden Canady, 1983–1988
* Yvonne Kennedy, 1988–1992
* Bertha M. Roddey, 1992–1996
* Marcia L. Fudge, 1996–2000
* Gwendolyn E. Boyd, 2000–2004
* Louise A. Rice, 2004–2008
* Cynthia M.A. Butler-McIntyre, 2008–2013
* Paulette Camille Walker, 2013–2017
* Beverly Evans Smith, 2017-present

* v
* t
* e

Inductees to the National Women's Hall of Fame

1970–1979

| 1973|

* Jane Addams
* Marian Anderson
* Susan B. Anthony
* Clara Barton
* Mary McLeod Bethune
* Elizabeth Blackwell
* Pearl S. Buck
* Rachel Carson
* Mary Cassatt
* Emily Dickinson
* Amelia Earhart
* Alice Hamilton
* Helen Hayes
* Helen Keller
* Eleanor Roosevelt
* Florence Sabin
* Margaret Chase Smith
* Elizabeth Cady Stanton
* Helen Brooke Taussig
* Harriet Tubman

|

1976|

* Abigail Adams
* Margaret Mead
* Mildred "Babe" Didrikson Zaharias

1979|

* Dorothea Dix
* Juliette Gordon Low
* Alice Paul
* Elizabeth Bayley Seton

1980–1989

| 1981|

* Margaret Sanger
* Sojourner Truth

|

1982|

* Carrie Chapman Catt
* Frances Perkins

1983|

* Belva Lockwood
* Lucretia Mott

1984|

* Mary "Mother" Harris Jones
* Bessie Smith

1986|

* Barbara McClintock
* Lucy Stone
* Harriet Beecher Stowe

1988|

* Gwendolyn Brooks
* Willa Cather
* Sally Ride
* Mary Risteau
* Ida B. Wells-Barnett

1990–1999

| 1990|

* Margaret Bourke-White
* Barbara Jordan
* Billie Jean King
* Florence B. Seibert

|

1991|

* Gertrude Belle Elion

1993|

* Ethel Percy Andrus
* Antoinette Blackwell
* Emily Blackwell
* Shirley Chisholm
* Jacqueline Cochran
* Ruth Colvin
* Marian Wright Edelman
* Alice Evans
* Betty Friedan
* Ella Grasso
* Martha Wright Griffiths
* Fannie Lou Hamer
* Dorothy Height
* Dolores Huerta
* Mary Putnam Jacobi
* Mae Jemison
* Mary Lyon
* Mary Mahoney
* Wilma Mankiller
* Constance Baker Motley
* Georgia O'Keeffe
* Annie Oakley
* Rosa Parks
* Esther Peterson
* Jeannette Rankin
* Ellen Swallow Richards
* Elaine Roulet
* Katherine Siva Saubel
* Gloria Steinem
* Helen Stephens
* Lillian Wald
* Madam C. J. Walker
* Faye Wattleton
* Rosalyn S. Yalow
* Gloria Yerkovich

1994|

* Bella Abzug
* Ella Baker
* Myra Bradwell
* Annie Jump Cannon
* Jane Cunningham Croly
* Catherine East
* Geraldine Ferraro
* Charlotte Perkins Gilman
* Grace Hopper
* Helen LaKelly Hunt
* Zora Neale Hurston
* Anne Hutchinson
* Frances Wisebart Jacobs
* Susette La Flesche
* Louise McManus
* Maria Mitchell
* Antonia Novello
* Linda Richards
* Wilma Rudolph
* Betty Bone Schiess
* Muriel Siebert
* Nettie Stevens
* Oprah Winfrey
* Sarah Winnemucca
* Fanny Wright

1995|

* Virginia Apgar
* Ann Bancroft
* Amelia Bloomer
* Mary Breckinridge
* Eileen Collins
* Elizabeth Hanford Dole
* Anne Dallas Dudley
* Mary Baker Eddy
* Ella Fitzgerald
* Margaret Fuller
* Matilda Joslyn Gage
* Lillian Moller Gilbreth
* Nannerl O. Keohane
* Maggie Kuhn
* Sandra Day O'Connor
* Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin
* Pat Schroeder
* Hannah Greenebaum Solomon

1996|

* Louisa May Alcott
* Charlotte Anne Bunch
* Frances Xavier Cabrini
* Mary A. Hallaren
* Oveta Culp Hobby
* Wilhelmina Cole Holladay
* Anne Morrow Lindbergh
* Maria Goeppert Mayer
* Ernestine Louise Potowski Rose
* Maria Tallchief
* Edith Wharton

1998|

* Madeleine Albright
* Maya Angelou
* Nellie Bly
* Lydia Moss Bradley
* Mary Steichen Calderone
* Mary Ann Shadd Cary
* Joan Ganz Cooney
* Gerty Cori
* Sarah Grimké
* Julia Ward Howe
* Shirley Ann Jackson
* Shannon Lucid
* Katharine Dexter McCormick
* Rozanne L. Ridgway
* Edith Nourse Rogers
* Felice Schwartz
* Eunice Kennedy Shriver
* Beverly Sills
* Florence Wald
* Angelina Grimké Weld
* Chien-Shiung Wu

2000–2009

| 2000|

* Faye Glenn Abdellah
* Emma Smith DeVoe
* Marjory Stoneman Douglas
* Mary Dyer
* Sylvia A. Earle
* Crystal Eastman
* Jeanne Holm
* Leontine T. Kelly
* Frances Oldham Kelsey
* Kate Mullany
* Janet Reno
* Anna Howard Shaw
* Sophia Smith
* Ida Tarbell
* Wilma L. Vaught
* Mary Edwards Walker
* Annie Dodge Wauneka
* Eudora Welty
* Frances E. Willard

|

2001|

* Dorothy H. Andersen
* Lucille Ball
* Rosalynn Carter
* Lydia Maria Child
* Bessie Coleman
* Dorothy Day
* Marian de Forest
* Althea Gibson
* Beatrice A. Hicks
* Barbara Holdridge
* Harriet Williams Russell Strong
* Emily Howell Warner
* Victoria Woodhull

2002|

* Paulina Kellogg Wright Davis
* Ruth Bader Ginsburg
* Katharine Graham
* Bertha Holt
* Mary Engle Pennington
* Mercy Otis Warren

2003|

* Linda G. Alvarado
* Donna de Varona
* Gertrude Ederle
* Martha Matilda Harper
* Patricia Roberts Harris
* Stephanie L. Kwolek
* Dorothea Lange
* Mildred Robbins Leet
* Patsy Takemoto Mink
* Sacagawea
* Anne Sullivan
* Sheila E. Widnall

2005|

* Florence E. Allen
* Ruth Fulton Benedict
* Betty Bumpers
* Hillary Clinton
* Rita Rossi Colwell
* Mother Marianne Cope
* Maya Y. Lin
* Patricia A. Locke
* Blanche Stuart Scott
* Mary Burnett Talbert

2007|

* Eleanor K. Baum
* Julia Child
* Martha Coffin Pelham Wright
* Swanee Hunt
* Winona LaDuke
* Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
* Judith L. Pipher
* Catherine Filene Shouse
* Henrietta Szold

2009|

* Louise Bourgeois
* Mildred Cohn
* Karen DeCrow
* Susan Kelly-Dreiss
* Allie B. Latimer
* Emma Lazarus
* Ruth Patrick
* Rebecca Talbot Perkins
* Susan Solomon
* Kate Stoneman

2010–2019

| 2011|

* St. Katharine Drexel
* Dorothy Harrison Eustis
* Loretta C. Ford
* Abby Kelley Foster
* Helen Murray Free
* Billie Holiday
* Coretta Scott King
* Lilly Ledbetter
* Barbara A. Mikulski
* Donna E. Shalala
* Kathrine Switzer

|

2013|

* Betty Ford
* Ina May Gaskin
* Julie Krone
* Kate Millett
* Nancy Pelosi
* Mary Joseph Rogers
* Bernice Sandler
* Anna Schwartz
* Emma Willard

2015|

* Tenley Albright
* Nancy Brinker
* Martha Graham
* Marcia Greenberger
* Barbara Iglewski
* Jean Kilbourne
* Carlotta Walls LaNier
* Philippa Marrack
* Mary Harriman Rumsey
* Eleanor Smeal

2017|

* Matilda Cuomo
* Temple Grandin
* Lorraine Hansberry
* Victoria Jackson
* Sherry Lansing
* Clare Boothe Luce
* Aimee Mullins
* Carol Mutter
* Janet Rowley
* Alice Waters

2019|

* Gloria Allred
* Angela Davis
* Sarah Deer
* Jane Fonda
* Nicole Malachowski
* Rose O'Neill
* Louise Slaughter
* Sonia Sotomayor
* Laurie Spiegel
* Flossie Wong-Staal

2020–2029

| 2020|

* Aretha Franklin
* Barbara Hillary
* Barbara Rose Johns
* Henrietta Lacks
* Toni Morrison
* Mary Church Terrell

|

2022|

* Octavia E. Butler
* Judy Chicago
* Rebecca S. Halstead
* Mia Hamm
* Joy Harjo
* Emily Howland
* Katherine Johnson
* Indra Nooyi
* Michelle Obama

2024|

* Patricia Bath
* Ruby Bridges
* Elouise P. Cobell
* Kimberlé Crenshaw
* Peggy McIntosh
* Judith Plaskow
* Loretta Ross
* Sandy Stone
* Anna Wessels Williams
* Serena Williams

* v
* t
* e

Spingarn Medal winners

* 1915: Ernest Everett Just
* 1916: Charles Young
* 1917: Harry Burleigh
* 1918: William Stanley Braithwaite
* 1919: Archibald Grimké
* 1920: W. E. B. Du Bois
* 1921: Charles Sidney Gilpin
* 1922: Mary Burnett Talbert
* 1923: George Washington Carver
* 1924: Roland Hayes
* 1925: James Weldon Johnson
* 1926: Carter G. Woodson
* 1927: Anthony Overton
* 1928: Charles W. Chesnutt
* 1929: Mordecai Wyatt Johnson
* 1930: Henry A. Hunt
* 1931: Richard Berry Harrison
* 1932: Robert Russa Moton
* 1933: Max Yergan
* 1934: William T. B. Williams
* 1935: Mary McLeod Bethune
* 1936: John Hope
* 1937: Walter Francis White
* 1938: no award
* 1939: Marian Anderson
* 1940: Louis T. Wright
* 1941: Richard Wright
* 1942: A. Philip Randolph
* 1943: William H. Hastie
* 1944: Charles R. Drew
* 1945: Paul Robeson
* 1946: Thurgood Marshall
* 1947: Percy Lavon Julian
* 1948: Channing Heggie Tobias
* 1949: Ralph Bunche
* 1950: Charles Hamilton Houston
* 1951: Mabel Keaton Staupers
* 1952: Harry T. Moore
* 1953: Paul R. Williams
* 1954: Theodore K. Lawless
* 1955: Carl J. Murphy
* 1956: Jackie Robinson
* 1957: Martin Luther King Jr.
* 1958: Daisy Bates and the Little Rock Nine
* 1959: Duke Ellington
* 1960: Langston Hughes
* 1961: Kenneth B. Clark
* 1962: Robert C. Weaver
* 1963: Medgar Evers
* 1964: Roy Wilkins
* 1965: Leontyne Price
* 1966: John H. Johnson
* 1967: Edward Brooke
* 1968: Sammy Davis Jr.
* 1969: Clarence Mitchell Jr.
* 1970: Jacob Lawrence
* 1971: Leon Sullivan
* 1972: Gordon Parks
* 1973: Wilson Riles
* 1974: Damon Keith
* 1975: no award
* 1976: Hank Aaron
* 1977: Alvin Ailey and Alex Haley
* 1978: no award
* 1979: Andrew Young and Rosa Parks
* 1980: Rayford Logan
* 1981: Coleman Young
* 1982: Benjamin Elijah Mays
* 1983: Lena Horne
* 1984: no award
* 1985: Tom Bradley and Bill Cosby
* 1986: Benjamin Hooks
* 1987: Percy Sutton
* 1988: Frederick D. Patterson
* 1989: Jesse Jackson
* 1990: Douglas Wilder
* 1991: Colin Powell
* 1992: Barbara Jordan
* 1993: Dorothy Height
* 1994: Maya Angelou
* 1995: John Hope Franklin
* 1996: A. Leon Higginbotham Jr.
* 1997: Carl Rowan
* 1998: Myrlie Evers-Williams
* 1999: Earl G. Graves Sr.
* 2000: Oprah Winfrey
* 2001: Vernon Jordan
* 2002: John Lewis
* 2003: Constance Baker Motley
* 2004: Robert L. Carter
* 2005: Oliver Hill
* 2006: Ben Carson
* 2007: John Conyers
* 2008: Ruby Dee
* 2009: Julian Bond
* 2010: Cicely Tyson
* 2011: Frankie Muse Freeman
* 2012: Harry Belafonte
* 2013: Jessye Norman
* 2014: Quincy Jones
* 2015: Sidney Poitier
* 2016: Nathaniel R. Jones
* 2017: no award
* 2018: Willie Brown
* 2019: Patrick Gaspard
* 2020: no award
* 2021: Cato T. Laurencin
* 2022: Jim Clyburn

Authority control databases

International|

* ISNI
* VIAF
* FAST
* WorldCat

National|

* Germany
* United States
* France
* BnF data
* Czech Republic
* Netherlands

Academics|

* Scopus

Other|

* IdRef
* NARA
* SNAC
* 2
* Yale LUX

*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template