Dorothy Height

American activist (1912-2010)

Dorothy Irene Height (March 24, 1912 – April 20, 2010) was an American civil rights and women's rights activist. She worked with issues of African American women. She did unemployment, illiteracy and voter awareness work. She worked for the National Council of Negro Women for forty years. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1994 and the Congressional Gold Medal ten years after that.

Height was born in Richmond, Virginia. She was raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she graduated high school. She died in Washington, D.C. at age 98.