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Dorothy Height Citation
It is a pleasure to be here this evening and an extraordinary honor to bestow upon Dr. Dorothy Height the title, Honorary Alumna of Barnard. In 1980, Dr. Height accepted the College's highest honor, the Barnard Medal of Distinction. This was a most gracious gesture on her part, and one for which we are extremely appreciative. Twenty-four years later, she is allowing us, as a community, to embrace her with this special tribute, a tribute made all the more poignant as the nation marks the 50th anniversary of the landmark school desegregation ruling, Brown vs. the Board of Education.
I will now read the citation.
Dorothy Height. Leader of the Civil Rights Movement. History maker. Crusader for justice. Teacher and social activist. From the age of twenty-five, you have fought tirelessly for equal rights for African Americans and women. Your life exemplifies your passionate commitment to a just society and a better world.
Richmond, Virginia was the place of your birth in March of 1912, and Rankin, Pennsylvania was where you spent your youth. Seventy-five years ago, you were turned away from Barnard College during an era of racial quotas. A scholarship to New York University for your skills in oration brought you to our City where you completed your education, both bachelor and master, against the backdrop of the Harlem Renaissance in full swing.
As a caseworker with the New York City Welfare Department, you began your career. But your life's work as a civil rights activist began shortly thereafter when you joined the National Council of Negro Women in 1937, at the calling of its founder, Mary McLeod Bethune. Twenty years later you became their president, a position you would hold until 1977.
You joined the national staff of the YWCA in 1944, and remained active in the organization for over three decades. Steadily rising through the ranks, you developed programs and policies that changed attitudes towards black women. In fact, the YWCA's full commitment to integration owes much to your work and your influence.
The civil rights movement was at its height in the 1960s and you were at its heart. You organized "Wednesdays in Mississippi" to bring both black and white women together in a dialogue of understanding. You were there for the '63 March on Washington, just steps away from Dr. Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" - a dream you shared and again and again strengthened by your own vision and commitment. You instilled hope and confidence during a fear-filled and challenging time, never veering from your goal of justice and equality for all.
Service has been central to your story. Consultant on African affairs to the secretary of state. Member of the President's Committee on the Status of Women and the President's Committee on the Employment of the Handicapped. And you have been rightly praised and recognized. With the Presidential Medal of Freedom. With the Roosevelt Freedom from Want Medal. With the NAACP Springarn Medal. As an inductee into the National Women's Hall of Fame. In 2004, President George W. Bush awarded you the Congressional Medal of Honor in recognition of your lifetime of work advancing civil rights. Your response to this highest of honors is engraved on the medal, "I am grateful to have been in a time and place where I could be a part of what was needed."
We are awed by your achievements and see before us, in a society that has come far and has yet far to go, the impact of your legacy. You have fought for women, for African-Americans, for AIDS education, for integration, for progressive policies, for true diversity. And for ninety-two years you have kept your eye on the prize - a freer and better world.
As President of Barnard, and on behalf of our students, faculty, administration, and your fellow alumnae, I now declare you an honorary Barnard alumna.
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