Long-time civil rights leader and humanitarian Dorothy Height will be the commencement speaker at the University of Maryland on Sunday, Dec. 22. The graduation ceremony will take place at 1 p.m. in the new Comcast Center.
Height is one of the nation's most honored civil rights leaders. She is known for her decades-long work on behalf of the less fortunate around the world.
After graduating from New York University in 1932, Height quickly established herself as someone unafraid to take on the major civil rights issues of the day. Those issues included desegregating the armed forces, making sure all Americans had full access to public transportation and the prevention of lynching.
She joined the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) in 1937 at the invitation of its founder, Mary McLeod Bethune. Elected president in 1957, Height worked tirelessly at its helm for 40 years on behalf of justice for black women and to strengthen the black family. Teen pregnancy, hunger in rural areas and other issues of racial justice all became her causes.
Height was a part of virtually every civil and human rights event of the 1960s, standing alongside Martin Luther King, Ralph David Abernathy and other leaders.
Throughout the 1990s, Height worked to bring more young people into the organization to help fight unemployment, illiteracy and drugs. Before retiring in 1996, she was instrumental in securing funds for an NCNW headquarters building in Washington, DC. The Dorothy L. Height Leadership Institute is housed there.
Height also had a long association with the YWCA beginning in the 1930s and used her leadership position to advocate (among other things) integration and improved conditions for black domestic workers. She served as the director of the YWCA's Center for Racial Justice from 1965 to 1977.
The 91 year-old Height has received more than 50 awards and honors at all levels of government. She has been awarded some 24 honorary degrees from such institutions as Harvard and Tuskegee Institute. President Reagan presented her the Citizens Medal Award for distinguished service in 1989. In 1994, President Bill Clinton bestowed upon her the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
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