2 Great American Women

President Obama delivered the eulogy yesterday for Dorothy Height (1912-2010), the great American woman who The New York Times said "was considered both the grande dame of the civil rights era and its unsung heroine."

The NY Times went on to say:

Over the years, historians have made much of the so-called “Big Six” who led the civil rights movement: the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., James Farmer, John Lewis, A. Philip Randolph, Roy Wilkins and Whitney M. Young Jr. Ms. Height, the only woman to work regularly alongside them on projects of national significance, was very much the unheralded seventh, the leader who was cropped out, figuratively and often literally, of images of the era.


Here's a photo from 1963, where Height is seen standing near the podium as Dr. King delivers his "I Have A Dream" speech.

I'm sad to say that until I heard a part of the eulogy delivered by President Obama, today on NPR, I don't think I'd ever heard of Dorothy Height. Hers is definitely a story that needs to be told.

President Obama spoke about a moment a few months ago with Dorothy Height (The NY Times printed the text of the eulogy; here's a link to it):

"And she talked about attending a dinner in the 1940s at the home of Dr. Benjamin Mays, then president of Morehouse College. And seated at the table that evening was a 15-year-old student, "a gifted child," as she described him, filled with a sense of purpose, who was trying to decide whether to enter medicine, or law, or the ministry.

"And many years later, after that gifted child [MLK] had become a gifted preacher..."


While delivering the eulogy, President Obama mentioned Mary McLeod Bethune (the photo at left shows Dorothy Height presenting the Mary McLeod Bethune Human Rights Award to Eleanor Roosevelt in 1960). Bethune is another great American woman who we don't hear much about these days. The biographical essay at http://www.africawithin.com/bios/mary_bethune.htm has this to say about her:

"Mary McLeod Bethune (1875-1955), an African American teacher, was one of the great educators of the United States. She was a leader of women, a distinguished adviser to several American presidents, and a powerful champion of racial equality."

The Wikipedia has an extensive article about Bethune: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_McLeod_Bethune

That and other articles around the internet will tell you a lot about what this incredible woman accomplished during her lifetime.

I first learned about Bethune because of a place that I remember from my childhood, The Bethune Center in Pontiac, Michigan.

Bethune: "The true worth of a race must be measured by the character of its womanhood."

Photos of Mary McLeod Bethune: