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Born March 24, 1912, in Richmond, VA
Died April 20, 2010, in Washington, DC
Activist Dorothy Height was the president of the National Council of Negro Women from 1957 to 1997. The Council, founded in 1935 by Mary McLeod Bethune, is a coalition of 38 affiliate organizations representing millions of women and men. Height earned a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in educational psychology from New York University. After a career of 33 years with the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA), she retired in 1977. Height was honored with a Congressional Gold Medal and was inducted into the Democracy Hall of Fame International in 2004.