By Robin D. Stone
Essence
9/03
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At 91, Dorothy I. Height is still on the move. Six days a week you can find the chair and president emerita of the Washington, D.C.-based National Council of Negro Women taking care of business--raising awareness and funds, trying to improve the quality of life for Black women and our families. From the earliest days of the Civil Rights Movement, Height has been at the forefront of the struggle. Now she dutifully chronicles many of her experiences in her recently published memoir, Open Wide the Freedom Gates (Public Affairs, $26). Rich with historic details, it is a humble account of a magnificent life's work.

In Open Wide, we watch a smart (Height earned bachelor's and master's degrees in four years at New York University in the early 1930's), selfless Christian girl from Rankin, Pennsylvania, rise to the leadership of three major women's organizations: more than a half century with the NCNW, 33 years on the national staff of the YWCA, and nearly ten years as president of Delta Sigma Theta sorority--at one point serving all three at the same time.

But for Height, humble does not mean quiet. She addresses sexism in the Civil Rights Movement: "They were happy to include women in the human family, but there was no question as to who headed the household!" And she pays tribute to her mentor, NCNW founder Mary McLeod Bethune. When she was elected president of the NCNW in 1957, Height joined the esteemed ranks of leaders of Black women's civic, social and church clubs, which date back to the nineteenth century with Mary Church Terrell, Sojourner Truth and Mary Shadd Cary. Today the NCNW, a coalition of nearly 300 groups, continues this tradition.

While Height credits Bethune with inspiring her coalition-building approach to community work, she is clearly a master of the art. Through her extensive work on behalf of the NCNW, a memorial statue of Bethune was unveiled in Washington, D.C.'s Lincoln Park in 1974--the first such tribute to a Black American and the first statue of a woman on public land in the capital. In response to journalist Bill Moyers's unflattering 1986 documentary called The Vanishing Black Family, Height organized the Black Family Reunion, which has drawn millions of us to the celebrations each year. And through her efforts the NCNW raised the funds to pay off its $5.4 million mortgage in 2002, securing the organization's home and ensuring more money for its programs.

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