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1
HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2     WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of
3 Representatives are saddened to learn of the death of Dorothy
4 Irene Height, who passed away on April 20, 2010; and
 
5     WHEREAS, Dorothy Height was born in Richmond, Virginia, and
6 reared in Rankin, Pennsylvania; and
 
7     WHEREAS, Dorothy Height was a key figure throughout the
8 civil rights movement; her career as a civil rights advocate
9 began in 1930, when she co-led protests against lynching in
10 Times Square; in 1933, she became a leader of the United
11 Christian Youth Movement of North America in the New Deal era;
12 she served on the National Board of the YWCA in the mid-1940s
13 and spearheaded the organization's racial justice initiatives;
14 from 1947 to 1956, she served as the 10th national president of
15 Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., and helped to expand the
16 organization's social activism in the United States and abroad;
17 she pursued studies at New York University, where she earned
18 her master's degree in social work; and
 
19     WHEREAS, Dorothy Height was the female team leader among
20 the six leaders of the civil rights movement which included Dr.
21 Martin Luther King Jr.; At the 1963 March on Washington, she
22 was on the platform when King delivered his "I Have a Dream"

 

 

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1 speech after convincing the leadership to allow the young
2 preacher to speak last and for longer than 5 minutes; and
 
3     WHEREAS, Dorothy Height's name is synonymous with the
4 National Council of Negro Women, an organization she headed
5 from 1957, when she was elected the organization's 4th national
6 president, until 1998, when she became Chair of the Board and
7 President Emerita, serving in those capacities until her
8 passing; during the civil rights era, she led the NCNW to deal
9 with unmet needs of women and their families by combating
10 hunger and establishing decent housing and home ownership
11 programs through the federal government for low-income
12 families; and
 
13     WHEREAS, For her years of service to the nation, which
14 stretched back to her work with former First Lady Eleanor
15 Roosevelt, Dorothy Height was awarded America's two highest
16 civilian awards, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1992 by
17 President Bill Clinton and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2004
18 through an act of Congress; she also received 36 honorary
19 degrees and the NAACP's Spingarn Medal; and
 
20     WHEREAS, Dorothy Height is survived by her sister,
21 Athanette Aldridge; her nephews, Phillip Aldridge, Bernard
22 Randolph (Billie Jean), and Daniel Aldridge, Jr. (Dorothy); her
23 nieces, Jean Randolph Linzey (Camerson Sr.) and Leuetta

 

 

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1 Henderson; her many great and great-great nieces and nephews;
2 her other relatives and friends, including her devoted
3 friend/daughter, the Honorable Alexis Herman Franklin; her
4 beloved National Council of Negro Women family; and her devoted
5 caregiver of 10 years, Mary Brown; therefore, be it
 
6     RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
7 NINETY-SIXTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we
8 mourn, along with her family and friends, the passing of
9 Dorothy Irene Height and honor her for her many contributions
10 to our nation and the civil rights movement; and be it further
 
11     RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be
12 presented to the family of Dorothy Height as an expression of
13 our sympathy.