Dorothy Height – “The godmother to the Civil Rights Movement”
President Barack Obama

A portrait of Dorothy Height is on the Black Heritage forever stamp this month. She was an amazing woman with more credits to her name than most of us could ever dream of. She spent almost 50 years of her life fighting for race and gender equality.

She helped organize the 1963 March on Washington, and was the only woman to stand on the stage with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  But, despite being a march organizer and representing the National Council of Negro Women, she was not asked to speak.

Dorothy Height recognized a fundamental truth – a truth that we must embrace today. Women’s rights, including the right to choose – the very right to control your own body – encompasses all women and must, therefore, include all women on the front lines.

Height and other black women leaders sought to empower the black community to fight restrictions on abortion. The African-American Women for Reproductive Rights, an influential black political, social and grass-roots organization, gave voice to that.

We will include Dorothy Height on our 45th anniversary wall Recognizing the Pro-Choice Voter.

The irony that it took until Trump was in the White House for her image to appear on our 1st class postage stamp cannot be overlooked. Trump and his administration seek to  destroy all we have fought for, for  so many years – including birth control and abortion rights. Dorothy Height’s portrait stands as a reminder that we can neither stand idly by nor can we isolate ourselves in groups as we wage this battle.