Richmond-born “Godmother of Civil Rights Movement,” dies at 98

Dorothy Height was the leading female voice of the civil rights movement of the 1960’s.

Height:   So long as God shall let me live, I want to be out there, working to help to see what needs to be done.

State Senator Henry Marsh says she was a friend.

Marsh:  She was the only woman in the inner circle of black leaders, but she was very well respected.

Fishburne:  Senator, she comes from a generation of extraordinary civil rights leaders.  I wonder, was it the times that make the leaders, or the leaders that made the times?

Marsh:  Both.  People like Dorothy Height, Oliver Hill,  Sam Tucker, they were at the right time, but they also had this heart and character and the courage to do what had to be done.  They risked their lives for freedom and they were dedicated to it.

Both President Obama and Governor McDonnell and many others issued statements marking Height’s death yesterday.  She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1994, and kept fighting for it until the very end.  She was 98.

Charles Fishburne, WCVE News