Donna Edwards: “I rise today to mourn and to join our Nation in mourning Dr. Dorothy Height. She was an American icon who dedicated her…”

“I rise today to mourn and to join our Nation in mourning Dr. Dorothy Height. She was an American icon who dedicated her life to racial justice and to gender equality. And at a time when women and African Americans were regarded as second class citizens, this strong, powerful, beautiful African American woman stood up for us and she strove to change that and rose to become a key figure in the civil rights movement, meeting with first ladies and Presidents and heads of state. It was really Dr. Height who enabled us to meet those challenges with our other feminist colleagues. And so I regard Dr. Height as a strong woman of color in the civil rights movement, but also a really strong feminist and a committed feminist.”