Steve Cohen: “Today America mourns the loss of Dr. Dorothy Height, a civil rights pioneer, Presidential adviser, and woman's rights…”

“Today America mourns the loss of Dr. Dorothy Height, a civil rights pioneer, Presidential adviser, and woman's rights activist. For many years, this Freedom Fighter served as president of the National Council of Negro Women, the Young Women's Christian Association, and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated. Dr. Height was the backbone of the civil rights movement and worked alongside Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Whitney Young, A. Phillip Randolph, Roy Wilkins, and our own John Lewis. During the March on Washington, she was the only African American woman on the speaker's platform during Dr. King's historic ``I Have a Dream'' speech. In 1994, President Clinton awarded Dr. Height the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her selfless service to others. In 1995, in my hometown of Memphis, Tennessee, she received the National Civil Rights Museum's Freedom Award. In 2004, President Bush presented her with the Congressional Gold Medal. During Dr. Height's lifetime, the freedom gates were half ajar, yet she fought to open them full and wide for everybody. Our Nation mourns the loss of a great woman, a great African American leader, a great civil rights leader. Hers was a life well lived.”