Civil Rights Leader Is Eulogized by Obama
President Obama during the funeral for civil rights activist Dorothy Height at the National Cathedral in Washington on Thursday.
By HELENE COOPER
Published: April 29, 2010
WASHINGTON — President Obama eulogized civil rights leader Dorothy Height on Thursday as a “drum major for freedom,” describing the civil rights and women’s rights leader as an American icon who pursued justice tirelessly.
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Ms. Height, who died April 20 at 98, had an “unambiguous record of righteous work,” Mr. Obama said during Ms. Height’s funeral at Washington National Cathedral. Mr. Obama drew frequent chuckes from the audience with a fondly humorous portrait of the feisty Ms. Height.
“When you have a nephew who’s 88, you’ve lived a full life,” Mr. Obama said.
“We did come to know her during the early days of my campaign, and we came to love her as so many loved her,” the president said. “We loved her stories, and her smile, and those hats.”
He said that Ms. Height was a constant presence at the White House. “She came by not once, not twice,” he said. “Twenty-one times she stopped by the White House.”
Ms. Height, who even in the last months of her life took part in health care discussions at the White House, had been scheduled to come by in February for a meeting between Mr. Obama and civil rights leaders, he recalled.
Even though Washington was buried by a blizzard, he said, Ms. Height wanted to come anyway. “She was not about to let a bunch of men in this meeting. It was only when the car literally could not get to the driveway that she decided not to come.”
Ms. Height was widely viewed as one of the last links to the social activism of the New Deal era. Her civil rights career spanned almost a century, from anti-lynching protests to culminate with the inauguration of President Obama. She has recounted for reporters first meeting Martin Luther King when he was 15 years old, and was on the stage when Dr. King delivered his historic “I have a dream” speech in 1963.
Mr. Obama ordered American flags to be flown at half-staff on Thursday in Ms. Height’s honor.
