Dorothy Height

Dorothy Height, a leading female voice of the 1960s civil rights movement and a participant in historic marches with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and others, died on April 20th at age 98. She led the National Council of Negro Women for 40 years and continued to speak out on civil rights issues into her 90s.

According to the Associated Press, President Obama called her “the godmother of the civil rights movement” and a hero to many Americans. Obama said in a statement that Height was the only woman at the highest level of the civil rights movement and witnessed “every march and milestone along the way.”