Open Wide The Freedom Gates A Memoir

by Height, Dorothy

• ISBN13: 9781586482862
• ISBN10: 1586482866
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-01-26
• Publisher: PublicAffairs

Summary

Dorothy Height marched at major civil rights rallies, sat through tense White House meetings, and witnessed every significant victory in the struggle for racial equality. Yet as the sole woman among powerful, charismatic men, and as someone whose personal ambition was always secondary to her passion for her cause, she has received little mainstream recognition -- until now. In her remarkable memoir, Dr. Height reflects on a life of service and leadership. We witness her childhood encounters with racism in her hometown of Rankin, Pennsylvania; the thrill of New York college life during the Harlem Renaissance; and her first battles as a young welfare caseworker during the Depression. We see her march through Times Square in protest against lynchings. We sit with her onstage as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivers his "I Have a Dream" speech. We meet the extraordinary people she knew intimately throughout the decades: W.E.B. DuBois, Marcus Garvey, Eleanor Roosevelt, Mary McLeod Bethune, Adam Clayton Powell Sr., Langston Hughes, W.C. Handy, and many others. And we watch as she leads the National Council for Negro Women for forty-one years, working tirelessly to join people in the women's movement to those in Civil Rights Movement.

Author Biography

Dorothy Height continues to serve as chair and president emerita of the National Council of Negro Women.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. IX
A "Little Old Lady"	p. 1
Keeping the Faith	p. 13
Coming of Age in Harlem	p. 27
"Me Culled Too"	p. 43
Building a New World	p. 59
Turning Points	p. 78
Wartime Washington	p. 95
Step by Step	p. 110
The Land of the Free	p. 132
"Women Are the Shock Absorbers"	p. 155
Behind the "Cotton Curtain"	p. 167
Mississippi, Crucible of Change	p. 180
Living up to Our Promise	p. 200
Citizen of the World	p. 219
Making Common Cause	p. 234
A Place in the Sisterhood	p. 249
Building a Legacy	p. 258
Home at Last	p. 271
A Family of Friends	p. 288
"Temples Still Undone"	p. 294
Acknowledgments	p. 299
Photo Credits	p. 303
Index	p. 305
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