Dorothy Height resigns as Council of Negro Women president

Jet, Dec 29, 1997

Civil Rights leader Dorothy Height, who has been at the helm of the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) for the past 40 years, has resigned.

Height, 85 was only the second president of the council, which was founded in 1935. She succeeded Mary McLeod Bethune.

Succeeding Height is Dr. Jane E. Smith, who is currently director of The Atlanta Project (TAP), part of The Carter Center in Atlanta. TAP's mission is to unite Atlanta as a community, working to improve the quality of life in the neighborhoods. Dr. Smith is a native of Atlanta and a life member of the National Council of Negro Women.

Height will continue to help in the council's ongoing $30 million-fund drive and will work with Dr. Smith through a transition period.

Height's work has spanned generations. She counseled Eleanor Roosevelt and prodded Dwight Eisenhower about school desegregation. As one of the "Big Six" civil rights leaders, I she was the only woman at the table when Dr. I Martin Luther King, Jr. and the others worked out their strategy for the Civil Rights Movement. Most recently she helped lead the struggle to win the appointment and confirmation of Alexis Herman, the first Black woman to head the Department of Labor.

When asked about her legendary endurance, Height told the Washington Post that the never-ending battles are not easy or simple. "But there is something that energizes your body and renews your spirit when you have a goal big enough to work on."